Early Holocene coca chewing in northern Peru.
Dillehay, Tom D. ; Rossen, Jack ; Ugent, Donald 等
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Introduction
Coca production and the mastication of its leaves have long been
part of the indigenous Andean economy, providing nutritional, medicinal
and digestive properties. The origin and use of the coca plant in South
America have long been debated in anthropology, botany, medicine and
Latin American politics. Although the history of coca chewing extends
back into pre-Columbian times (Plowman 1979; Plowman & Hensold
2004), several issues are poorly understood. They are the dates by which
people began to routinely exploit this plant, the specific ancient
technologies employed to extract its alkaloid stimulants and nutritional
qualities (Rury & Plowman 1983; Pacini & Franquemont 1985), and
the wider social and economic impact of the crop on early community
development.
This report is of a study of the macrobotanical remains of
archaeological coca leaves (Erythroxylum novagranatense var.
truxillense) preserved in the buried house floors of early Holocene
foragers and cultivators that provides direct evidence of the
consumption of this plant in tropical dry and humid forests on the lower
slopes of the Andes in north-western Peru. Two AMS radiocarbon dates on
leaves indicate that coca chewing began by at least 8000 cal BP, the
earliest use known to date. Our data also reveal evidence for baking
calcium-bearing rocks to produce lime to extract alkaloids from the
leaves. The production of lime was segregated spatially from individual
domestic households located across the valley, suggesting it was a
community activity.
Use of coca
The genus Erythroxylum includes at least 230 species of coca that
are distributed from Mexico and the Bahamas to north-west Argentina
(Plowman 1979; Plowman & Hensold 2004). Only the cultivated species
contains enough alkaloid to be worthy of chewing as a stimulant (Rury
& Plowman 1983; Pacini & Franquemont 1985). Today, the species
E. novogranatense var. truxillense is cultivated in semi-tropical to
tropical areas on the lower western slopes of the Ecuadorian and
Peruvian Andes. This small leaf variety was called tupa coca by the
Inca, and was considered royal coca because it had a high content of
wintergreen oil and other compounds (Rostworowski 1988). This variety is
drought resistant and adapted to arid conditions, but still depends on
irrigation on the western slopes of the Peruvian Andes. Its principal
habitat is the tropical chaupiyiunga zone located at 500-1500m in
elevation, where the average temperature ranges from 18-25[degrees]C
(Plowman 1979; Ugent & Ochoa 2006). There are no known wild
progenitors of E. coca novagranatense on the western slopes of the
Andes, suggesting that it was developed from E. coca coca somewhere on
the eastern slopes (Plowman 1983), or possibly in the upper Maranon
Valley, and transported to the Nanchoc Valley. E. coca novagranatense is
a variety selected through cultivation probably for its aridity
tolerance and its aromatic oils which provide a preferred taste.
Prior to our radiocarbon dates on coca leaves, it was thought that
the late Preceramic inhabitants of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian coast
were consuming coca by at least 5000 cal BP (Engel 1963; Klepinger &
Kuhn 1973; Lathrap et al. 1976; Cohen 1978). A calcite (or lime) alkali
is required to release coca alkaloids. Powdered lime has been found in
contexts dating to c. 5000 cal BP and presumed to be associated with
coca chewing. The importance of coca was emphasised and exploited during
the Inca and later Spanish colonial periods (Cieza de Leon 1973; Chavez
Velasquez 1977). It was used as a stimulant to reduce fatigue, hunger,
high-altitude hypoxia and thirst and as a medicine and digestive. The
alkaloids in coca improve the metabolism of starches, thus providing a
surge in energy and a reduction of fatigue. But coca was not just for
chewing. It was also a symbol of social status and ethnic identity and
an element of oracles and rituals (Plowman 1983). During Inca times,
coca fields on the western slopes of the Andes were the centre of
conflict, tension and cooperation between ethnic groups vying for
control of this resource (Dillehay 1979; Marcus & Silva 1988;
Rostworowski 1988). In recent decades, the plant has been the centre of
controversy primarily due to the modern day extraction of cocaine from
it. The political implications of cocaine production and the social,
economic and psychological effects of its use have been well publicised
(Plowman 1979; Plowman & Hensold 2004; Bieri et al. 2006). Although
cocaine is one of the 14 alkaloids of the coca leaf, there is no
evidence to suggest that it was ever extracted in pre-Colombian times.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Context
The transition in prehistory from mobile lifestyles to sedentary
agricultural communities is evidenced at 46 Preceramic sites in the
semi-tropical Nanchoc Valley, a branch of the Zana Valley situated at
500-1200m above sea level (Dillehay et al. 2005, 2007; Piperno &
Dillehay 2008; Figure 1). Paleoecological studies indicate that both the
humid and dry forest, a setting conducive to coca growing (Dillehay et
al. 1989, 2005, 2007; Dillon & Cadle 1991), also existed in late
Pleistocene to early Holocene times (Vuilleumier 1971; Simpson 1975;
Figure 2).
The macrobotanical and starch grain remains of squash (Cucurbita),
peanut (Arachis), a quinoa-like chenopod (Chenopodium), manioc (Manihot), cotton (Gossypium) and other plants were recovered from
sealed hearths and floors and from the calculus of human teeth in 13
excavated house structures in the study area. This evidence, along with
the bones of various large and small animal species, reveals initial
broad spectrum subsistence and later a primary farming economy in the
seasonally dry forest radiocarbon dated from about 11 000-6200 cal BP
(Dillehay in press).
During the late Paijan and Las Pircas phases (c. 11 300-7800 cal
BP), an economy dominated by plant collecting and hunting transitioned
to crop production practised in gardens close to small circular houses.
At the end of the Las Pircas phase (9700-7800 cal BP), public
architecture in the form of two tear-drop shaped, multi-tiered, earthen-
and stone-lined mounds appeared on the north-east side of the river
(Figure 1, site CA-09-04; Figure 3, Zones A & C) in direct
association with an off-mound lime-producing area at the same site
(Figure 3, Zone B) (Dillehay et al. 1989). Radiocarbon dates on charcoal
from hearths in mound and off-mound areas place the initial construction
of this site at c. 8200-7500 cal BP.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Methods
The present study concerns five sites, two at Las Pircas and two at
Tierra Blanca (CA-09-52, CA-09-27, CA-09-71 and CA-09-77 in Figure 1),
and one across the river from them, CA-09-04. The latter contained two
ritual mounds (Zones A & C) and a working area (Zone B). Coca leaves
and associated lime came from both the Las Pircas and Tierra Blanca
sites, and evidence for lime extraction from the site CA-09-04 on the
other side of the Nanchoc River.
Excavation recovery technique and preservation
The excavated sites are not located in plough zones but in
isolated, undisturbed and uninhabited side canyons and alluvial fans
(quebradas) and are intact. In the study area, the seasonally dry
forested environment allows for the preservation of desiccated plant
remains when they are sealed in buried house floors, overlaid by
grinding stones or stones fallen from the side walls of the dwellings,
and thus protected from seasonal rains. The coca leaves from the late
Las Pircas and Tierra Blanca phase domestic sites were recovered from
hard-packed floors buried at 30-85cm in depth in small elliptical (c.
2.1-2.3m diameter) stone-lined structures at CA-09-71 and CA-09-77.
Other plant remains were carbonised or desiccated and recovered in
screens and through water flotation.
[FIGURE 3a OMITTED]
Coca leaf analysis
The archaeological and modern coca leaves were examined under a
stereoscopic microscope at a magnification of 20-400 x. A modern
reference collection of coca leaves from different varieties of
Erythroxylum and other species available at the Department of Botany,
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, the Laboratorio de
Arqueobiologia at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru, and online
at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, were used to
confirm the identity of the coca leaves. The late Timothy Plowman (pers.
comm. 1988) preliminarily identified the taxa of the first two coca
leaves excavated at Nanchoc Valley sites. Identification of more
recently excavated leaves was made by our co-authors: botanists Ugent
and Vazquez.
[FIGURE 3b OMITTED]
The few studies (Molina et al. 1989; Cortella et al. 2001; Johnson
et al. 2003) available on coca starch grains and other microscopic
features also were consulted. Cross- or X-shaped crystals were observed
on the surface of both modern and archaeological leaves. A distinctive
central panel, a prominent feature of modern leaves, was observed on the
archaeological specimens.
We also undertook chemical analysis at all the sites, including the
three zones at CA-09-04 (Figure 3), to detect, characterise and map the
use of lime and calcite and investigate its production and its possible
association with coca chewing (Tables 1-3; Technical Note).
Results
Coca leaves
A total of seven coca leaves were recovered from sealed floors in
two late Las Pircas phase houses (Figures 4-6; CA-09-71 and CA-09-77 in
Figure 1) and one Tierra Blanca phase house (CA-09-77, 7800-5000 cal
BP). Five leaves were agglutinated, suggesting they had been chewed. The
archaeological leaves are generally well preserved, although thin,
fragile and diaphanous due to their age and buried contexts. The best
preserved leaves reveal eucamptodromus to broquidromus vein patterns.
This type of foliar venation is observed in modern coca specimens
(Figure 6a), which were collected in Cascas, Cajamarca, located in a
tropical dry forest about 80km from the Nanchoc Valley. While leaf vein
patterns are often used to identify coca leaves to the genus level, some
taxonomists disagree on the exact microscopic identification indicators
of coca to species. Most of this difficulty relates to distinguishing E.
coca var. coca and E. coca var. ipadu, two eastern tropical forest
varieties (Molina et al. 1989; Cortella et al. 2001; Ugent & Ochoa
2006: 126-30). In contrast, the cellular inclusions of the
archaeological specimens, including spiral and reticular vessels,
pericytic fibres with calcium oxlate inclusions and pericytic stomas are
typical of the species E. novogranatense var. truxillensis (Rusby)
Plowman (cf. Rury & Plowman 1983; Cortella et al. 2001; Johnson et
al. 2003; Bieri et al. 2006). These inclusions contain cubic crystals in
the vein, which measure approximately two microns. Based on the
combination of macroscopic and microscopic traits, especially with the
geographic location of the leaves on the lower western slopes of the
northern Peruvian Andes, we believe these specimens to be the variety
that has been traditionally classified as var. truxillensis (Rusby)
Plowman. We use this latter term, although there has been a recent
reclassification of this variety as E. novogranatense vat. truxillensis
(Rusby) Ugent (Ugent & Ochoa 2006: 128-9).
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]
Two AMS dates on leaves from Las Pircas house floors were processed
at 7950 cal BP (7120 [+ or -] 50 BP: Beta-226458) and 7920 cal BP (7080
[+ or -] 40 BP: Beta-226221). These dates agree with those arrived at
previously for several food crops, such as squash, peanuts, pacay, beans
and quinoa, recovered from these and other houses (Dillehay et al. 1989,
2007; Piperno & Dillehay 2008).
[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]
Lime processing
Directly associated with the leaves were 11 irregularly-shaped
spheroids of burned and precipitated calcium, which represent lime
evidently processed for use with the leaves.
Three other Las Pircas huts (CA-09-52, CA-09-27, CA-09-50) also
yielded the remains of conically-shaped pieces of processed calcite
dated as early as 9000-8300 cal BP (7600 [+ or -] 60 BP), but no coca
leaves (Rossen 1991). The same processed lime, also without coca leaves,
was excavated from the mounds and the off-mound activity areas across
the river in CA-09-04, revealing a direct cultural connection between
the mounds and the domestic sites.
The mounds on site CA-09-04 (Figures 1 & 3) were constructed on
an isolated alluvial fan 2-3km away from the domestic sites containing
coca leaves (Dillehay et al. 1989). The mounds (Zones A & C) are
[sup.14]C dated between 8400 and 7800 cal BP and the off-mound area
(Zone B) between 8100 and 7500 cal BP (Dillehay et al. 1997). The
largest preserved mound is 1.2m high and 25m long (Figure 3, Zone A).
Portions of the second mound (C) have been destroyed by a modern-day
cemetery, which impeded our work there. We studied the early building
phases of the mounds and the off-mound area by excavating trenches and
block excavations. The mounds were constructed in multiple stages. Only
unifacial flakes made of local andesite and basalt, some with burned
calcite deposits on the used edges, were found in association with
hearths and burned stains in the mound and off-mound areas.
Stains in the off-mound areas were produced by the process of
precipitating lime from calcite. These stains measure c. 50cm in
diameter and are 1-2cm in depth. Flakes with burned lime residues,
chunks of lime, as well as clusters of rock crystals, were associated
with only the mounds. It is the spatial isolation of the mounds, their
multi-tiered design, and the presence of the rock crystals that lead us
to believe that the production process was probably ritual related. Rock
crystals are exotic to the valley and considered sacred items. They are
found only in the mounds and in one furowed garden plot at CA-09-27
(Rossen 1991; Dillehay et al. 1989, 1997; Dillehay 2004). They occur in
later Formative ceremonial platform mounds (Dillehay 2004) throughout
the valley but never in domestic structures.
Soil chemical analysis of the stains at the mound site (CA-09-04)
showed unusually high amounts of potassium and calcium in comparison to
non-cultural control sediments in off-site areas (Table 1). The calcium
enrichment probably resulted from the burning and precipitation of the
lime from calcium-bearing rocks, which are available in the nearby
mountains. Additional evidence for processing lime is shown on the edges
of several unifacial flaked tools, which exhibit scraped, burned and
unburned calcite powder. The same powder is recovered in the form of
compressed conical and round chunks of lime (Figures 7 & 8) from the
mounds and the stains and hearths in off-mound areas (Zone B) of
CA-09-04 and from buried floors containing coca leaves in the dwellings
(CA-09-52, CA-09-50 and CA-09-27).
Due to the destructive nature of some analyses, mineralogical and
total elemental (TE) studies were performed on only two of the leaves
shown in Figure 4b, which indicate moderate calcium (86 130 and 69 880
in mg/Kg) and potassium (120 990 and 108 450 in mg/Kg) content possibly
derived by using lime to masticate them. Moderately high amounts of
calcium and potassium were recovered from domestic house floors dated to
both the Las Pircas and Tierra Blanca phases (Table 3) (Figure 1,
CA-09-27, 50, 52, 71). We interpret the high content of calcium and
potassium in the leaves and on the hut floors as evidence of an alkali
extractive agent activated by coca chewing.
Today, the Aymara and Quechua people of Bolivia and southern Peru
make lime or katawi by burning calcium-rich rocks and grinding the
residue into a powder (Baker & Mazess 1963; Duke et al. 1975). The
powder is mixed with water, ash and salt and pressed into small
concretions for use as an alkali and masticated with coca leaves to
release alkaloids. Although direct archaeological evidence is lacking,
it is possible that some lime was used as a mineral supplement to tubers
and chenopodium grains, both of which have been recovered from hut
floors in the Nanchoc domestic sites.
Mineralogical, XRF, and TE analyses were performed on samples of
burned, but unprocessed, calcite from off-mound activity areas in
CA-09-04 (Sample A, Figure 7), and precipitated and compressed calcite
from a house floor at CA-09-77 (Sample B, Figure 8), a domestic site
located across the valley (Figure 1). The analysis suggested differences
between the two samples (Table 2). Even though both contained about the
same amount of total carbon, sample B had 15 times higher organic carbon
than sample A. The high potassium content of sample B is associated with
its ash content, which was evident from its darker colour before and
after ignition. The dark bluish green hue of sample B after oxidation
may indicate the presence of coca leaf extract material. This suggestion
is consistent with the higher potassium, magnesium, sulphur, nitrogen
and trace metal levels in the sample. The presence of sulphur is
associated with gypsum, which was apparently used as a salt to stabilise
the coca extract following its extraction with calcite lime. The salt
may have been added as gypsum or it may have been formed as a
precipitate following the reaction of calcium contained in the lime and
sulphur contained in the coca leaves during the grinding process. The
poor crystalline nature of gypsum in sample B also supports the latter
interpretation. Overall, the findings suggest that calcite from sample A
in the off-mound area of CA-09-04 was the source for lime extraction
used in the process, while the sample B material from excavated house
CA-09-77 represents the processed product.
[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]
Although we performed multiple technical studies on only two
samples, we believe that they represent the content and function of
other raw and processed lime specimens, based on similar type, context
and form, and we argue that the CA-09-04 mounds were built to spatially
separate the production of lime as a community effort. The spatial
isolation of the mounds and the presence of rock crystals in and around
them suggest a ritual related lime-extraction technology. More detailed
chemical analysis involving chromatographic separation and mass
spectrometric identification are required to make additional comparisons
between all specimens.
Conclusion
Coca chewing accompanied by the specialised provision of its
adjunct, lime, was a feature of the rise of agriculture and social
complexity in the region. Our evidence suggests that by 8000 cal BP
there was an effective farming system in the Nanchoc Valley, employing a
range of seed, tree, vegetable and root crops, coupled with the
exploitation of animals and wild plants, which provided a balanced,
nutritious and stable diet for the inhabitants of the tropical western
slopes of the northern Peruvian Andes. As part of the diet, coca
probably provided nutritional and medicinal benefits. The current
evidence suggests that coca chewing took place in the households and not
in communal ceremonies. Contemporary Preceramic sites in other areas of
the valley do not yield coca and lime. Our data also continue to
demonstrate that the practice of crop production was not spread evenly
across all households and all areas at the same time and that certain
crops were introduced with particular cultural traits (Dillehay in
press). Cotton was an industrial crop introduced with small-scale
irrigation technology; and peanuts, squash, a quinoa-like chenopod and
manioc were adopted earlier at a time when a foraging way of life was
shifting to an agricultural one (Dillehay et al. 2005, 2007; Piperno
& Dillehay 2008). Different social and economic processes must have
been associated with each of these developments and their uneven spread
across the landscape.
In the chronology of the Nanchoc Valley, e. 8000-7800 cal BP (e.
7000 BP) represents the end of the Las Pircas phase and the beginning of
the Tierra Blanca phase. This was a significant transitional time in the
region's prehistory. The addition of local coca (and later cotton)
to a previously existing suite of exotic cultivated plants, along with
the construction of the mounds at Nanchoc, were accompanied by other
significant cultural trends, including irrigation and lime extraction
technologies. Preceramic peoples were becoming less cosmopolitan, in
terms of exchange and outside contacts, and more localised in resource
use and procurement. They became more pragmatic in their manufacture of
unifacial stone tools, including a greater reliance on expedient stone
tools (Rossen & Dillehay 2002). Furthermore, a variety of ritual and
production activities was moving from individual households to a public
setting, and domestic sites were shifting downward from smaller lateral
valleys toward the main valley floor where more fertile soils for crop
production existed. These were the beginnings of trends that would later
culminate in the development of aggregated, multiple household
agricultural field systems in the main valley and a wide range of
cultural intensifications, including monumental architecture, which
began to characterise Andean prehistory about 5000 cal years ago
(Dillehay in press).
Acknowledgements
Research for this project was funded by the National Science
Foundation, the University of Kentucky, Vanderbilt University, the
Earthwatch Foundation, and the Heinz Foundation. We thank the Instituto
Nacional de Cultura of Lima, Peru, for granting us the permits to carry
out the research. We are also grateful to the late Timothy Plowman for
encouraging our research through the 1980s and for classifying the first
leaves excavated at sites.
Received: 4 January 2010; Accepted: 25 March 2010; Revised: 30
March 2010
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Technical Note: mineralogical, total elemental, X-ray diffraction
and thermal analyses of raw and processed materials.
Although several raw and processed lime specimens were excavated in
CA-09-04 and the house structures, respectively, we subjected only two
samples to multiple technical analyses. Mineralogical analysis of finely
ground samples A and B (< 100[micro]m) was conducted by X-ray
diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis. XRD analysis (2-60[degrees]
2[theta]) was performed with powder mounts using a Philips PW 1729 X-ray
generator employing Co-K[alpha], and a PW 1840 diffractometer at
settings of 40kV and 30mA. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was run with
approximately 10mg of each sample using a Thermal Analyst 2000 (TA
Instruments) and a 951 Thermogravimetric Analyzer (DuPont Instruments).
Samples were heated to 1000[degrees]C at a rate of 20[degrees]C per
minute in a nitrogen atmosphere. TE analysis was conducted on powdered
samples of samples A and B oxidised at 900[degrees]C for 2 hours. The
oxidised samples were then fused with Li meta-borate powder in a
platinum crucible by heating to approximately 1000[degrees]C with a
Bunsen burner. The fused samples were cooled, dissolved in a mixture of
4% HN[O.sub.3] and analysed for K, Ca, Mg and trace metals (Cu, Ni, Pb
and Zn) using a Thermo Elemental Solar M-5 atomic absorption
spectrometer and total S by Ba[Cl.sub.2] turbidimetry (Karathanasis
& Hajek 1992; Karathanasis and Sparks 1996). Carbon and nitrogen
were measured on powdered samples using a Flash Elemental Analyzer 1112.
Organic carbon was determined from the difference in total C content
before and after acid dissolution with 12M HCl for 18 hours to remove
carbonates.
Soil chemistry measurements were performed by different
laboratories employing different measuring techniques: mg/[dm.sup.3]
(Table 1), mg/Kg (Table 2), and parts per million (Table 3). All express
chemicals as parts per million (ppm). However, the results in Table 1
and Table 3 were recorded on mg per unit volume ([dm.sup.3] = 1L) of
extract basis. This is a relative value for comparison purposes, but it
does not provide an exact quantitative measurement unless the precise
mass of each analysed sample is known to make the conversion on mass per
mass basis. This is not known for samples in Table 1 and Table 3, both
of which refer to mass per volume of liquid and not to mass of solid.
Samples A and B are more quantitative because the solid mass was known
and the conversion was made. Comparisons can still be made as high
medium or low with all measurements, but not on the same scale basis.
The XRD and thermal characterisations suggested contrasting
crystallinity and composition for samples A and B. Sample A from the
off-mound production area produced sharp diffraction peaks indicating a
relatively rich crystalline material dominated by calcite (diffraction
maximum at 34[degrees] 2[THETA]) with minor quantities of quartz (26 and
31[degrees] 2[THETA]). In contrast, sample B from the domestic hut
produced a diffused diffraction pattern indicative of a poor crystalline
material low in mineral and high in organic constituents. Identifiable
mineral components of sample B included calcite, gypsum, and quartz. TGA
indicated that sample A contained approximately 85% calcite (weight loss
650-800[degrees]C), while sample B had only 20% calcite and 25% gypsum
(weight loss 100-200[degrees]C). The gradual weight loss of
300-700[degrees]C in sample B is associated with organic C oxidation.
Tom D. Dillehay (1,2), *, Jack Rossen (3), Donald Ugent (4),
Anathasios Karathanasis (5), Victor Vasquez (6) & Patricia J.
Netherly (1)
(1) Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
TN37235, USA
(2) Instituto de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Austral de Chile,
Valdivia, Chile
(3) Department of Anthropology, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 14850,
USA
(4) Department of Botany, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,
IL 62901, USA
(5) Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky,
KY40506, USA
(6) Laboratorio de Arqueobiologia, Universidad Nacional de
Trujillo, Peru
* Author for correspondence (Email: tom.d.dillehay@vanderbilt.edu)
Table 1. Soil chemical analyses of sediments from Site CA-09-04
and off-site control areas *.
Soil provenience # P K pH Ca Mg
CA-09-04:
Mound A
Stratum A-III/00 14 57 124 6.92 6800 935
Stratum A-IV/0015 130 256 6.92 7260 486
Stratum B-II/00 16 137 267 7.11 12150 505
Stratum B-III/0017 57 720 8.00 13000 341
Off-mound activity
area B
Stratum B-II 152 830 7.90 18910 876
Stratum B-III 175 910 8.20 19020 945
Off-site control area:
Non-site B-II/0018 25 194 5.31 2375 735
non-site B-III/0019a 7 110 5.24 2045 664
* Processed by the Soil Test Laboratory, College of Agriculture,
University of Kentucky. Parts are measured in mg/[dm.sup.3]
extracted by Mehlich 111.
Table 2. Chemical analyses for archaeological calcite samples A
and B in mg/Kg *.
Sample K Ca Mg S Total C Org C
A 44 380 339 350 4740 70 10 2800 5000
B 165 410 111 990 39 760 16 580 98 000 75 000
Total Trace
Sample N metals
A 0 0-200
B 125 10-1360
* Processed by the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences,
University of Kentucky.
Table 3. Soil chemistry measurements for domestic sites in parts
per million from domestic house floors of the Las Pircas phase *.
pH P Ca Mg K
CA09-27:
Dwelling floor 8.29 84 8300 317 1155
Dwelling floor 8.24 53 9850 466 945
Dwelling floor 8.21 44 7900 405 1055
Dwelling floor 8.11 97 8050 402 870
Outside dwelling 8.22 51 8100 335 1025
Outside dwelling 8.28 71 7500 356 1045
Outside dwelling 8.44 58 8450 400 1090
Above floor 8.34 71 8200 302 1105
Stone structure 8.38 76 7450 283 1825
Adobe 8.39 89 6750 311 1650
CA09-28
Flexed burial 8.42 76 7800 338 820
Main block 8.57 155 5350 375 1330
CA09-52
North block 8.30 70 7850 295 1330
North block 8.32 52 7500 247 1455
Central block 8.28 63 8200 290 1525
Central block 8.41 55 12400 321 1582
Central block 8.43 74 8800 278 2420
Central block 8.46 93 7400 294 1280
Central block 8.47 56 7250 308 1245
South block 8.30 110 7400 254 1635
South block 8.30 110 7700 294 1635
South block 8.31 125 7350 330 1525
South block 8.36 115 7500 267 1410
South block 8.39 135 7500 339 1085
Off-site non-cultural control 7.65 n/a 4500 110 90
samples
* Samples processed by the Soil Test Laboratory, College of
Agriculture, University of Kentucky.