A Late Archaic Period Burial from the South-Central Andean Coast

Recent excavations at the Late Archaic Period (ca. 3000-1000 B.C.) site of Kilometer 4 on the far south coast of Peru exposed a burial containing the remains of a 45-year-old male. The individual was buried with an unusual assemblage of artifacts that includes bone and shell implements and elaborate and distinctive cotton textiles, as well as a complex of paraphernalia of which some items were apparently associated with the use of hallucinogenic or other substances. Auditory exostoses indicate that the individual had engaged in maritime activities, including diving. Semi-flexed, single interment burials such as this are well known from the coast of northern Chile, but the use of cotton during the Archaic Period on the coast of the south-central Andes has not been well documented in the past.