This Andean coast research has identified 113-plus geoglyphs spanning the Formative (1800–100 BC) to the Inka period (AD 1470–1532). The project combined digital technology and Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems to locate the sites. The authors also documented examples of ceramics and intricate road systems and suggest that the finds represent meticulously ritualised landscapes.

The Redes Andinas (Andean Networks) project assesses the complexity of ancient road networks in the archaeological record in the Andes, beyond the Inca roads system. A multiscale methodological approach allows us to characterise the transformation and resilience of the road networks over the past millennium, in the context of the 18°South parallel's vertical transect.

In “How Can Spin, Ply, and Knot Direction Contribute to Understanding the Quipu Code?” (2005), mathematician Marcia Ascher referenced new data on 59 Andean khipus to assess the significance of their variable twists and knots. However, this aggregative, comparative impulse arose late in Ascher's khipu research; the mathematical relations she had identified among 200+ previously cataloged khipus were specified only at the level of individual specimens. This article pursues a new scale of analysis, generalizing the “Ascher relations” to recognize meaningful patterns in a 650-khipu corpus, the largest yet subjected to computational study. We find that Ascher formulae characterize at least 74% of khipus, which exhibit meaningful arrangements of internal sums. Top cords are shown to register a minority of sum relationships and are newly identified as markers of low-level, “working” khipus. We reunite two fragments of a broken khipu using arithmetic properties discovered between the strings. Finally, this analysis suggests a new khipu convention—the use of white pendant cords as boundary markers for clusters of sum cords. In their synthesis, exhaustive search, confirmatory study, mathematical rejoining, and hypothesis generation emerge as distinct contributions to khipu description, typology, and decipherment.

This report examines the deposit of a sixteenth-century cache of silver aquillas within a Chachapoya household at the site of Purun Llacta de Soloco. The report examines their context and contents. These findings have implications for a larger examination of social value in Andean societies and the specialized treatment and use of ritual objects during the tumultuous colonial period.

Imagery-based survey is capable of producing archaeological datasets that complement those collected through field-based survey methods, widening the scope of analysis beyond regions. The Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology (GeoPACHA) enables systematic registry of imagery survey data through a ‘federated’ approach. Using GeoPACHA, teams pursue problem-specific research questions through a common data schema and interface that allows for inter-project comparisons, analyses and syntheses. The authors present an overview of the platform's rationale and functionality, as well as a summary of results from the first survey campaign, which was carried out by six projects distributed across the central Andes, five of which are represented here.

Recent archaeological research in the Andes suggests that Indigenous herders carefully managed their environments through the modification of local hydrology and vegetation. However, the limited geographical scale of previous research makes it challenging to assess the range and prevalence of pastoralist land management in the Andes. In this article, the authors utilise large-scale, systematic imagery survey to examine the distribution and environmental contexts of corrals and pastoralist settlements in Huancavelica, Peru. Results indicate that corrals and pastoralist settlements cluster around colonial and present-day settlements and that a statistically significant relationship exists between pastoral infrastructure and perennial vegetation. This highlights the utility of remote survey for the identification of trans-regional patterns in herder-environment relationships that are otherwise difficult to detect.

Archaeological surveys conducted through the inspection of high-resolution satellite imagery promise to transform how archaeologists conduct large-scale regional and supra-regional research. However, conducting manual surveys of satellite imagery is labour- and time-intensive, and low target prevalence substantially increases the likelihood of miss-errors (false negatives). In this article, the authors compare the results of an imagery survey conducted using artificial intelligence computer vision techniques (Convolutional Neural Networks) to a survey conducted manually by a team of experts through the Geo-PACHA platform (for further details of the project, see Wernke et al. 2023). Results suggest that future surveys may benefit from a hybrid approach—combining manual and automated methods—to conduct an AI-assisted survey and improve data completeness and robustness.

In the Andean highlands, hilltop fortifications known as pukaras are common. Dating predominantly to the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450), pukaras are important to archaeological characterisations of a political landscape shaped by conflict but the distribution of these key sites is not well understood. Here, the authors employ systematic satellite imagery survey to provide a contiguous picture of pukara distribution on an inter-regional scale covering 151 103km2 in the south-central highlands of Peru. They highlight the effectiveness of such survey at identifying pukaras and capturing regional variability in size and residential occupation, and the results demonstrate that satellite surveys of high-visibility sites can tackle research questions at larger scales of analysis than have previously been possible.

The north coast of Peru is among the most extensively surveyed regions in the world, yet variation in research questions, sampling strategies and chronological and geospatial controls among survey projects makes comparison of disparate datasets difficult. To contextualise these issues, the authors present a systematic survey of satellite imagery focusing on hilltop fortifications in the Jequetepeque and Santa Valleys. This digital recontextualisation of pedestrian survey data demonstrates the potential of hybrid methodologies to substantially expand both the identification of archaeological sites within difficult terrain and, consequently, our understanding of the function of defensive sites.

Mikhuspa ukyaspa ima tinkuyku is Quechua for “eating and drinking, we encounter one another.” Food and drinks have historically been important mediators in the development and renewal of relationships of reciprocity in the Andean region. This article demonstrates how contemporary Andean people continue to use food and drinks to mediate encounters where knowledge transmission and community building take place. In particular, the article explains how members of a dance troupe in Cusco, Peru, use food and drinks to integrate its new members into the dance troupe, teach them the traditions of the group, and explore and (re)define their relationships of reciprocity. By sharing food and drinks, dancers connect their Quechua heritage with their lived experiences to explore and (re)shape their own identities. The article employs a research methodology that centers local epistemology, particularly the Quechua concept of tinkuy, defined as an encounter of different elements that creates something new.

Excavations at the Wacheqsa sector from Chavin de Huantar identified contexts from the Middle Formative (1100–900 BC) and Late Formative (900–550 BC) periods. We present results of starch analysis conducted in culinary equipment (ceramics) retrieved from domestic occupations and a large midden. Microbotanical analysis revealed a variety of plant food resources, such as maize, beans, olluco, and possibly chili peppers.

Seed dormancy is a key trait used around the world to help understand the ecological dynamics of plant species, however, in some ecosystems such as the Andean forests of Colombia, the identification of dormancy class remains poorly known. To address this, we described the morphology, anatomy and dormancy class of the seeds and fruits of 14 species using microtome sections, light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Five native pioneer species showed Morphophysiological Dormancy, three Physical Dormancy + Physiological Dormancy and two Physical Dormancy, whereas two invasive species showed Physiological Dormancy. Only the species of the genus Cecropia had seeds with PY + PD that was promoted by the anatomical structure of the achenes. Of the analysed species, 85% showed dormancy and followed a pattern like other tropical montane ecosystems in the world. The anatomy of achenes and development of seed dormancy play important roles in the capacity of Cecropia species to contribute to the natural regeneration of Andean ecosystems. Additionally, seed dormancy may promote the high invasiveness of Thunbergia alata and Ulex europaeus in the Andean forests of the Central Cordillera of Colombia.

Food production is one of the most significant achievements in Andean history. The domestication of plants and animals presented an enormous challenge, relating to changing technologies, settlement patterns, and social organization. This paper aims to assess Atacama Desert population dynamics and their relationship to the domestication of plants and animals through chronological modeling using kernel density estimation on radiocarbon (14C) dates, assuming that a higher 14C probability density is related to more intense human occupation. The analysis is based on a 14C dataset comprising 1003 14C dates (between 11,000 and 150 BP) from 243 archaeological sites in the Arica and Tarapacá regions of northern Chile, collected from published data. We observed two population-dynamics inflection points for these regions. First, starting at ca. 3000 BP, constant population growth occurred, which was related to horticulture in the Arica region and to agriculture in the Tarapacá region. Second, between ca. 1000 and 400 BP, a general population rise occurred due to the consolidation of intensive agriculture in the lowlands and precordillera altitudinal belts in both regions and the integration of the coast and the altiplano into macro-regional population dynamics.

This new project studies the diversity of socioecological niches across the agropastoral transition in the Andes, utilising a multi-isotope approach to track human territories and allocate subsistence tasks. During the agropastoral period, we discriminate different diachronic niches with varying extents of maize farming and altitudinal mobility.

Theobroma cacao L. (cacao) is an important tropical crop used to produce chocolate. Evolutionary relationships between cultivated and wild cacao genotypes and their genetic diversity are poorly understood. Exploring phylogenetic diversity and spatial patterns of both cultivated and crop wild relatives can improve the knowledge of the evolutionary history of a crop, giving insights into its cultivation, breeding programmes and conservation. This study identifies biodiversity priority areas in Colombia by calculating phylogenetic diversity indices using a set of 87 single nucleotide polymorphism markers. These were sourced from 279 genotypes conserved in the Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (Agrosavia) germplasm collection. The Caribbean and North Andes areas exhibited the highest phylogenetic diversity and significantly high relative phylogenetic diversity. We propose that those regions where wild cacao occurs should be prioritized as conservation areas. Besides, cacao lineages that have recently diverged and are present in Arauca, Huila and Nariño areas, with significantly low relative phylogenetic diversity, should be prioritized for breeding programmes. The Amazonia genotypes were closer to the root of the phylogenetic tree, suggesting an older origin than those found in the Andes region. Our study highlights the importance of using T. cacao germplasm from the Amazonia region as a priority to recover relict diversity in breeding programmes and broaden the gene pool of modern cultivated cacao.

Religion played a key role in the social organisation and political authority of early Andean societies. Excavations at La Seductora in Peru have identified a circular structure with a central hearth and an underground ventilation shaft. The authors argue that the structure belongs to the Kotosh religious tradition, which dominated the central Andes during the Late Archaic and Formative periods (2800–550 BC). Probably representing a small shrine for use by local families, the authors situate La Seductora within the context of power and religiosity in Andean society, providing a model of relevance to similar contexts elsewhere in the world.

This study uses isotope and microbotanical data from the analysis of teeth and dental calculus to investigate camelid diet and foddering practices at Quilcapampa (AD 835–900). By providing taxonomically specific evidence of foods consumed, botanical data from dental calculus complement the more general impressions of photosynthetic pathways obtained through isotopic analysis. Results suggest that the camelid diet incorporated maize (Zea mays), algarrobo (Prosopis sp.), potato chuño (Solanum sp.), and other resources. The life-history profile of one camelid (Individual 3) reveals dietary change from mainly C3 plants to more C4 plant contributions as the animal aged. This pattern is supported by carbonate isotope results indicating that this individual spent its youth in the mid-valley ecozone before becoming more mobile later in life. As this life-history example shows, isotopic and microbotanical analyses are complementary approaches, clarifying a pattern of seasonal transhumance that linked the lives of humans and animals along the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) caravan networks that crisscrossed the central Andes.

The Andes offers a particularly effective focus for an archaeology of mobility because their extreme topography compresses enormous vertical resource diversity across short horizontal distances. In this article, the authors combine findings from two large-scale archaeological studies of adjacent watersheds—the Nasca-Palpa Project and One River Project—to provide the necessary context in which to explore changing mobilities from the Archaic Period to the Inca Empire, and from the Pacific coast to the high Andes. Analyses of obsidian lithics and stable isotopes in human hair are used to argue that changing patterns of mobility offer a new way of defining the ‘Horizons’ that have long dominated concepts of periodisation here.