Llama and alpaca domestication
Domesticación de la llama y la alpaca
- Date
- c. 4000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Telarmachay, Junín, Peru
- Credited to
- Hunter-herders of the central Peruvian puna
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Rearing of guanacos and vicuñas on the puna, documented by neonatal mortality in the corrals of Telarmachay. The only pack and fibre animals domesticated in the Americas.
Whether the alpaca derives from the vicuña or the guanaco is debated; the Telarmachay date (c. 4000 BCE) is the most widely accepted.
What it led to
- Llama caravans linking the Andean coast, highlands and jungle
- Alpaca fibre for the Andean textile industry
- Dung as fertiliser and fuel on the treeless puna
Built on
- Hunting of camelids
- Stone pens
Made possible
- Qompi: fine Inca tapestryc. 1450
- Qhapaq Ñan (Inca road system)c. 1450
- Andean caravan
- Camelid-fibre textiles
- Charqui (dried llama meat)