The Paiján culture was an archaeological culture that emerged on the northern coast of Peru between 13,000 and 10,000 cal BP (11,000-8,000 BCE ). It was first described by Peruvian archaeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1940s from the Pampa de los Fósiles site. Later research, mainly by French archaeologist Claude Chauchat, identified dozens of open air sites, which include camps, workshops and quarries.
14-468: Chivateros is a notable prehistoric stone tool quarry in the Ventanilla District of Peru associated with Paijan culture. Generally, this culture would belong to the Lithic stage of cultural development. Most findings are concentrated along the valleys of the rivers Jequetepeque, Cupisnique, Chicama and Moche in the northern coast of Peru; more limited evidences of Paiján presence have been found in
28-607: A lithic flake industry as early as the Late Pleistocene, dating between 9,000 and 11,000 years ago. Wood fragments helped define a Chivateros I period of 9500-8000 BC. There is also a red zone with some flint chips which, by comparison of artifacts of the nearby Oquendo workshop, dates to pre-10,500 BC. The whole industry is characterized by burins and bifaces with the upper-level ( Chivateros II ) containing long, keeled, leaf-shaped projectile points which resemble points from both Lauricocha II and El Jobo. Dating has been aided by
42-587: The Chivateros preforms (erroneously described by Lanning as "handaxes" and "spearheads"), which were the first outline of pedunculate tips. The rest of lithic materials are nothing more than wastes of the activity of carving and edging. People who provisioned the raw material from Chivateros hill lived in Pampa Piedras Gordas and in Carabayllo, where Lanning found his workshops and housing areas, which he called
56-607: The Lítico Light Complex. There preforms of the Chivateros type were processed to be converted into pedunculadas tips of the Paijanense type. This tradition spread along the Peruvian coast from Lambayeque to Ica during the period between 10,000 BC to 6000 BC. Since its discovery in the 1960s, Chivateros was constantly plundered by collectors, academics and the general population to obtain lithic artifacts. In spite of its importance,
70-445: The availability of wild plants and animals; thus, Paiján people required less movement to meet their requirements while still relying on hunting-gathering . In 1975, at La Pampa de los Fósiles, Claude Chauchat discovered skeletal remains of a teenager about 12–13 years old, and of a young woman of about 25 years old, buried in a layer of ash. Radiocarbon studies gave an age of 10,200 ± 180 before present. They are therefore considered as
84-1059: The central and south coasts of Peru as well as in the highland site of El Inga in Ecuador. The Paiján environment was arid with sparse vegetation and small animals such as rodents, lizards and snails; further resources were provided by the sea which at the time was located 15 kilometers farther than today due to a lower sea level. To adapt to this environment, the Paiján developed long needle–like projectile points which were mounted on hollow shafts of cane or reed and be used as harpoons to catch fish; they also collected snails, hunted small animals such as vizcachas and used grinding stones to process plants. Paijan stemmed points are separated into several classes when being classified as they are found on sites. These classes include: lanceolate, triangular, intermediate, and miscellaneous. Common Paijan tools used included single and double sidescrapers, unifaces – pieces or tabular blocks retouched on one face only all around
98-679: The deposition of both loess and salt crust layers which suggest alternating periods of dryness and humidity and which can be synchronized with glacial activity in the Northern Hemisphere. For a long time it was mistakenly regarded as the greatest lithic workshop in Peru, when in reality it is a large area of canteo, that is to say, a place or quarry where groups of hunter-gatherers, or paijanenses , were supplied with raw materials which they used to make pedunculated tips, known as tips paijanenses or tips Paiján. The inhabitants of this area have been given
112-410: The edge to give them an ovate shape, borers – rare small jasper blocks that have 3 points, and most abundantly - denticulates which have thick, steep edges. Bifaces are another common artifact found on Paiján sites. Based on the evidence as of 2015, the Paiján complex has been dated to ca. 13,000-10,000 cal BP. Early Paiján sites indicate large bands that moved seasonally between the coastal plains and
126-456: The final phase of Chivateros I . Subsequent surveys by French archaeologist Claude Chauchat in the 1970s found similar Chivateros sites in Cupisnique, which he was able to link with workshops producing stemmed Paijanense tips with a dating going back to the eighth millennium BC. It is possible that sites on the north coast, of the Chivateros type, date back to the tenth millennium BC. Chivateros
140-468: The name "Chivateros man". Exploration of the site's vicinity, the area near the mouth of the Chillon River and the desert around Ancon, has revealed a large settlement complex of ancient hunter-gatherers near the quarries and quarry workshop. Among them are Cerro Chivateros, Cerro Oquendo and La Pampilla. The stratigraphic sequence: Chivateros was dated by samples of non-carbonized wood associated with
154-805: The oldest human remains in Peru. Chivateros Chivateros is a prehistoric stone tool quarry and associated workshop located near the mouth of the Chillón river in the Ventanilla District , northwest of Lima , Peru . Excavations were led in 1963 and 1966 by archaeologists Thomas C. Patterson and Edward P. Lanning, who noticed three cultural assemblages in the Chillón valley and uncovered large quantities of debris of lithic artifact production, initially interpreted as lithic instruments (hand axes, spearheads, scrapers, etc.). In an area of coastal lomas (areas of fog-watered vegetation), excavations revealed
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#1732858392391168-462: The western slopes of the Andes. Late Paiján subphase sites feature three types of projectile points, Talambo, Contracting Narrow stem, and Contracting Broad stem types. They are now dated between 11,200 and 9,600 cal BP. These sites evidence smaller groups of decreased mobility. According to anthropologist Tom Dillehay , a possible explanation for this change is that an amelioration of the climate increased
182-446: Was actually a quarry, and that there was not only one site of this type, but many Chivateros sites, for much of the Peruvian coast and Yungas (which have been dubbed as Chivateros quarries), where groups of hunter-gatherers were supplied raw materials, such as partially processed rock, which they took to their workshops located close to their homes or near the quarries already mentioned. The most widely known material of these quarries are
196-552: Was initially defined as a gigantic lithic workshop of the Paleolithic. Patterson and Lanning identified lithic pieces made of quartzite, such as knives, scrapers, arrowheads and hand axes. Moreover, they established a factual differentiation between what they called Chivateros I and Chivateros II, establishing equivalents in other points of America. Thanks to the works of Chauchat in Cupisnique and Chicama, this interpretation has largely been superseded. Chauchat determined that Chivateros
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