A question of altitude: exploring the limits of highland pastoralism in the Prehispanic Andes

LANE, KEVIN; GRANT, JENNIFER

The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism

University of New Mexico Press

Lugar: New Mexico; Año: 2016; p. 139 - 158

In this article we develop a point made (Lane 2006b:504-505) concerning the limits of Prehispanic high altitude pastoralism during the Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000-1450). The evidence increasingly suggests that specialized high altitude pastoralism was not only practiced in the puna but also, conservatively, in the upper suni, an ecozone situated between 3600-3900 m. The implications of this for the central Andes are huge, greatly increasing the known available pastureland and thereby the number of camelids in the landscape.This article then briefly presents the ecological evidence for climate change during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) and the Late Horizon (LH), before caveating this through a consideration of political ecology and its interpretative implications for Andean, and pastoralist, studies. A case study from the North-central Andean highlands on this time period is then addressed before a discussion on the implications and future directions opened up by the results of this paper.