Flores-Blanco Luis, Hall Morgan, Hinostroza Luisa, Eerkens Jelmer, Aldenderfer Mark, Haas Randall
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America.
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 25;20(6):e0325626. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0325626. eCollection 2025.
Prevailing models of agricultural origins tend to envision that economic hardship drove the transition from foraging to farming economies. Growing human populations and the depletion of high-ranked animal resources forced humans into increasingly intensive and dependent relationships with plant foods. Current evidence from the Andean Altiplano (High Plateau, 3800 masl) identifies the Terminal Archaic Period (5.0-3.5 cal. ka) as the period of economic transition from Archaic foraging economies to Formative Period agro-pastoral economies. Consistent with models of agricultural origins, isotope chemistry (δ13Ccollagen, δ13Capatite, δ15Ncollagen) of human bone samples from 16 individuals from the Terminal Archaic sites of Kaillachuro and Jiskairumoko (5.3-3.0 cal. ka) indicates that C3 plants comprised approximately 84% of the dietary protein. Archaeobotanical data show that chenopods may have been the most important subsistence resource, and zooarchaeological remains indicate that protein was derived from camelid meat. Inconsistent with the working model of plant intensification, the Terminal Archaic diets reported here are statistically indistinguishable from previously published values of Early-Late Archaic (9.0-6.5 cal. ka) individuals in the same region, which also show approximately 84% of protein coming from plants. Rather than being a process of dramatic dietary change and economic hardship, the agricultural transition on the Altiplano appears to have been one of remarkable resilience in which plant:meat ratios remained relatively stable over six millennia, spanning the transition from Archaic foraging and hunting to Formative farming and herding economies. Plant and animal domestication on the Altiplano thus represents a process of economic sustainability rather than one of food insecurity and hardship, as many prevalent agricultural origins models would suggest.
主流的农业起源模型倾向于认为，经济困境推动了从觅食经济向农耕经济的转变。不断增长的人口以及优质动物资源的枯竭，迫使人类与植物性食物建立起日益集约化和依赖化的关系。来自安第斯高原（海拔3800米的高原地区）的现有证据表明，晚期古风时期（公元前5000年至3500年）是从古风觅食经济向形成期农牧经济转变的经济转型期。与农业起源模型一致，对来自凯拉丘罗和吉斯凯鲁莫科晚期古风遗址（公元前5300年至3000年）的16具人类骨骼样本进行的同位素化学分析（δ13C胶原蛋白、δ13C磷灰石、δ15N胶原蛋白）表明，C3植物约占膳食蛋白质的84%。考古植物学数据显示，藜科植物可能是最重要的生存资源，动物考古遗迹表明蛋白质来源于骆驼科动物的肉。与植物集约化的工作模型不一致的是，这里报告的晚期古风时期饮食在统计学上与该地区先前公布的早-晚古风时期（公元前9000年至6500年）个体的值没有差异，后者也显示约84%的蛋白质来自植物。安第斯高原的农业转型似乎并非是一个饮食发生巨大变化和经济困境的过程，而是一个具有显著恢复力的过程，在从古风觅食和狩猎到形成期农耕和畜牧经济的六千年过渡中，植物与肉类的比例保持相对稳定。因此，安第斯高原的动植物驯化代表了一个经济可持续性的过程，而不是像许多主流农业起源模型所暗示的那样，是一个粮食不安全和困境的过程。
