Intra-site comparison of the archaeoethnobotanical evidence of El Shincal: implicances to the Inka economy.

CAPPARELLI A

La alimentación de la América precolombina y colonial: una aproximación interdisciplinario

Instituto Mila y Fontanals-CSIC

Lugar: Madrid; Año: 2009; p. 113 - 132

This study analyses the patterning in food plants recovered from 11 individual structures at El Shincal (ESH), a former Inka Administrative Centre near the village of Londres de Quimivil, Catamarca Province, Argentina. The 11 structures represented a variety of activity spaces, including ritual, administrative and domestic contexts. The aims of the archaeobotanical study were to identify food processing activity areas and to better understand the role of plants in the domestic economy of the site. To achieve these goals, we employed a comprehensive sampling and flotation program in which sediment was collected and processed from the main architectural structures of the site. All classes of charred plant remains were subsequently examined in the laboratory including seeds, wood charcoal and non-wood charred tissue. Specific food processing and consumption activities at ESH were inferred from the types of food plants and plant parts that were recovered from each structure, associations between specific types of plants and plant parts, and associated features and artifacts. Particular attention was given to variations in the densities of different organs of the same taxon, such as maize cobs and kernels and Prosopis seeds and mesocarps.  The results of this study suggest that Prosopis and maize were the most important plant food taxa at ESH because, among the 24 plants recovered from the site, these two taxa had the highest densties and the highest ubiquity values. Overall, El Shincal shows unique patterns of plant uses that are distinct from those of other Inka sites. Wild plants appear to have been as important in the economy as domesticated species: cultivated foods resources (Zea mays, Phaseolus, Cucurbita) represent the 22.4% of the total plant remains recovered, while wild resources (Prosopis, Geoffroea, Zizyphus mistol, Rhamnaceae/Capparidaceae) represent 34.8%. Key words: Inka economy, El Shincal, Prosopis, Palaeoethnobotany