Earth And Space Science Project Abstract
TEXTILE SORTING TO DETERMINE DATES OF SITE OCCUPATION
Presenter:
Lyra Haas, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, 1500 West Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL, 60506; lhaas@imsa.edu
Mentor:
Dr. Jonathan Haas, Field Museum of Natural History, Lake Shore Drive at Roosevelt Rd, Chicago, IL, 60605; 312-996-2619; 312-665-719?; haas@fmppr.fmnh.org
Abstract:
Purpose: This project involved an analysis of prehistoric textile fragments to determine whether two sites in the Patevilca Valley (200 km north of Lima) dated to the Preceramic Period (3000-1800 B.C.).
Procedure: Using criteria developed from previously published sources, textile samples collected from the surfact of looted burials were studied and separated into groups based on techniques of manufacture. Textiles made with techniques characteristic of the Preceramic Period (Plain and Split-Paired twining) were then subjected to a more in-depth examination.
Conclusion: After all the textiles were sorted, one definite preceramic piece was identified. This single piece was significant in that it confirmed a single radiocarbon date of 2250 B.C. taken from organic materials at the same looted cemetery. It was therefore possible to conclude that a late occupation had covered the preceramic burial site, and looters had dug through some of the later burials. The looters mostly left the later textiles on the surface, but got down far enough in their digging that some of the early textiles, along with the samples used for the radiocarbon dates, ended up on the surface. This would suggest that, although covered by a late occupation, the sites have an earlier preceramic occupation.