Botanical Analysis of Middle Horizon (AD 600-1000) Archaeological Contexts of the Upper Majes Valley, Arequipa Peru

In 2019, paleobotanical analyses were conducted by the laboratory Arqueobios, Inc. located in Trujillo, Peru under the supervision of Víctor F. Vásquez Sánchez. Samples were collected from archaeological contexts from four sites that correspond to the Middle Horizon period (AD 600-1000) including Santa Rosa II, La Angostura, El Tambo, and Pakaytambo.

Macrobotanical and microbotanical starch and phytolith analyses identified evidence of maize, potato, yuca, bottle gourd, and a variety of wild species.

This data is a component of the PhD dissertation entitled Networks of Empire: The Role of Infrastructure in Wari State Expansion in Arequipa, Peru (AD 600-1000) by David A. Reid (University of Illinois at Chicago).

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award (#1854651).