The Prehistory of the Osmore Basin

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Dr. Aldenderfer will continue his archaeological research in the Osmore basin which is located in far southern Peru. Three sites, two situated in rockshelters and one in open air, will be excavated. All are located well above sea level and sample different high altitude zones. All date from the Middle Archaic and Early Formative periods which extend from approximately 8,000 to 3,500 years before the present. Dr. Aldenderfer and his colleagues will excavate large areas of these sites to identify architectural remains and to recover artifactual, faunal, and floral remains. Subsequent analysis will allow him to trace changing settlement patterns, diet, and social organization over time. During the time period under investigation, a sedentarization process appears to have taken place in the Osmore region. Coincident changes in population size and density, in subsistence - with the emergence of domesticated plants and animals - and in degree of social complexity also seem to have occurred. It was during this period and general area that camelids and Andean tubers were domesticated. Although the general outlines of the process are known, it is still not clear how these different factors interacted and which played the primary causal role. The goal of this research is to answer these questions. The shift documented in the Osmore basin occurred at roughly the same time in many parts of both the Old and New Worlds. Thus, the Osmore basin research may provide insight into this broader process. Because the region was a center for both plant and animal domestication and because preliminary work has shown that faunal and floral remains are extremely well preserved at these sites, the region provides an excellent context to examine this issue. The work will provide insight into the early stages of the process which led to the development of complex societies such as our own.