Precolumbian Transregional Captive Rearing of Amazonian Parrots in the Atacama Desert

The feathers of tropical birds were one of the most significant symbols of economic, social, and political status in the pre-Columbian Americas. In the Andes, finely produced clothing and textiles containing multicolored feathers of tropical parrots materialized power, prestige, distinction, and were particularly appreciated by political and religious elites. Here, we report 27 complete or partial remains of macaws and amazon parrots from five archaeological sites in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to improve our understanding of their taxonomic identity, chronology, cultural context, and mechanisms of acquisition. We conducted a mutiproxy archaeometric study that included zooarchaeological analysis, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic dietary reconstruction, AMS radiocarbon dating, and paleogenomic analysis. The results reveal that during the Late Intermediate Period (1150-1450 CE) people in this region acquired Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) and at least five additional tropical parr...