By the mid-4th millennium BCE, Norte Chico communities were already cultivating key fiber and container plants—especially cotton and bottle gourd—that supported fishing technology (nets, lines, floats) and transport/storage, setting up the mixed maritime–agricultural economy later seen at large centers.
From the later 4th millennium BCE, numerous Norte Chico sites developed large communal constructions (platform mounds and associated plazas). These building programs imply dependable food and fiber systems capable of supporting sizable, organized populations.
Diet and economy in the Norte Chico are widely described as a complementary system: inland irrigation fields produced cotton (and other crops), while coastal communities harvested abundant small schooling fish (notably anchovy), with exchange helping provision inland centers and sustain craft production (net-making, textiles).
Human and animal coprolites from Late Archaic contexts at Caballete and Huaricanga provide direct dietary evidence: maize starch occurs in a majority of samples, alongside other plant foods; the same coprolite analyses also reported anchovies as an important protein source.
Starch-grain evidence from coprolites indicates sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) was the second most common identifiable starch after maize in the sampled Late Archaic individuals, underscoring a diversified carbohydrate base beyond any single crop.
Coprolite microremains from Late Archaic Norte Chico contexts indicated guava as a dominant identifiable sugar source, showing that fruit consumption contributed meaningfully to diet alongside staples and marine protein.
Synthesis work on Norte Chico subsistence emphasizes that animal protein was primarily supplied by fish (and likely mollusks), even at major inland ceremonial centers; this aligns with abundant marine faunal remains and the logistical role of exchange from the coast.
A major multi-proxy study (coprolites, pollen records, stone-tool residues, radiocarbon dating) argued that maize was widely grown, intensively processed, and a primary dietary component across the Late Archaic Norte Chico span, intensifying debate over the balance between agriculture and maritime foods.
Starch grains trapped in human dental calculus at coastal Áspero document consumption of multiple plants (both C3 and C4), including sweet potato, squash, beans, manioc, chili pepper, and maize, indicating broad plant use at a maritime center during the Late Preceramic/Initial Formative transition.
Research on preceramic plant-fiber technologies argues that expanded cotton use enabled larger, more effective nets and therefore more intensive harvesting of small schooling fish (e.g., anchovy), strengthening the material link between inland cultivation and coastal protein yields.
Across c. 3000–1800 BCE, overviews of Norte Chico subsistence describe a stable pattern: domesticated plants providing major carbohydrates alongside marine foods providing much of the animal protein, supporting continued monumental construction and regional integration.
Frédéric Engel coined the term “Cotton Preceramic Stage” to describe very early Peruvian coastal societies characterized by cotton use and an absence of ceramics—an interpretive frame closely tied to later debates about diet, fiber technology, and maritime versus agricultural foundations in Norte Chico.
Michael CarricoDietary practices and paleobotanical/paleofaunal evidence in Norte Chico (c. 3500–1800 BCE)