NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 
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We feel that this scheme, largely derived from Bennett (Bennett 
and Bird, 1949), expresses the Central Andean situation better than 
the Mesoamerican stages of Archaic, Formative, Classic and Post- 
Classic, but it must be emphasized that we regard it as hypothetical 
and subject to revision on the basis of new evidence (fig. 12) . 
Preagriculture (ca. 9000 to ca. 4000 B.C.). — Early hunters and 
gatherers evidently occupied both coastal and highland zones of the 
Central Andes, but the evidence is still sparse. The carbon-14 date 
of 7566 B.C. from Lauricocha (Cardich, 1960), a cave site in the 
north highlands (fig. 11) is the only one so far obtained. It is asso- 
ciated with a small assemblage of fairly crude flaked tools and pro- 
jectile points. Lanning and Hammel (1961) present an excellent sum- 
mary of the rather sparse additional remains of this stage. They 
include points and scrapers of nonflinty stone from Viscachani and 
some other sites in highland Bolivia and southern Peru ; the smaller, 
flint points from the central highlands ; the few surface specimens of 
long points from the Pampa de los Fosiles on the north coast; and 
some material from the south coast. All these are presumably of quite 
early date. Viscachani specimens are typologically close to those 
from Ayampitin, in Argentina (fig. 13), where dates clustering 
around 6000 B.C. have been obtained. We therefore seem to have 
enough evidence to postulate an early hunting and gathering occupa- 
tion, but it lacks internal sequence and needs a great deal of further 
investigation. There appears to be a long interval, perhaps on the order 
of 2,000 years, between these early lithic remains and the preceramic 
horticultural sites on the coast and the as yet unknown early agricul- 
tural sites in the highlands that presumably precede the earliest known 
highland sites having both pottery and agriculture. 
Horticultural Villages {ca. 4000 B.C. to 800 B.C.). — Since 1946, 
when Junius Bird first discovered the preceramic horticultural village 
of Huaca Prieta at the mouth of the Chicama River (Bird, 1948), a 
large number of sites with no pottery but with evidence of cultivation 
of a variety of plants other than maize have been located (Engel, 
1957a, b, c; 1958). Basketry, matting, netting, and twined fabrics of 
cotton are typical of this stage, but stone technology varies from the 
very simple flaked pebbles of Huaca Prieta to inventories including 
well-made projectile points and throwing sticks from the south coast. 
Although the material culture of the people of Huaca Prieta was 
extremely simple, the beginnings of art in typically Peruvian style have 
been recorded from the site (Bird, 1962, figs. 4-8). Designs of birds, 
including the condor, and serpents were woven into twined fabrics by 
floating warps. Gourds were decorated by neatly carved faces that 
