ABSTRACT
The arid coast of Peru is famous for its remarkably well-preserved desiccated archaeological macro remains, and reports from this region are frequently punctuated by photographs of spectacular ancient specimens of food plants such as maize and potato. A recent study of part of a small circular house at the Late Preceramic site of Waynuna in southern highland Peru combined the analyses of archaeological starches and phytoliths extracted from soil samples and lithic tools. The percentage of archaeological maize starch granules that exhibited damage consistent with that produced by grinding was as high as 51". The probability that the damage is due to grinding is also corroborated by the biological nature of maize starch. Preservation biases frequently work against archaeologists who study organic remains; however, the sheer numbers of starch granules recovered from these samples testify to the extraordinary preservation of starch remains at Waynuna.
