Cotton was one of the first plants domesticated by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Americas. In the Central Andes, especially in the north and central coasts of Peru the importance of this crop grew with the passage to a fishing economy and a marine based life style. People used cotton to make fishing nets and other textiles. Cotton remains have been recovered in many sites on the coast especially in residential middens.
Later on, when people abandoned some of the coastal sites to move inland, cotton cultivation continued through canal irrigation of desert land.
Archaeological Evidence of Cotton Cultivation
Samples of cotton fibers, seeds and boll parts come from the Ancón-Chillón area of central Peru. The sites of this area represent the first stages in the domestication process occurred during the Cotton-Preceramic period, before the introduction of pottery, starting around 2500 B.C.
Other examples of cotton production and use in the Andes date to the Initial Period in sites like Huaca Prieta where archaeological evidence indicates that both cotton and gourds were in use 1500 to 1000 years before pottery and maize cultivation. Cotton was used for both fishing and hunting nets, textiles, clothing and storage bags.
Furthermore, recent botanical analyses and direct AMS dating on macrobotanical remains of cotton fibers from different Peruvian archaeological sites have produced more precise information about the development and patters of the domestication process of this important crop.
- Read more about Cotton Domestication
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Mesoamerica, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Dillehay, Tom D., Rossen Jack, Andres Thomas C., and David E. Williams, 2007, Preceramic Adoption of Peanut, Squash, and Cotton in Northern Peru, Science 316, 1890-1893.
Stephens, S.G., 1975, A Reexamination of the Cotton Remains from Huaca Prieta, North Coastal Peru, American Antiquity, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 406-419
Stephens, S.G., and M. Edward Moseley, Early Domesticated Cottons from Archaeological Sites in Central Coastal Peru, American Antiquity, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 109-122.