Preliminary results of the identification of the flora and fauna at the Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke site

Abstract

The study of the flora and fauna of archaeological contexts in the land occupied by various past societies allows us to understand how the pre-Hispanic peoples of the Central Andes developed different subsistence economies and strategies. The Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke Archaeological Research Project (PIA-PLLM) recovered organic remains from excavations carried out during the 2022 season for further zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses. This preliminary study aims to identify the species of flora and fauna present in the biotic environment of the Early Formative Period (1800-1200 B.C.) site of Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, a site with monumental architecture located in the lower part of the Casma valley, 18 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. The results show that the people who inhabited the site took advantage of a wide variety of species, mainly vegetable and marine, supplemented with species of land fauna and birds.