Late Archaic-Early Formative period microbotanical evidence for potato at Jiskairumoko in the Titicaca Basin of southern Peru

The potato is perhaps the most important of the high Andean crops. Cultivated the length of the Andean cordillera and across disparate ecological zones, it is now also a principal global staple. For this study, we analyzed starch microremains recovered from 14 groundstone tools from Late Archaic to Early Formative period contexts at Jiskairumoko, an early village site in the Titicaca Basin of the south-central Andes of Peru. A total of 50 starches were identified as consistent with cultivated potato. These data are significant because they contribute to the empirical foundation for understanding the development of food production in the study area and underscore the utility of starch analysis in addressing questions relating to geophyte domestication and cultivation.