Kilómetro 4 y la ocupación del Periodo Arcaico en el área de Ilo, al sur del Perú

Abstract

Kilometer 4 and the Archaic Period Occupation of the Ilo Area of Southern Perú

More than a decade of research on a series of Archaic Period (roughly 10,000-3000 BP) sites in the Ilo area of southern Peru have yielded enough data on this previously unknown area to outline the long term patterns of development of the Preceramic cultures of this section of the south-central Andean coast. Research at several sites, most notably the Kilometer 4 site, provides evidence of a long and intensive occupation of the region characterized by increasing sedentism and increasingly intensive maritime subsistence through time. During the Early Archaic and Middle Archaic periods, coastal settlements were small, seasonally occupied sites characterized by a mixed subsistence base. By the Late Archaic period, settlement size increased, architecture became more substantial and segregation of different areas within the site increased as the exploitation of coastal resources increased. Archaic period mortuary patterns in the region are clearly associated with those of coastal northern Chile, and preliminary data indicate that Chinchorro mortuary practices prevailed during the Middle Archaic period while Quiani style patterns emerged during the Late Archaic period.