Faunal use during the Archaic period based on macro remains from Cruz Verde, North Coast of Peru.

The Cruz Verde site, located on the north coast of Peru, has a preceramic mound formed between 4.200-3.800 BC. This paper presents the results of a zooarchaeological analysis of the macro remains excavated from this mound to identify changes in faunal use and its characteristics of the Archaic period. There is a distinct difference in the two phases, from the phase CV-Ia, when marine mammals, seabirds, and fish are used equally, to the phase CV-Ib, when cartilaginous fish, mainly Carcharhinus sharks, are used intensively. The ecological and biological habits of the fish species that increase during phase CV-Ib suggest that the intensive resource exploitation in the estuarine brackish waters began. Referring to the data reported from other sites on the North Coast, the cartilaginous fish use tradition is a characteristic of the North Coast of Peru at least from Archaic to Formative period. On the other hand, the excavated cartilaginous fish taxonomy shows that there are differences in the fish species used in the Archaic and Formative periods. It can be pointed out that there are variations in the cartilaginous fish use tradition on the North Coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]