Markus Reindel

A Chronology of the Pre-Columbian Paracas and Nasca Cultures in South Peru Based on AMS 14C Dating

The people of the Paracas and Nasca cultures, the creators of the famous geoglyphs, lived in the desert of the southern coast of Peru between about 800 BC and AD 650. The archaeological chronology of these cultures has been based almost exclusively on a sequence of ceramic styles. The absolute dating of some of the style phases was supported by a few radiocarbon dates (Rowe 1967). Here, we present an absolute chronology of the Paracas and Nasca cultures based on 14C dating of more than 100 organic samples from settlement and tomb relics, as well as on material derived from geoglyph sites in the Nasca/Palpa region (south Peru). The main focus has been on Nasca period settlement centers near Palpa, Los Molinos and La Mua, the Paracas period site of Jauranga, and the Initial period site of Pernil Alto. Most of the 14C samples were dated at the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility of the ETH Zurich (Switzerland). The targets were produced in the newly built graphitization line at the Heidelberg 14C laboratory (Germany). Clay (adobe) bricks, which are quite a common building material in Peru, were successfully tested to be used for AMS 14C dating of adobe architecture in Peruvian archaeology.

Introduction – New Methods and Technologies of Natural Sciences for Archaeological Investigations in Nasca and Palpa, Peru

Applications of natural sciences in archaeology have actually a long tradition. In particular the chemical composition of metal artefacts was sporadically used for more than two hundred years, mainly for the purpose of material classification. One of the earliest examples is the quantitative analysis of Roman coins in 1799 by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in Berlin, a chemist who is better known as the discoverer of the element uranium. Based on the material composition of dominant remains, the Danish archaeologist Christian Jurgensen Thomsen formally introduced in the 1820s the three-age system of prehistoric archaeology into three consecutive time periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Especially during the second half of the twentieth century, natural scientific approaches in archaeology experienced a nearly explosive increase. It became obvious that, when trying to reconstruct the past as comprehensively as possible, the archaeologist needs to take into consideration all sources of relevant information including those which are hidden to the naked eye, being the foremost tool of an archaeologist’s perception, and which are only revealed by scientific studies. Terms such as ‘science-based archaeology’ or simply ‘archaeometry’ are used for this new discipline. Originally coined in 1958 as the title for a journal (M. Aitken, in Olin, 1982, p. 142) and subsequently also used for an international symposium, ‘archaeometry’ was increasingly adapted within the past few decades for this field of research. It is acknowledged in the meantime by most archaeologists as an indispensable and integral part of archaeology.

Entdeckungen in Amerika: Archäometrische Forschungen in Mexiko, Ekuador und Peru

In den letzten zwanzig Jahren hat die Archaometrie eine standig wachsende Bedeutung bei der Losung archaologischer Fragen gewonnen. Heute wird die interdisziplinare Forschung als optimaler methodischer Ansatz zur Rekonstruktion der komplexen Menschheitsgeschichte angesehen. Dies liegt zum einen daran, dass die rein archaologischen Methoden des Erkenntnisgewinnes, die stratigraphische Analyse und auf Ahnlichkeitsbeziehungen beruhende Untersuchungen, nicht alle archaologischen Fragen beantworten konnen. Hier mussen Nachbardisziplinen, insbesondere der Naturwissenschaften, in die Forschungen eingebunden werden. Zum anderen wurden natur- und ingenieurwissenschaftliche Methoden in den letzten Jahren zunehmend auf die archaologischen Fragen abgestimmt, so dass heute spezifische Probleme gezielt mit entsprechend angepassten Methoden und der geeigneten Sachkenntnis beantwortet werden konnen.