THE OSTRA SITE: THE EARTIEST
FORTIFIED SITE IN THE NEW WORTD?
John R. Topic
Department of Anthropology
Trent University
Peterborough, Ontario
INTEODUCTION
The focus of this paper is the possible evi-
dence of warfare at one small site on the north-
central coast of Peru. The Ostra site is uot
phyeically impreoeive and the evidence of warfare
there is not certainly unequivocal, but the site
is of great importance because it was occupied
more than 50m years ago. To my knowledge, it
is the earliegt Eite in the New World with evi-
dence of co-operative labour devoted to prepa,r-
ing for defense. In developmental terms, Octra
ir pre-ceramic and pre-agricultura\ subrirtence
was based on fiahing and collecting, with perhaps
rome hunting. The level of development reachcd
by the Ogtra inhabitants was fa,r remwed from
anything one would define archacologically as a
rtate, or even as a chicfdom, but Ostra offers
vduable information about the role of warfare
in the development of gocial complexity.
The early placement of the site in both the
chronological and developmental Eense reems
troublecome to Eome Andeanistg. So much so,
in fact, that when the site waE briefly reported
(Topic and Topic 1987) in a recent collection
of papens dealing with the origins and devel-
opment of the Andean state other contribu-
tors simply ignored it (Haas 19E7:4; Pororski
and Poronski 1987:7; Wilson 19S7). I think
that these omiseions were largely inadvertent,
but they also reflect theoretical positions which
de-emphasize the importance of early warfare.
One position emphasizes the role of ideology in
the Late Preceramic leading to the formation
of theocratic states (S. Pozorski f9S7:15). The
second, more implicit, theoretical stance links
economic power to agriculture (Haas 19E7b:33),
especially maize agriculture (S. Pozorski 19E7;
Wilson 1981, 1987:69). While the first position
leads directly to the view that warfare is impor-
tant mainly to the later stages of state develop-
215
ment (H."" 19E?b:34; S.Pororski L9E7:27), the
sccond position links warfare to population pres-
Eure on irrigated land (Haas t9E7b:35; Wilson
19E7:69).
My purpose here is not to debate these pa^r-
ticular poaitionr. Rather, I would like to ex-
plore a different eet of premises which lead to
the conclusionc that we should not be surprircd
by early warfa,re on a rather intensive level, that
we ghould not underestimate its importance in
the development of social complexity, and that
we should look harder for material evidence of
early conflict.
WAN^TARE AIYD TEE
DEYELOPMENT OT SOCIAL
COMPLEXITY
Archaeologists usually examine the relation-
ship betweeen warfare and tbe development of
social complexity in the context of the origin of
the gtate. When they do this, they very fre
quently cite Carneiro's (1970) "A Theory of the
Origin of the State" and the concept of environ-
mental circumscription outlined go well in that
article. The focuE on state origins, one arti-
cle, and one concept eeverely restrict the appli-
cability of Carneiro's work to the more general
problem of developing social complexity. It is
appropriate to briefly review a wider range of
Carneiro's work not only because of his empha-
eis on warfare but also because it is based in large
part on South American data.
Carneiro is not interested solely in the origin of
the state, but rather the whole problem of devel-
oping social complexity. Indeed, he is concerned
mainly with why people gave up village auton-
omy (tsZo, 197E,1981), a change which took
place long before the state originated, and with
the constant acceleration in the rate of change
since that event took place (19E7).
216
The major tenets of his position were outlined
in a paper (teOt) which can be viewed as a pre-
cursor to the Boserupian (Boserup 1965) view of
population pressure. Like Boserup (19E1) and
Cohen (1977), Carneiro emphasizeschange over
long tirne periods. Hence, the themes of war-
fare, population pressure, and competition over
resourcesnot only repeatedly occur in his work,
but are s€en as cyclical stresseswhich repeatedly
occurred in the past. This point is important
since archaeologistsinterested in the origin of the
state tend to test Carneilo's theory within the
limited time frame immediately preceding state
formation, thus transforming his views on war-
fare from a process to a precipitious event. Pof
ulation pressure leads to competition between
groups which takes the form of warfare (or threat
of warfare) resulting in larger, stronger, more
highly organized units (Carneiro 1978:207-20E;
19Ef:64). In this view warfare is only a mecha-
nism in a more general process which he consid-
ers equivalent to the biological principle of com-
petitive exclusion (Carneiro 1978:20E-210)"It is
crucial to noie here that it is not warfare pe? se
which is adaptive, but the larger, stronger, and
more highly organized political unit.
Carneiro (fOZS:Zel) notes that warfare alone
will not lead to larger units; certain condi-
tions are required" In summarizing his ideas,
Carneiro himself emphasizes competition over
environmentally circumscribed agricultural land
(Carneiro l9E7:2O7,1EE1:64). Indeed, his earli-
est example (1961) emphasizedenvironmentally
circumscribed land and, again, this example has
tended to limit the archaeological tests of his
theory. However, he also recognizes two other
conditions, social circumscription and resource
concentration (Carneiro 1970).
Social circumscription, a concept introduced
by Cbagnon (196E) to account for settlement
patterns he observed among the Yanomamo, oc-
curs in areas characterized by an homogenous
distribution of resources where frequent warfare
favourslarger village sizesin the areasof most in-
tensive fighting. In unbounded spaces,the area
of most intensive fighting will be between vil-
lages in the centre of the populated area, since
villageson the periphery of a populated area can
move further away from each other to reduce the
intensity of warfare.
Resourceconcentration, however, is of most
concern to us here. The idea that competi-
tion over concentrated resources could result in
the loasof village autonomy was frrst applied to
Cultures ln Conflict: Archaeological Perspectives
two South American cilses, the area along the
Amazon river and the coast of Peru (Carneiro
1970:736-737). In the Amazon case concen-
trated resources, in the form of better agricul-
tural land and rich riverine protein resources,oc-
cur only along certain sections of the Amazon it-
self and some of its tributaries. Away from these
particular rivers, land was much less productive
and protein sources were much more dispersed.
The vast difference in levels of productivity pro-
vided an incentive for groups to war for the best
lands.
A recent discussion of buffer zones on the
Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Ama-
zon, may provide an illustration of both social
circumscription and resource concentration at
work (DeBoer l9S1).. In this case,the compet-
ing groups were not isolated villages but multi-
village ethnic polities engaged in fierce, long-
term warfare for territory along the river. The
size of the groups and their quest for larger river-
ine territories primarily reflects the concentra-
tion of resourcesalong the river. The distinctive
settlement pattern, however, in which the largest
villages of each ethnic group faced each other
across a long uninhabited buffer zone, may sec-
ondarily reflect social circumscription acting on
a level of socio-political .complexity much more
developed than that of the Yanomamo. Simi-
larly, on the coast of Peru first resource concen-
tration and later environmental circumscription
form the contexts in which Carneiro (1970: note
26) saw warfare leading to social complexity.
The Peruvian case is especially important to
us, since it is directly related to the Ostra site.
Carneiro's (teZO) discussion of this case was
prompted by Lanning's (1967) interpretation of
Late Preceramic (circa 4500-3700 B.P.) devel-
opment along the coast of Peru. Lanning basi-
cally argued that relatively complex social for-
mations had developed by the end of the Pre-
ceramic which were largely based on the hunt,-
ing and collecting of marine resources,with lit-
tle reliance on agriculture. This int.erpretation
was later elaboratedby Moseley (1975).and this
elaboration led Carneiro (19E1)to accept the ar-
cha.eologicaldata as evidence for chiefdoms. At
the time howeverthere was no evidencethat war-
fare preceded this development (Carneiro 19E1:
note 39).
THE SITE
The site to be examined here has been vari-
ously referred to as Salinas de Santa (Topic and
 The Ostra Site/Jo,hn R. Topic 2L7

Topic l9E7), Pampa las Salinas (Sandweiss et (see Figures 3-5). Most of the piles are separated
ol. 19E3), Ostra, Ostra Extraction Camp, and by 2-to-3m. This spacinr is consistent with the
Ostra Collection Station (Rollins ct ol. 19E6; use of Andean slings which require that slingers
Sandweiss 1986). I will refer to it here simply as be sepa,ratedby the diameter of the slinging arc
the Ostra site. to avoid injuring one another. We have observed
The site is located on the edge of an ancient this same spacing of slingstone piles on parapet-
gea cliff 6-10m high which once enclosed a bay ted walls at much larger sites. In 1983 we dis-
(Sandweiss et al. 19E3). It has been inter- mantled two of the slingstone piles, one in the
preted (Rollins et al. 1986:5-6; Sandweiss ct northern line and one along the ridge (see Figure
ol. l9E3:280) as the largest of a series of ex- 6). The stones from one pile were counted, mea-
I tractive sites located along the fossil bay, with a sured and weighed, while the stonesin the other
! base camp located near the south end of the bay pile were only counted and measured. The ap
(Figure 1). I accept this interpretation, which pendix summarizesthe slingstonemeasurements
implies that Ostra was not an autonomous vil- and compares the stones from Ostra to stones
lage but rather a satellite village within a larger from a later fortified site.
social and set,tlementsystem.
The fossil bay has undergone three docu-
mented episodes of tectonic uplift; the first of
these occurred at about 5000 B.P. (Sandweiss
19E6:19)and seemsto have resulted in the aban-
donment of the site (Sandweisset ol.19E3:2841.
The significanceof the 5000 B.P. date has been
emphasizedby Richardson (19E1)who feels that
this date marks that stabilization of coastlinesin
the area near modern levels. Before 5000 B.P.
rising sea levels moved the coastline progres-
sively eastward, obliterating earlier littoral sites.
Since 5000 B.P. tectonic uplift has raised land
levels, resulting in the preservation of littoral
sites. Thus Ostra is an example of one of the
earliest preserved littoral sites fom this area of
Peru.
Dates for this site come from a small testpit
in the area of dense midden near the base of the
ridge (Figure 2). Sandweissct o/.(1963:280)re-
port that their testpit revealed 60-70cm of un-
stratified shell debris, together with some fish
remains and charcoal. Two uncorrected radio-
carbon dates on shell have been published, 5400
+ 60 B.P. and 5160 + 60, from the bottom and
middle of the deposit respectively (Rollins et oi.
19E6:7).
Our work at the site focused on the possible
evidencefor defensivepreparednessand involved
two brief visits in 1980 and 19E2 to assessthe
site, and a one day field st,udy in 1983. The field
study consistedof mapping the 53 piles of pos-
sible slingstonesusing a Brunton compass and
tape measure,and visually sketching in the ex-
tent and density of the midden and topographic
features such as the ridge and ancient beach line.
The piles of possible slingstones are arranged
in two lines, each running more-or-lessat right
anglesto the beachline and about 100m in length
218 Cultures In Conflict: Archaeological Perspectives

Itl @\.
pstta
I r\o Andean
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g)

rD
r)..
'"e-
F o o th i l l s
4.
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\x \
\=

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or.J
Camp

P a ci f i c
Ocean

H
KM s#

Figure l: The location of the Ostra site, Ostra Base Camp, ancient beach line and modern beach
line (redrawn from Sandweiss 19E6: Figure 2).
 The Ostra Site/Jofin R. Topic 219

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Figure 2: The Ostra site, showing the ancient beach line, midden scatter' and slingstonepiles.
220 Cultures In Conflict: ArchaeologicalPerspectives

*.r.i$,r{
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ir:i:rl::::.::.rl:ji::$ii'

F igur e 3 : Sl i n g s to n epiles along the crest of the ridge. The piles are slightly eroded, and some of
stoneshave rolled off the t,opsof the piles and dou'n the slope of the ridge. Note also the evidence
of erosion on the lorr' b l u ffs i n th e b a ckground. .

F i g u r e1 : A p i l e o f s i i n g s t o n eisn t I e l o r t h l i n e . T h e s t o n e s a r e a c t u a l l l ' l a l ' e r e d .t h r e e - t o - f c ' u rs t o n e s

d e e p .b u t r h e l o u ' e rs t o l l e sl t a v eb e e n c o v e r e d b 1 ' u ' i n d b l o u ' t t s a t r d .
T.heO-.tra Site/John R. Topic
Figure 5: Three piles of slingstonesin the north line. The piles in this line are more buried b1
sand than those on the ridge crest. Behind the person, the land surfaceslopesdon'n into a shallou'
depressionto eroded low bluffs in the background.
The stones are derived fronr deposits washed
out of the nrouth of the Santa River. These de-
p o s i t s a r e f o u n d t o d a f i n a s e r i e so f b e a c h r i d g e s
which postdate the abandonrnent of the Ostra
site. as well as around the Ostra Base Camp.
where thev were used in a crude lithic indus-
t r y ( S a n d w e i s s1 9 8 6 : S a n d w e i s se t a l . 1 9 8 3 : 1 8 4 ) .
While the beach ridge sources would have been
unavailable to the Ostra site inhabitants, the de-
posit around the contemporaneous Ostra Base
Camp would have been. Significantly, all these
deposits are less *'ell sorted for size than are the
sronesin the piles (see Rollins et al. 19E6: Fig-
u r e s 9 . 1 0 ) . T h e f a c t t h a t t h e s t o r r e si n t h e p i l e s
are nruch better sorted thatr those in the natu-
r a l d e p c ' s i ri n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e v u , e r e c o n s c i o u s l l '
s e l e c t e df o r s i z e .
\\'hile ne have beetr cautious in interpl'eting
a r c h a e o l o g i c a lr e n i a i t r s a s d e f e n s i v e ( T o p i c a n d
Topic 1987). I believe that the piles of stones
a t t h e O s t r a s i t e a r e e v i d e r r c eo f p r e p a r a t i o l r f o r
r,r'arfare. Hor,r'ever. in cor)versations colleagues
h a v e e x p r e s s e dd o u b t s a b o u t b o t h t h e f u n c t i o n a l
identifica.tion of the stones as slingstones and
t h e i r a s s o c i a t i o n r ' r ' i t ht h e P r e c e r a m i c o c c u p a t i o l r
of the site.
22t
The only alternative functional explanation
t h a t h a s b e e n s u g g e s t . e di s t h a t t h e s t o n e p i l e s
served to mark the edge of a later road. I do not
b e l i e v e t h a t t h i s i s a v i a b l e a l t , e r n a t i v ef o r s e v e r a l
reasons. First, road markers need not cotrsist
o f s i z e - s e l e c t e ds t o n e s . A l s o , t h e r o a d w o u l d b e
of unprecedented u'idth (190m) and one edge of
the road would be located improbabll' along the
spine of a rather steep ridge which forms the only
major topographic barrier to travel in the area.
Finalll', in order to test the road hlpothesis we
surveyed both far inland from the old beach as
w e l l a s o u t i n t o t h e f o s s i lb a v t c , f i n d t h e c o n t i n u -
a t i o n o f t h e " n r a r k e r s " : n o r l e u ' e r ef o u n d i n e i t h e r
direction. The reader nlav corrsultBeck (1979)
a n d H v s l o p ( 1 9 8 a ) f o r c o n r p a r i s o u st o k t t , : , u ' t.r4 , I r -
dean roads.
T h e a s s o c i a t i o no f t h e s t . o l e p i l r s * ' i t h t h t P r e -
c e r a n r i c o c c u p a t i o n i s b a s e d c , r rs u r f a c r o b s e r v a -
t i o n . F i r s t . t h e t u ' o l i n e s o f s t o r r e sc . . r i r r c i drea t h e r
well with the linrits of tlre nridden. suggesting
tlrat thel'' border the site on the south and the
n o r t h . T h e s o u t h e r n l i n e f o l l o u ' st h e s p i n e o f t h e
ridge. which u'ould be the best defensive posi-
tion. However. the association *'ould be nrore
secure if there were a north-south line of stone
 \
222 Cultures In Conflict: Archaeological Perspectives

piles enclosingthe site on the inland side. Survey tier situation and the likely attackers were their
in this areaindicated that erosion might have de- counterparts from the Chao community, located
stroyed the stone piles, but the total absenceof a dozen or more kilometres to the north.
even isolated stones on this side is puzzling. On In order for the preparations to be at all effec-
the other hand, the preserved piles are almost tive, we have to assume that the defenders ex-
coveredby windblown sand, suggesting a signifi- pected only a small body of attackers. The loca-
cant age. Also, while late occupation does occur tion of t,heslingstonesalong the perimeter of the
in the Pampa las Salinas, there is no good as- site implies that the purpose was to defend the
sociation between this late occupation and the site itseU and not just the occupants,who could
stone piles at the Ostra site. There are only have taken up a stronger refuge on the ridge.
a few sherds in the inmediate vicinity of the In order to defend the site. the defenderswould
Ostra site, and these are late. Most are large have had to rush from point to point along the
sherdsof Middle Horizon or Late Intermediate perimeter since there were insufficient defenders
Period vessels,implying that occasionalvisitors to man the entire perimeter. The type of fight-
dropped the odd pot. The sherds are not cov- ing implied is a long distance exchange of pro-
ered by windblown sand and occur on the eroded jectiles rather than close hand-to-hand fighting.
surfacealong the inland border of the site. All The defenders had the advantage of ample am-
this suggestsa minimal Ceramic Period use of munition; the attackers would have relied on re-
the area and a much greater age for the stone trieving and returning projectiles thrown by the
piles. defenders. All-in-all, the picture is one of a Iot of
If the association of the stones with the Pre- bluffing, name-calling, provocation, and rushing
ceramic occupation and their identification a-s about on both sides, resulting in few casualties.
slingstonesis accepted, the amount of time in- Still, the participants took it seriously;capitula-
volved in preparing for defense can be approx- tion by either side would lead to the diminution
imated. The closest source of stones at the of the collecting territory of the entire commu-
time of occupation was probably the Ostra Base nity.
Camp, about 7 km away along the beach line. How does this picture of relatively unsophis-
This would be almost a 3 hour return trip and ticated warfare relate to increasing social com-
probably no more than 50 stones could be car- plexity? Most importantly, there is evidence of
ried per trip. The 53 preserved piles contain at lessenedvillage autonomy. I am not sure how
least 5300 stones, but if some piles have already previous researchers(i... Rollins et al" 1986;
been eroded away the original number must have Sandweisset al. 19E3)arrived at the conclusion
been twice as great. These assumptions suggest that Ostra was a satellite of the base camp at
something on the order of 300-600 person-hours the south end of the bay, but it is clear to me
of preparation. We do not know the size of that Ostra, as a defensive outpost, only makes
the population at the Ostra site, but if we es- senseas part of a larger settlement system. Ini-
timate 50 people, every man, woman and child tially I was puzzled by the fact that Ostra was
would have had to put in 1-2 long days to pre- the only ufortifiedn camp along the bay since I
pare for defense. This is not a great amount of assumed,following Moseley (ISZS:Sf), that the
time, but it does indicate that warfare was sig- Ostra inhabitants would have been fighting with
nificant enough to justify a moderate outlay of the inhabitants of the other extraction camps
co-operativelabour. over relatively small collecting areas. The cru-
The result of this labour would have been more cial piece of evidencein the int,erpretationthat
piles of slingstonesthan defendersto nran each Ostra was not only an autononrousvillage u'as
one. It would seenl that the preparations were the locatiorr of the source of slingst,ones at the
nradebecauseof the threats of raids late in the base camp. Ostra, then, must be viewed as a
oc c upat ionof th e s i te (n o te th a t th e re i s no ev- specializedfrontier sett,lementlike those on the
idence,in terms of thrown slingstones,of an ac- Ucayali River discussedabove. As a frontier set-
tual battle). The threat probably came from the tlement, Ostra might have been able to draw on
north rather than from the south, sincethe Ostra the manpo\ilerof other settlementsalongthe bay
site inhabitants were part of a larger community and the scenariojust presentedabove must be
which included at least the Ostra base camp and modified to reflect this situation. The modified
other extraction camps along the beach. The scenario might include a larger number of peo-
Ostra inhabitants then were probably in a fron- ple co-operating to carry stones and a means to
The Ostra Site/Jo.hn R. Topic 223

rapidly re-inforce Ostra if it were attacked. The sites, now only 15 km from the ocean, which
picture then is not quite as unsophisticated as it might have been as much as 100 km from the
first appeared. ocean at that time (Richardsonl9E1:147). Also,
the large triangular stemmed points typical of
THE OSTRA SITE AND TIIE the culture have been shown to be too brittle to
PERUVIAN PRECERAMIC pierce horsehide (Chaucat personal communica-
personal communication) and may
In order for the evidenceof defenseprepared- ' tion; Uceda
ness at the Ostra site to make sensein terms of have functioned as 6sh sp€ars. It is important to
emphasize that the Paijan campsites excavated
Peruvian Preceramic culture history, it must be
were definitely an inland focus of the culture,
denronstrated that resource concentration was
and yet maritime resources were present; camp-
indeedoperativeand that the position of the Os-
tra site within the local sequenceis such that sites which were then closer to the coast are now
warfare is expectable. destroyed by rising sea levels, but might be ex-
pect,ed to have had a more pronounced maritime
Both questions relate directly to Moseley's
(1975) interpretation that concentrated mar- orientation.
itime resourcesled to the development of com- Another important early (7800-5000 B.P.)
plex societiesof at least the chiefdom level dur- site which has been studied recently is La
ing the late Preceramic.This interpretation has Paloma (Benfer l9E6; Quilter and Stocker 1983).
come to be known as the "Maritime Hypothe- The site is located in a zone of fog-supportedveg-
etation (lomasl and seemsto have been a satel-
sisn. The maritime hypothesis has been crit-
lite of a community centred in the Chilca Que-
icized (Osborne t977; Raymond l9E1; Wilson
brada (C.F. Weir and Dering 19EO).The main
19E1), the basic thrust of all criticisms being
that marine resourcesalone could not support purpose of the site was probably to exploit the
the level of complexity which Moseley saw. All lomas vegetation, but the extremely low stron-
these criticisms, as well as Moseley'soriginal for- tium levels in the human bone suggestsa heavy
reliance on marine protein sources. Today the
mulation, however, ignored anchovies as a re-
sile is located 4.5 km from the ocean (Weir and
source (Moseley 1978). Subsequentinvestiga-
tions have shown that, especially in the Late Dering 19E6:20) but it might easily have been
Preceramic, anchovies were probably the main twice that distance from the oceanduring its oc-
maritime resource(Benfer 19E6;Feldman 19E3; cupation (Engel 1976:99). Interestingly there is
evidence for female infanticide at the site (Ben-
Quilter and Stocker 19E3) and that anchovies,
as well as other maritime resources,could easily fer 1986:56-57), though this is based on a small
have supported densepopulations. sample, and most significantly the dat,a suggest
This Late Preceramic emphasis on anchovies, that the practice begins about 6000 8.P.. Benfer
however, post-dates the Ostra site by approx- (19E6:55)interprets the practice as an attempt
imately 500 years, and it is necessary to see to control population growth. This would indi-
how the Ostra site fits into this changing em- cate pressure on resourcesand there are other in-
phasis. Lanning (1SOZ;saw the shift to mar- dications from the site of lomas degradation due
itime resourcesas a rather sudden phenomenon to over-exploitation (Weir and Dering 19E6). I
which then rapidly resulted in great cultural de- suggestthat this population pressure/femalein-
velopment. Moseley(1975)recognizedthat mar- fanticide combination may also reflect increasing
warfare: it has been shownthat endemicwarfare,
itime resourceshad been exploited earlier but
emphasizedthe Late Preceramiccultural devel- female infanticide, and pressureon key resources
opnr ent s . are closelylinked in the Amazon basin and else-
Now, however. that we know that maritime w here (D i val e and H arri s 1976;S i ski nd 1973).
resourceswere important by at least 8000 B.P. The Paijan and Paloma sites provide the out-
The work of Chaucat and his colleagues is line of a sequenceleading up to the Ostra site.
especially important in this regard (Chaucat They show heavy reliance on marine resources
1978a,1978b,p e rs o n a cl o mmu n i c a ti o n R: i c h ard- and the Paloma site shows increasing pressure
s on 19E 1;Uc e d a p e rs o n a lc o mmu n i c a ti o n ) . H e on subsidiary resources. At the Paloma site ,
has excavated middens of the Paijan culture, these pressures and the evidence of female in-
which has, in the past, been characterizedas ori- fanticide suggest the presenceof warfare. But
these sit,es were not directly associatedwith the
ented to big game hunting. Most significant is
littoral, the primary resource zone. The Ostra
that marine fish were found in the midden at
 \
224 Cultures In Conflict: Archaeological Perspectives

site, located on the littoral and on the frontier til the possibility and significanceof early war-
of its basecommunity, might be expected to take fare is admitted, we will continue to misread or
much more of the brunt of any increase in war- ignore the field evidencefor it. The significance
fare. Moreover, it could be expected that if there of the Ostra site was only recognizedbecausea
were increasing warfare due to population pres- student, who had worked with us at severalfor-
sure aod subsequent degradation of subsidiary tified sites with similar singstones,happened to
resources, the first response would be to inten- visit it.
sify exploitation of the primary resourcezone fol-
lowed by attempts to substitute other subsidiary C ON C LU S ION
resourcesfor those undergoing degradation.
This, in fact, happens. Lomas camps axe The Ostra site provides a unique window
abandoned, anchovy exploitation intensified, through which to view Preceramic development.
and cultivated plants substituted for lomas Before Ostra there are no littoral sites preserved.
plants (Quilter and Stocker 19E3:546-549).In- Soon after Ostra very significant changes such
tensification of the anchovy harvest required a*s the introduction of cotton netting and an in-
nets. By at least 4500 B.P. (Stephensand Mose- creasing reliance on plant agriculture were un-
Iey 1973) an effort to improve native cotton has derway. These changes, by increasing the re-
begunand much of that cotton goesinto netting sources harvested, reduced population pressure
and allowed population increase, leading to the
and cordagewhich allowed an increasedexploita-
tion of the littoral. Following the classic inter- development of chiefdoms.
pretation (Moseley 1975), the resulting increase Within this context, I doubt that the evidence
in hanested resources allowed further popula- for defensivepreparednessat Ostra under.condi-
tion growth, larger communities, increasedeco- tios of resource concentration and lessenedvil-
nomic power from the opening up of agricultural lage autonomy is coincidental. Instead, there is
fields (at first mainly for industrial crops but in- a strong implication that warfare played a role
creasinglyalso for subsidiary food crops) and the in the very beginningsof social complexity and,
developmentof complex societies. " ITror€oV€r, that significant development toward
Is warfare absent in these subsequent devel- social complexity took place in a pre-agricultural
opments? There are suggestions that it is not setting.
absent, but it may be less intensive. At Asia, AcknowledgementsThe fieldworkwassupported
headlessbodies and bodiless heads were found by the Social Sciencesand Humanities Research
in burialsprompting Engel (fSO3:ZS-E0) to have Council of Canadaand authorizedby the Instituto
doubts "about a completely pacific way of life Nacional de Cultura of Peru. I am particularlygrate-
among the preceramic settlers" and suggesting ful to Mark Borland (Ttent) who first drew my atten-
uthat the defense of vital shell colonies led to tion to the slingstonesin 1980. Alfredo Melly (Tru-
jillo), CoreenChiswell,Judy Maclntyre,Kaja Narve-
6ercefighting'. Similarly at Huaca Prieta, large
walls were built around the site. These walls son, and Sue Wurtzburg (all affiliatedwith Tlent at
can be considered simply retaining walls (Bird the time) helpedwith the field work. TheresaTopic
personal communicaation), but retaining walls co'directedthe field study, providedadviceon this
are rare around preceramic midden accumula- manuscriptand preparedthe appendix.JeffreyQuil-
tions and the possibility exists that they were, ter provided encouragingcommentsand references
in reality, fortifications" More generally,one can during and after the ChacmoolConference.
point to the presenceof slings, lances,and spear
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APPENDD(
Two piles of slingstones at Ostra were ex-
cavated, and three measurements were taken
of each stone, roughly corresponding to length,
width, and thichness. Generally the stones were
well 'roundedn, but resembled flattened ellip
soids far more than spheres. Means and stan-
dard deviations were calculated on each dimen-
sion for each of the two piles, as well as the co-
efficient of variantion (CV : ). Pile 1 showed
fairly consistent variability from mean measure-
ments, while Pile 2 had greater variability in the
smallest dimension (thickness).
To better ixrsessthese figures, they were com-
pa,red to a similar set of measurements of river-
rolled cobbles from the Moche V site of Galindo
in the Moche Valley, Peru. Two concentrations
of slingstones found stockpiled behind parapets
of defensive walls at the site were measured in
the same way as the Ostra stones. As well,
a sample of similarly-sized from the river bed
nearby was also measured. An area with cobble-
sized stones (as opposed to gravel or boulders)
was selected, and all stones in a 50 x 50 cm area
with one dimension greater than 40 cm were
The Ostra Site/Jo.hn R. Topic 227

measured. Mean, standard deviation, and co-

efficient of va^riationwere all calculated for these
three lots of stones.
The figures ilre presented in Table 1. It is clear
that at both Galindo and Ostra a certain amount
of sorting was involved in the selection of stones
and that only a part of the available range of
stone sizeswas selected.
A second test sought to determine whether
particular shapes might have been selected for.
An index of sphericity was devised, ((D1-D2)
+ (D2-D3l) lDz, which measured the degree to
which each stone varied from sphericity by sum-
ming the differences among the measurements
of the three dimensions, then dividing by the
middle dimension (to control for size); a perfect
sphere would have an index of 0, whatever its
size. The mean index of sphericity for each pile
was calculated, and maximum and minimum in-
dices were noted. These figures showed the Os-
tra stones to more closely approximate sphericity
than any of the Galindo samples, while the two
samples from Galindo walls were more spherical
than the unselectedstones from the riverbed.
These figures would be more persuasive, of
course, had we measured unselectedstonesfrom
Ostra. Even without the data, the clustering
in size and sphericity in the two pilbs at Ostra
strongly suggeststhat the stones were intended
to serweas slingstones and not as road markers.

Table 1: Slingstone measurements,Ostra and Galindo.

SITE CASES MEAN S Cv MI of SPHER'TY MAX MIN
vl I 5.J\
Pilc I 9{ .5{ t.l2 lt
Leugtb 69.OO 12.61 1E.57
width 51.9E 7.94 r5.2E
Heirht {0.G7 7 -2E 17.90
rue z 135 .67 1.75 .(,0
Lerrgth 56.{3 1o.50 rE.GI
Width {3.01 7.99 rE.58
Height 2?.50 7.66 27.85
(.;ALIND()
Wall A 9E .6E 1.68 lo
Lerrgth 60.51 I 1.96 t9.77
width {3.95 7.2L 16.41
Heiglrt 31.32 6.Er 2 t . 74
v\ alt u l0{ 1.98 .lz
Leugth 74.52 t7.37 23.3r
Widtll 51.89 1 o . 47 2 0 . 1E
Heislrt 35.t I 9.Oa 23.24
AFNOYO 57 .9U {.06 .2t
Lerrglh 6 9 .l 6 r9.33 27.95
Widtlr {5.75 r5.05 32.90
Heiglrt 30.93 9.9,1 32.t4
 C]JLre N CONFLICT:
current archaeological perspectives
Edited by
Diana Claire Thaczuk

BriarT.tivian
Proceedings
of the TwentiethAnnuolConference

fucHAcMooL @ 1e8e
THEARCHAEOLOGICAL
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