Piki Mach'ay

Piki Mach'ay location in Peru
Location	Peru
Region	Ayacucho Region
Coordinates	13°02′27″S74°13′27″W / 13.04083°S 74.22417°W /-13.04083; -74.22417

Piki Mach'ay (Quechuapikiflea,mach'ay cave,^[1][2] "flea cave", also spelledPikimachay, Piquimachay, wheremachay means "drunkenness", "to get drunk" or "a spindle packed with thread")^[1][2] is anarchaeological site in the Ayacucho Valley ofPeru.Radiocarbon dating from this cave indicates a human presence ranging from 22,200 to 14,700 years ago,^[3] but this evidence has been disputed and a more conservative date of 12,000 yearsBCE seems possible.^[4]

Richard S. MacNeish was the first archaeologist to explore Piki Mach'ay.^[5] Evidence of long-term human occupation has been found at the site, though that evidence still remains controversial.

The cave is part of the Ayacucho complex, a culture defined by several cave sites including Jaya Mach'ay ("pepper cave").^[6]

Artifacts discovered in the site include unifacial chipped tools, such as basalt and chert tools, choppers, and projectile points, and bone artifacts of horses, camelids (Camelidae), giant sloths (Megatherium) dating from 15,000 to 11,000 years BCE.^[6][7][8]

Piki Mach'ay yielded some of the oldest plant remains in Peru, including an 11,000-year-oldbottle gourd.^[5] Strata from later periods at the site revealed fishtail point arrows, manos, andmetates. Plant remains indicate that, before 3,000 years BCE,amaranth, cotton, gourds,lúcuma,quinoa, and squash were cultivated in the Ayacucho Basin before 3,000 years BCE. By 4,000 years BCE corn (Zea mays) and common beans were grown.^[6] Chili remains date from 5,500 to 4,300 years BCE. The large amounts ofguinea pig bones suggest possible domestication, andllamas may have been domesticated by 4,300 to 2,800 years BCE.^[5]

• Toquepala
• Chivateros

• Chapman, Jefferson.Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History. Knoxville: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1994.ISBN 0-87049-871-1.

• Archaeological sites in Peru
• Indigenous culture of the Andes
• Paleo-Indian period
• Caves of Peru
• Archaeological sites in the Department of Ayacucho
• Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from June 2021
• Coordinates on Wikidata