Estimating occupation span

To date, there are six radiocarbon dates for Cerro León, three from Compound 1 and three from intact trash deposits in a room in the domestic residences of Area 2. The latter three were published by Huckleberry and Billman (2003). The new dates from Compound 1 are presented in Table 5.71 first, followed by the Area 2 dates and the dates from the Urban Zone (Uceda el al 2008). Two of these AMS dates are from patio Feature 32 where a test pit was excavated on the west side of the compound wall that is also the western wall of the Feature 5 kitchen. The third date is from the base of a hearth (Feature 44.01) that was located in the south-central portion of the terrace. All the dates collected for Cerro León so far are from fragments of maize cobs. The Compound 1 maize was identified by Amber Van der Warker (2011) as 6-row variety. Carbonized remains from annual plants were abundant at all three residential compounds excavated at Cerro León and were selected over wood charcoal to avoid “old wood effects” (Millaire 2010:6191; Schiffer 1996).

Although they may seem problematic, the two dates from Feature 32 are interpreted as statistically the same and with the two-sigma calibration, there still is considerable overlap for the two dates. The data likely indicate that a very short period of time elapsed between filling episodes

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beneath the final patio floor. On the whole, all of the dates for Cerro León cluster fairly tightly between A.D. 1 and A.D. 400.

Table 5.7.1. Radiocarbon dates on carbonized annuals from Cerro León and wood from the Urban Zone at the Huacas de Moche.

CONTEXT MATERIAL CONVENTIONAL

AGE

2 SIGMA

CALIBRATION18

(1)MV-225-Fea. 32, Level 8, Strat. H, fill betw. Floors 2 and 3

Maize 1830 +/- 30 BP

(BETA 294056)

Cal AD 134 – Cal AD 346 (0.994199) (1)MV-225-Fea. 32,

Level 5, Strat. E, a layer of use-compacted floor Maize 1890 +/- 30 BP (BETA 294055) Cal AD 81 – Cal AD 254 (1.0) (1)MV-225-Fea. 44.01 hearth above Floor 3

and below Floor 2

Maize 1780 +/- 30 BP

(BETA 294054)

Cal AD 240 – Cal AD 402 (1.0)

(2)MV-225-room block

beneath Wall 1 Maize

1910 +/- 40 BP (CAMS-74945)

Cal AD 59 – Cal AD 254 (0.998243) (2)MV-225-room block

beneath Wall 1 Maize

1780 +/- 50 BP (CAMS-74946)

Cal AD 209 – Cal AD 425 (0.95939)

(2)MV-225-room block

beneath Wall 1 Maize

1940 +/- 30 BP (CAMS-74947) Cal AD 48 – Cal AD 237 (0.975427) (3)ZUM-Beneath a tomb, CA # 5-2 Wood 1500 +/- 70 BP (BETA-121763) Cal AD 428 – Cal AD 689 (0.996964) (3)ZUM-On top of a burial, CA # 5-24 Wood 1520 +/- 60 BP (BETA-134086) Cal AD 525 – Cal AD 664 (0.852306) (3)ZUM-Cap of ash, CA # 12-4 Wood 1680 +/- 60 BP (BETA-121762) Cal AD 317 – Cal AD 568 (0.938072) (3)ZUM-Beneath a tomb, CA # 12-5 Wood 1490 +/- 60 BP (BETA-121764) Cal AD 528 – Cal AD 688 (0.936172) (3)ZUM-Burial in Architectural Compound 15 Wood 1630 +/- 40 BP (BETA-121761) Cal AD 401 – Cal AD 580 (1.0)

(1) This dissertation, (2) Huckleberry and Billman 2003, (3) Uceda et al. 2008

By way of comparison, I recalibrated all the Cerro León dates along with the Moche III dates from the Urban Zone at the Huacas de Moche and compiled these in Figure 5.7.1. Compared to the Urban Zone at the Huacas de Moche, Cerro León’s Area 1 occupation is earlier, or at least not later than Moche III. This supports the estimated date of middle to late Moche phase for the wall that superimposes the Area 2 residential structure where three of Cerro León’s six AMS dates are from. The Cerro León dates also fall within the earlier range of Jean-François Millaire’s (2010) dates from the residential sector at the Gallinazo Group. Cerro León dates are later than date from human bone

18 _{I used Calib 6.0 Radiocarbon Calibration for the Southern Hemisphere. (Stuiver & Reimer 1993, version 6.0;} Reimer et al., 2009).

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from “Structural” phase graves studied by Celeste Gagnon at the nearby Gallinazo paramount site of Cerro Oreja (Gagnon, personal communication 2012).

Figure 5.7.1. Graph of Cerro León and other published calibrated dates for Moche EIP sites. Besides the radiocarbon data, the strongest argument for a lengthy occupation of Cerro León’s Area 1 is the higher volume of ceramic and other material in the levels of architectural fill. A projected occupation of two centuries for the settlement as a whole does not seem unreasonable and fits with the radiocarbon dates we have so far. Compared to Varien and Mills’ (1997) data on estimating occupation span of the Duckfoot site Cerro León’s proportion of cooking pots is slightly less (Duckfoot =62.4% and Cerro León = 58.2%). However, I tried to use their equation on the bulk weight of plain pottery from excavation and the length of occupation based on these data would have been 56 to 70 years for the three residences at Cerro León. Close to the same results were produced

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when using the discard equation (Schiffer 1996:56) pioneered by Sherburne Cook (1972) on counts of cooking olla rims for all three compounds. The results with varied breakage rates of 3 to 4.6 vessels per year, per household were 48 to 74 years. Interestingly, both equations at least set the minimum duration of occupation at approximately 50 to 70 years. However, since the surface collected material and the adjacent midden assemblages were not a part of Cerro León’s estimate, there is no way to determine without excavation what proportion of the three compounds’ total discarded cooking pots remains in the middens surrounding the residences.

Another line of evidence for estimating length of occupation would be the amount of rebuilding that took place in the residences. Compound 1, depending on whether you interpret additions and renovations as occurring more or less simultaneously or sequentially, could have had a range of roughly four to eight or more stages of construction and remodeling. If these took place every generation (estimated at 25 years), that could mean an occupation of 100 to 200 years. Ideally, absolute dates from the earliest and latest stages of construction for each compound could help sort out the complex history of occupation in Area 1. The upshot of these various independent lines of evidence for estimating occupation span is that they all clearly demonstrate a multi-generational occupation of greater than a century, not a short-term or single generation occupation.