Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes.

ABSTRACT: The Lake Titicaca basin was one of the major centers for cultural development in the ancient world. This lacustrine environment is unique in the high, dry Andean altiplano, and its aquatic and terrestrial resources are thought to have contributed to the florescence of complex societies in this region. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent local aquatic resources, particularly fish, and the introduced crop, maize, which can be grown in regions along the lakeshores, contributed to facilitating sustained food production and population growth, which underpinned increasing social political complexity starting in the Formative Period (1400 BCE to 500 CE) and culminating with the Tiwanaku state (500 to 1100 CE). Here, we present direct dietary evidence from stable isotope analysi

SUBMITTER: Miller MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8670472 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature