Lithic usewear confirms the function of Wilamaya Patjxa projectile points

Abstract

Approximately 9000 years ago at the Andean highland site of Wilamaya Patjxa, forager communities interred female and male individuals with projectile points, suggesting that large-mammal hunting may have been a gender neutral activity among that community. We report a lithic usewear analysis, which confirms that the ostensible projectile points were indeed used as projectile points. The data further reveal evidence of cutting and hide scraping consistent with animal processing activities. A new radiocarbon date shows that the female and male individuals were contemporaries, or nearly so, sometime between 9.0 and 8.7 cal. ka. These findings support a model of early subsistence practices in which both female and male individuals at Wilamaya Patjxa hunted large mammals.

Stable isotope chemistry reveals plant-dominant diet among early foragers on the Andean Altiplano, 9.0–6.5 cal. ka

“…Atomic C/N ratios for all but one sample—WMP1—fall within the acceptable range of 3.1–3.6 (see Table 2 ), indicating that diagenetic processes have not significantly altered the collagen [ 35 ]. Furthermore, the δ 13 C and δ 15 N values from the four previously reported radiocarbon dates [ 16 , 18 , 30 ] are in close agreement with less than 1.3‰ separating values reported among the three labs ( Table 3 ).…”

Woman the Hunter? Female foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real

“…These claims have been widely reported in the press, e.g. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], and are cited in several scientific articles [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”