Excavations in the Huanangue Valley pt 2: Salitre

Salitre was the second site that we excavated in 2012.  Getting to this site was extremely difficult.  Because of some bad planning on my part, we started excavating this site in the beginning of March which just happened to correspond with a time period of heavy rainfall in the highlands which meant that the river was also almost always at flood stage and that we were at constant risk hauycos (flash floods) trapping us in the quebrada where we were working (to be fair, this wasn't entirely my fault - 2012 was not a typical year and the rains came later than expected - typically by march things are calming down).

 

Huayco number 1, which hit the first day we started working at Salitre.  The flood water was coming down with such force the the ground was shaking in the spot we were standing to take this picture

 

Huayco number 3, by this point we were all old hats at flash floods and were also too tired to try and find an alternate exit, so we decided to risk jumping across the flood channel (this huayco was much smaller and less dangerous than the first one)

 

This was the first bridge we built across the river.  Since the river kept flooding and washing our bridges away, we ended up having to rebuild 5 times.  

Salitre:

According to radiocarbon dates, Salitre was founded around around 1420 CE and was occupied for about 150 years.  We know that this site was occupied by the Chancay because of the prevalence of Chancay black on white and Cayash style ceramics as well as the use of domestic trash as construction fill.  Excavation showed that agriculture was a very important part of life at Salitre and several different cultivars were recovered from trash deposits, including maize, bean, squash, chili peppers, pumpkin, and avocado.  People also ate a great deal of marine foods such as fish and shellfish.  We also found exotic goods during excavation including a spiny oyster shell bead, a piece of copper, and a piece of obsidian. Since we did not find any exotic goods at Campo Libre, this suggests that the Chancay had greater access to economic networks than did the chaupiyunginos.  Camelid remains were also very common which suggests that people at the site may have been raising llamas or alpacas.  We also found evidence for feasting at Salitre.  Based on this evidence, we think that the Chancay living at Salitre may have invited their chaupiyungino neighbors to these feasts in order to convince the chaupiyunigos to give them access to irrigation water.

 

                                        Camelid mandible in the process of excavation at Salitre

 

                                                                   Botanic remains from Salitre

 

                                                                     Exotic goods from Salitre