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CHAPTER TWENTY Botanical Remains Begler and Keatinge (1979: 209) state: While lack of preservation in many parts of the world makes such a problem [the quantification of plant remains ] a moot issue, in arid regions such as coastal Peru it is of practical as well as theoretical interest. Recently, a number of archaeologists excavating on the coast of Peru have had to make the decision whether or not to quantify, given the excellent preservation of subsistence remains. In a climate where dehydrated coprolites of llanla and guinea pig have been excavated in such a fine state of preservation that individual coprolites could actually be counted, the decision to quantify all subsistence remains can commit one to large expenditures of both time and money.... It is the authors' contention that the application of quantitative techniques to the analysis of large quantities of well-preserved plant remains presents the archaeologist with a number of theoretical and methodological problems which as yet remain unresolved. The problem to which Begler and I(eatinge refer is precisely the one we faced at Cahuachi: more than 21 kilos of perfectly preserved plant remains were recovered during my project. Preservation was so perfect, in fact, that it took Bernardino Ojeda, who studied these materials, more than six months to complete the identification and weighing of each plant sample from each stratum/level or other archaeological context. In some cases, such as the maize cache of Feature 50 in Excavation 12 in the Lower Eastern Rooms at Unit 19, it was possible to count the number of preserved cobs; with enough time, even the number of loose kernels could have been counted and the number of preserved cobs estimated to achieve a total MNI count. Ojeda's study yielded ninety-seven raw data sheets (each one with an average of twenty-five plant identifications ). With these data it is possible to set up tables for each excavation unit to compare the plant remains level by level arid between areas of the site. Through standardization by means of cubic meters of dirt moved, some meaningful comparisons might emerge. However, Begler and Keatinge's (1 979) various well-taken criticisms of quantified studies of plant remains-both in terms of weights and counts-from fully agricultural societies have convinced me that such a massive effort is not warranted, particularly because Cahuachi was not an ordinary habitation site. Therefore, only a macroview of the plant assemblage at Cahuachi is presented here. Begler and Keatinge's (1979: 221-223) warnings that quantification is not a determination of the relative importance of the various foods in the diet should be heeded. Edible Plants Table 20.1 presents the edible vegetal materials recovered at Cahuachi. In terms of weight, maize is the most abundant edible plant represented in the collections, taking into account all surface remains (such as from cleaning walls), the material in the Room of the Posts, the excavation units (including caches of maize as in Feature 50), point samples, cleaned looters' holes, and 289 Table 20.1. Edible Vegetal Materials Recovered at Cahuachi Spanish Name English Name Botanical Name Recovered Parts Maiz corn or maize Zea mays cob, grains, stem, roots Mani peanut Arachis hypogaea shell, seed Calabaza squash Cucurhita moschata seed, outer skin Zapallo squash Cucurhita maxima seed, outer skin Frej6l (frij6l) common bean Phaseolus vulgaris seed, pod Pallar lima bean Phaseolus lunatus seed, pod Pallar de gentiles bean Canavalia seed Yuca manioc Manihot esculenta tuber, stem Camote sweet potato Ipomoea hatatas tuber Papa potato Solanum tuber Achira Canna tuber, shell Nonedible or Industrial Plants Table 20.2. Edible Fruit Remains Recovered at Cahuachi clear that there was massive consumption of huarango fruit at the site. While 1,325.6 grams of aji were recovered in Feature 52 in the Room of the Posts, only 3 grams of aji were recovered in the other investigated contexts. A total of seventeen nonedible plant species were identified (table 20.3). Cotton was also found inside four ceramic vessels in the Room of the Posts (table 20.4). Table 20.5 presents the weights and percentages of all plant remains recovered except for cotton, whereas table 20.6 corrects for the skewing caused by the plant accumulations of Feature 50 (the cache of maize in the fill beneath Wall 78 in the Lower Eastern Rooms), FeaRecovered Parts seed, shell fruit, seed leaves, seed, pod seed, pod seed shell of the tuber seed seed, fruit, stem Botanical Name Lucuma hifera Psidium guajava Inga feuillei...

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