Plant consumption in Áspero, Peru, during the Initial Formative Period (3000-1800 BCE): New evidence from starch grain trapped in human dental calculus.

Abstract The objective of this research is to determine the dietary relevance of the plants consumed by the inhabitants of Aspero, an urban center on the coast of the Supe Valley, Peru. For this purpose, starch grains trapped in the human dental calculus of eleven individuals were recovered. Additionally, the results of one individual recovered from the Sacred City of Caral, located in the interior of Supe Valley, are presented. The high number of starch grains recovered from sweet potato and squash possibly indicates a frequent consumption of these starchy plant foods by the inhabitants of Áspero. These results are consistent with previously published isotopic analyses indicating that C3 plants were an important part of the diet of the Áspero inhabitants. Although our results indicate that there was maize consumption at Áspero and Sacred City of Caral, our results and previous isotopic analyses performed on the same individuals, show that maize was not fundamental in the diet of the origins of the civilization. Finally, based on the damage patterns in starch grains, we report the first direct evidence of possible maize fermentation during the Initial Formative Period. Considering the economic and ritual importance of fermented beverage consumption in the ethnohistoric and archaeological record of later periods, this finding could have critical implications for understanding the process of social complexity in the region.