The Guitarrero site is located in the province Yunghai (region Ancash), 2 km north of the town of Shupluy and 1km al west of the village of Mancos, at 9o 12 S, 77o 42 W.
The cave is 2,580 m above sea level and 50 m above the Rio Santa.
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Guitarrero cave (Ancash, Peru)
by George Weber
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The Guitarrero site is located in the province Yunghai (region Ancash), 2 km north of the town of Shupluy and 1km al west of the village of Mancos, at 9o 12 S, 77o 42 W. The cave is 2,580 m above sea level and 50 m above the Rio Santa. |
Guitarrero is an early site in highland Peru that has yielded rich archaeological finds in stratigraphic association with faunal and botanical remains and remains of human camp fires that have all supplied reliable C14 dates. A human mandible and teeth, showing interesting patterns of occlusal wear, were found in a stratum dated by a charcoal sample to 12,610 before the present (= in this context: the year 2000) which is the oldest such date in South America todate.
The Guitarrero people of 10,000 and more years ago can be regarded as the probably ancestors of the Chavin culture that flourished in northern Peru between 2,900 and 2,200 years before the present. The Chavin culture is one of the forerunners of the later Inca civilization.
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The Rio Santa valley near Shupluy. |
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The Guitarrero cave. |
The site cave is especially important for the evidence it contains of the very earliest cultivated plants in South America, perhaps even of the earliest maize:
Aji (Capsicum baccatum): first appears at Guitarrero cave 10,500 before present.
Oca (Oxalis tuberosus): first appears at Guitarrero cave 10,500 y 9,500 before present.
Aji (Capsicum chinense): first appears at Guitarrero cave 10,000 to 9,500 before present.
Frijol (Phaseolus vulgaris): first known from Guitarrero 10,000 y 9,500 years before today.
Pallar (Phaseolus lunatus): first appears at Guitarrero cave 10,000 to 9,5000 years beforetoday; after 7,800 years before today it appears on the Pacific coast.
Lucuma (Lucuma bifera): first appears at Guitarrero cave 10,000 to 7,500 before present. Appears at Ayacucho 6,400 a 5,100 years before present.
Olluco (Ullucus tuberosus): first appears 10,000 years before present at the cave Tres Ventanas in Chile and next at Guitarrero cave 7,500 before today.
Zapallo (Cucurbita sp.): first appears at Guitarrero cave 9,000 before present.
Maize or corn (Zea mays): first traces (but not certainly identified) from Guitarrero cave from 8,200 years before present. Appears definitively between 6,400 and 5,100 before present at Ayacucho province in central Peru.
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Other early archaeological sites in the general area of the Guitarrero cave. 1. Quebrada de Las Pircas sites
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Dating by accelerator mass spectrometry of wooden artifacts, cord, and charcoal samples from Guitarrero Cave, Peru, supports the antiquity of South America's earliest textiles and other perishable remains such as the fire-making stick and the woven twine shown below. The dates are consistent with those obtained from C14 counters and leave little doubt about the integrity of the lower preceramic layers and their early cultivated plants. The earliest remains resulted from short-term use of the cave in the tenth millennium before present. Very early brief human visits could have takenplace as early as 12,560 years ago.
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Fire-making sticks found at Guitarrero cave. |
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Woven twine and knotted cords made of vegetable fibres from Guitarrero cave, of roughly the same age as the fire-making stick shown above. |
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A Guitarrero stone point. |
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Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.peruecologico.com.pe/cultivosincas_crono.htm (on cultivated plants originating in Peru)
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Last change 11 July 2007
