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The introduction of Old World crops (wheat, barley and peach) in Andean Argentina during the 16th century a.d.: archaeobotanical and ethnohistorical evidence

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Abstract

It was believed for a long time that the first Old World crops were introduced to the northwest of Argentina in a.d. 1550 during the foundation of Barco, and that the indigenous people incorporated them into their subsistence almost passively. However, since wheat, barley, and peach have been recovered from El Shincal, an Inka (Inca) administrative centre, new questions have arisen about who first brought these crops to the study region, as well as about where they were grown for the first time and which routes they followed after that. This paper will try to solve these questions during a period ranging from the 16th to the 18th century. This time span, although arbitrary, is consistent with the major damage to the original social structure caused by the Spaniards to the local indigenous populations. Our approach includes the comparison of ethnohistorical with archaeobotanical evidence. It is concluded that the first Old World crops were brought from Chile to Santiago del Estero by Spanish soldiers in a.d. 1556, and to Londres in a.d. 1558. These crops were taken up by local indigenous people during the period of the encomenderos and used to carry out a pachamanca ceremony at El Shincal during a Diaguita rebellion.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to the Comisión Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), and to the Agencia de Promoción y Desarrollo PICT 2002 N° 10987, which has provided institutional and financial support for this work through grants to A. Capparelli and to R. Raffino. The figures of this paper were made with the help of D. Gobbo. The authors would like to thank especially G. Hillman for both cereal identifications, as well as for his valuable suggestions and constant moral support. Finally, we are very grateful to the anonymous referees and to S. Jacomet for their valuable comments, and also to J. Greig, allowing us to improve the final version of the manuscript

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  1. Scientific Department of Archaeology, Natural Sciences Museum of La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    Aylen Capparelli, Verónica Lema, Marco Giovannetti & Rodolfo Raffino

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  1. Aylen Capparelli
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Correspondence to Aylen Capparelli.

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Capparelli, A., Lema, V., Giovannetti, M. et al. The introduction of Old World crops (wheat, barley and peach) in Andean Argentina during the 16th century a.d.: archaeobotanical and ethnohistorical evidence. Veget Hist Archaeobot 14, 472–484 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0093-8

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