Imperial diets? Using stable isotope analysis to explore the local impact of the Inka Empire in Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca, Argentina)

KILLIAN GALVÁN, V. A.; GRANT, JENNIFER; MORALES Y PUENTE, PEDRO; CIENFUEGOS ALVARADO, EDITH; OTERO, FRANCISCO; ESCOLA, PATRICIA; OLIVERA, DANIEL E.

Conferencia; 11th International Conference on the Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies (IsoEcol 2018); 2018

Universidad Andrés Bello

The analysis of food consumption patterns within an internally differentiated group that inturn, was under control of an expanding empire can shed useful insights into the form,structure, and extent of state power, and how it affected local domestic economies and thedaily life of people. A series of models have been suggested to explain how the Inka conquestaffected local economics in Argentina, and elsewhere. One model proposes that the Inkaruled indirectly, promoting local leaders, and their management of their own people. In thisscenario, only those directly linked to the Inka administration would have been affected bythe new situation. Alternatively, a model of more direct control would have impactedsignificantly on the daily lives of conquered people. In this latter model, the Inka state wouldhave broken up previous power networks and production organization, replacing them withnew forms of economic behavior. These impacts would have included the extraction ofsurplus products by the state, as well as changes in local domestic production. Likewise, theInka organized a system of controlled extraction of resources across the Andes, but theimpact of the empire on local economic structures varied depending on given conditions,such as geographical location.The aim of this work is to explore the influence and impact of the Inka Empire on PrehispanicAntofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca highlands, Argentina, on the basis of an isotopesanalysis of changes in food consumption patterns. This study will employ stable isotopes ofcarbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) analysis on the organic fraction (collagen) andinorganic carbon (hydroxyapatite) within human bones (n = 10) from two archaeologicalsites, Tumba Bajo del Coypar and Rescate Familia Reales. All the samples have beenpreviously analyzed by FTIR-ATR and all the samples show acceptable C/N ratios.We alsopresent new isotopic data from Camelidae specimens (Llama glama and Vicugna vicugna)and cultivated plants from the area. Our first results show little difference between individuals.But the amount of Zea mays being consumed by humans in the analyzed sample is muchhigher at this time, than for earlier Prehispanic periods in the area.