11 - Technologies and Material Culture

Summary

Summarized in this chapter are descriptions of the major material technologies recovered during the course of all projects in the study area, including architecture, irrigation canals, garden plots and agricultural fields, exotic curiosities, copper ore and crude smelted copper, and lithics. More emphasis is placed on architecture and lithics because they are the dominant assemblages recorded by all projects.

ARCHITECTURE

El Palto Phase: During the late Paiján subphase, we see the first evidence for substantial architecture, which has important implications for reduced mobility and possibly sedentism. Late Paiján architecture typically is characterized by circular or semicircular, ground-level structures that appear as stone teepee-rings with narrow entrances (Fig. 11.1). Other structural forms documented for the El Palto phase in the Q. del Batán and Q. Talambo areas include L-shaped and V-shaped huts (Stackelbeck 2008). Foundations or retaining walls were built of dry stone, usually with a conical morphology. Sometimes these walls are preserved up to 50 cm in height, though the foundations in the Q. del Batán and Q. Talambo areas typically consist of a single layer of basal stones. Some structures at the CA-09–27 and PV-09–19 sites have concentric circles or postmolds indicative of a support framework for substantial walls and a roof (see Chapters 4 and 5). Walls were likely made of wooden branches, mud covered and draped with animal skins or brush. The roofs were likely made of brush. There is no evidence of mud brick or wattle and daub.