Fishing in Peru between 10000 and 3750 BP

Pacific coast, until recent work provided data from eight sites in Peru and Ecuador. These sites span the early to mid-Holocene period, during which t ime modern climatic conditions became established. Vertebrate faunal data f rom these sites provide an opportunity to explore the influence of mid-Holo cene environmental changes on fishing in Peru during this time. With two ex ceptions, most faunal collections are dominated by marine animals, with vir tually no terrestrial vertebrates. Many of the marine organisms are catholi c species, tolerant of a wide variety of water conditions, rather than ones which clearly prefer warm-tropical or warm-temperate ones. Warm-tropical s pecies are more common in the northern assemblages, as would be expected. T here is a temporal pattern as well. Within three subdivisions of this area, warm-tropical animals diminish in abundance, and warm-temperate animals in crease. These differences probably reflect cultural responses to mid-Holoce ne environmental change, in which coastal waters from southern Peru into Ec uador became cooler. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.