Updated Peru archaeological radiocarbon database, 20,000–7000 14C BP

In 2013 archaeological radiocarbon databases covering 13,000–7000 ¹⁴C BP for nine countries in South America, including Peru, were published in a special issue of Quaternary International. The past decade has seen new field research and radiocarbon ages contributed to the Peruvian archaeological record, two updates to the southern hemisphere calibration curve, and research papers drawing from South American radiocarbon databases to explore region- and continent-scale patterns of human-environment interaction, settlement dynamics, and paleodemography.

This paper provides an update to the Peruvian archaeological radiocarbon database for the Late Pleistocene to early Middle Holocene. The new database (version 2) includes 493 radiocarbon dates spanning 20,000 to 7000 ¹⁴C BP. No radiocarbon dates >13,000 ¹⁴C BP meet basic archaeological criteria. First, I review the structure of Peru's early archaeological radiocarbon record and highlight several research and landscape taphonomic biases. Second, I examine distributions of archaeological sites through time, beginning with basic site and date frequencies and progressing to Bayesian analysis of aggregated radiocarbon dates. Third, applying established criteria for well-dated archaeological events, I identify some unresolved problems in early Peruvian radiocarbon chronologies, with the goal of outlining priorities for future archaeological and chronometric research.