[Aztlan] OLDEST GOLD JEWELRY EVER FOUND IN THE AMERICAS FOUND INPERU

[Hoopes, John W]

Thanks, Ben.  Among the questions that would remain to be answered IF this were evidence of social hierarchy at ca. 2100 BC is why gold ornaments don't really "catch on" among contemporary, complex societies on the central and north coasts of Peru at this time.
 
To my knowledge, no similar gold jewelry has yet been identified at Caral or the Norte Chico sites, nor is it present at sites like Huaca Prieta, all of which have far more evidence for "complex" activity in the form of monumental architecture and skilled textile production before 2000 BC.
 
It is certainly possible that the Lake Titicaca region was too far away from these other regions for innovations in technology to have diffused quickly, but surely transhumance would have brought goldwork to the south coast long before its appearance in Ocucaje contexts if it were associated with emergent social hierarchy in the highlands of southern Peru.
 
I think caution is advisable until there is additional evidence for social complexity from other lines of evidence.  Sadly, I shudder to think what damage may be wrought on surviving cemeteries in the region once it becomes widely know that there is "gold in them thar burials"--even the early Preceramic ones!
 
That said, I do wonder when it was that gold became associated with the Sun in ancient Peru.  We know from sites like Buena Vista that observations of solstices and equinoxes were occurring in Preceramic contexts on the coast before 2000 BC.  It would be wonderful to have data from the highlands to extend this pattern at this early date, and make the argument that the gold necklace at Jiskairumoko signifies an early revernce for Inti.
 
John Hoopes

________________________________

From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org on behalf of Benjamin Carter
Sent: Wed 4/2/2008 8:11 AM
To: Aztlan; Andean and Amazonian Archaeology Discussion Group
Subject: [Aztlan] OLDEST GOLD JEWELRY EVER FOUND IN THE AMERICAS FOUND INPERU



All,

The dates look good. The charcoal is from directly beneath the mandible
associated around which the beads were found. The dates are:  
"3733 +/- 14C yrs B.P. (AA-36815) or 2155 to 1936 cal yrs B.C."

I have to agree with Hoopes comments on the National Geographic page.
This is a really spectacular find, but associating this kind of gold
working with social hierarchy is tentative at best. As discussed in the
PNAS article, the technology is rather simple. People simply used pure
gold (probably placer gold) and hammered it flat and then hammered it
around a solid tube (a nice round stick would probably do). Let me be
clear, I think this is an fascinating and important find, but more
because it is associated with hunters and gatherers (Aldenderfer et al.
use the term low-level food-producer, which is fairly cryptic) than as
evidence of social hierarchy or status. In other words, this seems to be
evidence of the ingenuity of hunters and gatherers experimenting with
and utilizing resources from the environment in which they live. It is
good evidence of the dynamic nature of hunters and gatherers, which
contradicts the view that hunters and gatherers were not technologically
innovative. Similarly, simply because an individual is buried with such
artifacts does not necessarily indicate that they were of high status.
This could be an indicator of differentiation rather than hierarchy.
Perhaps there are other indications of high status with this individual
that were not published.

The PNAS article does not have a lot of detail and the authors probably
did not have the space to elaborate, so I look forward to further
publications on this.

Ben Carter

Hoopes, John W wrote:
> Here's a link to the story in National Geographic News (with a comment
> from yours truly):
>
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080331-oldest-gold.html
>
> John Hoopes
>
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