Micromorphological and archaeological approaches to identifying pastoralist lifeways in the archaeological record: A Prehispanic case study from Viejo Sangayaico, Peru

Abstract

Frequently, archaeologists working in the Andes have found it challenging to identify the distinct material correlates of farming and herding in the archaeological record. Researchers have often inconclusively linked settlement location, structure, and architecture to these economic activities. Drawing on data from Viejo Sangayaico, a late Prehispanic and early colonial settlement (CE 1000–1615), located in the Upper Ica drainage of the south-central Peruvian Andes, we suggest that micromorphological analysis – with its ability to characterize the use of space at multiple scales – provides a robust approach to understanding economic life in Andean settlements. At Viejo Sangayaico, our use of micromorphology, in combination with archaeological fieldwork data, enabled us to move beyond thinking of pastoralism principally as a mode of production towards a consideration of the broader practices – economic, religious – that a pastoralist lifestyle would have encompassed. The micro-traces micromorphological analyses revealed were often invisible in the field, making micromorphology a valuable analytical tool in teasing out new data on past lifeways.