Early Horizon Occupation and Subsistence in the Context of Long-Term Ecological Changes in the Samaca and Ullujaya Basins, Lower Ica Valley

Abstract

This paper presents the results of archaeobotanical and malacological analyses of a midden dating to Ocucaje Phases 3 to 4 (c. 750 BC) in secure stratigraphic association beneath the contexts of an Early Nasca canal fragment in the Ullujaya Basin in the lower Ica Valley, on the south coast of Perú. Such preservation of early occupation contexts is otherwise rare within the landscape of the Lower Ica Valley, the topography of much of which is determined today by the long effects of wind erosion upon its once extant stratigraphy. These ancient rubbish remains contain no domesticated plant remains other than cotton, but only sea urchin debris and other marine and terrestrial mollusc resources gathered from the lomas and Pacific Ocean some 25 kilometres distant. They do contain some plant remains, including gathered wild foods such as huarango beans, and other plants typical of riparian woodland. We present these results in the context of other data from the Samaca and Ullujaya Basins, including the remains of middens from later time periods and a pollen sequence, to argue that, together, they show a steady intensification of agriculture in these basins during the subsequent Early Intermediate, but which culminates ultimately in a collapse of agricultural production here and a return to the gathering of wild marine and plant resources much later, during the Middle Horizon.