Pre-Hispanic gastronomy in Peru is the result of the legacy left by the ancient civilizations that
inhabited the region. Each culture offered different foods, culinary techniques and recipes, some
of which have remained intact because they have endured over time and others have changed slightly
due to the influences they have received from other cultures; all of them are now part of Peruvian
culinary traditions.
Here we will tell you a little about the foods consumed by the most representative pre-Hispanic cultures of the Peruvian territory:
Anthropologists have found evidence that the Chavín culture consumed chili peppers, beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, peanuts, corn, oca, potatoes, olluco, and yuca were cultivated. Vegetables and plants were also consumed as an integral part of the diet, and algae such as cushur, rich in proteins, were added. Animal and vegetable fats were used, and the consumption of guinea pig, alpaca, llama, duck, frog, viscacha, deer, and taruka meat was common.
They relied mostly on vegetarian food and fishing to complement their diet. They consumed anchovies, sardines, fish, guinea pigs, pumpkins, chili peppers, clams, and sweet potatoes.
An important fact about this great civilisation is that it had its own fishing city, called Aspero. They were in charge of extracting anchovies, sardines, mussels, clams, limpets and other marine species from the sea to feed their own inhabitants and to be able to trade other foodstuffs with neighbours from the surrounding settlements in the valley.
The Moche people cultivated corn, sweet potatoes, yuca, potatoes, squash, and consumed fruits such as prickly pear cactus, lucuma, cherimoya, tumbo, peanuts, and papaya. They also hunted animals such as uros, condors, pumas, foxes, and dogs, which were associated with the power of social and religious leaders. This culture is characterised by the development of metallurgy and ceramics, as can be seen in the images below, some of which have figures of the foods they knew.
The inhabitants of the Nazca culture were great farmers. They irrigated the desert lands by means of surface canals and underground aqueducts. They also fertilised the land to make it more fertile and, in the absence of cultivated fields, they built terraces on the hillsides. The most striking thing about the agricultural technology they developed is that they were the only people in pre-Hispanic Peru and in the world to build aqueducts. They were real underground channels with ventilation, through which water circulated in different directions, even passing under the riverbeds. This is how it was possible to grow maize, beans, pumpkin, cassava, peanuts, chilli, guava, lucuma, pacae and cotton in this desert region. And as they were very close to the sea, seafood was obviously part of their diet.
Talking about the food of this culture also implies talking about its agricultural technique which made it stand out from the rest, this was the system of "camellones" or "waru warus". In pre-Hispanic times it was very common in the Lake Titicaca region. It essentially consisted of a series of earthen platforms surrounded by water channels. The most important crops in the Tiahuanaco culture were potatoes, oca, mashua, quinoa, cañihua, tarwi, yuca, legumes, and corn. They also excelled in the production of dried foods such as jerky and chuño.
The Wari promoted the construction of important hydraulic works throughout the empire; remains of these can still be seen in the valleys of Moche and Virú. They used terraces, where maize, potato, oca, mashua, yucca and sweet potato were grown and traded. Their farming was based on the breeding of llamas and alpacas, from which they extracted food and clothing, among other things. They maintained economic and cultural exchanges with other states, especially with Tiahuanaco.
The inhabitants of the Chachapoyas culture depended on agriculture, herding, hunting and gathering for their subsistence. Both the system of food production and exchange allowed them to establish alliances with other populations. The Chachapoyas civilisation produced good harvests of cereals, sugar cane, coffee, yucca, they also cultivated maize, potatoes, olluco and mashua, and had a great variety of fruits and vegetables. The variety of their inputs was due to the fact that they had different ecosystems.
Finally, the Inca empire cultivated numerous crops throughout its territory, such as maize, coca, cereals, potatoes, yucca, peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, squash, quinoa and many other foods obtained through trade. The Inca diet was largely vegetarian, as meat - from camelids, ducks, guinea fowl and game such as deer and viscachas - was so highly prized that it was reserved only for special occasions. Food and other goods were stored in the tens of thousands of storehouses, called qollqa, which were distributed throughout the empire.
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These are just a few examples of the most representative foods of the greatest pre-Hispanic cultures of Peru. These foods have a great amount of nutrients and are still cultivated to this day; they were, are and always will be part of our culture, besides being the essence to cook the diverse dishes that represent our gastronomy, such as ceviche, pachamanca, chicha morada, chicha de jora, mazamorras and many others.
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