The Mundane in the Divine: Lithic Consumption at the Cerro Llamocca Sacred Mountain Complex, Peru

The Cerro Llamocca Sacred Mountain Complex (CLSMC) is located in the high Peruvian Andes and comprises an extensive archaeological area with two sacred mountains (apus): Cerro Llamocca (4,487 m asl) and Cerro Mollepunco (4,451 m asl). Its strategic location on the western edge of the puna zone facilitated the extraction, procurement, and use of various resources by pre-Hispanic societies. Recent archaeological surveys and excavations have documented the long-term use of the CLSMC, from the Early Archaic period (~ 8000 BCE) to the present. These studies reveal significant consumption of lithic resources, particularly obsidian and chert, during the pre-Hispanic period. Obsidian was a preferred material for producing stone tools and weapons. The Quispisisa/Jichja Parco quarry, one of the major obsidian sources in the central Andes, is located only 45 km east of the CLSMC. Chert and other lithic sources are more scattered across the landscape. This talk provides an overview of research at the CLSMC, focusing on ongoing analyses of lithic artifacts to reconstruct patterns of procurement, exchange, and consumption over time.

Dr. Christian Mader is an anthropological and environmental archaeologist and is currently a research fellow at the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK) of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted over a period of 17 years, he primarily focuses on the South American Andes. However, he has also conducted fieldwork in the Caribbean, Ghana, Greece, and Italy. Christian Mader synthesizes archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and geospatial data to study Indigenous technologies and lifeways, relations of dependency, and human-ecological dynamics. He was a research group leader at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, and in 2017, he was awarded a Reisestipendium, a prestigious year-long travel scholarship from the DAI. This study trip took him from Chile to the USA and from Iran to Greece. He has published extensively on his research, particularly journal articles. Christian Mader is also the author of the book Sea Shells in the Mountains and Llamas on the Coast: The Economy of the Paracas Culture (800 to 200 BC) in Southern Peru (Forschungen zur Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen 16).