Excavations at the Wacheqsa sector from Chavin de Huantar identified contexts from the Middle Formative (1100–900 BC) and Late Formative (900–550 BC) periods. We present results of starch analysis conducted in culinary equipment (ceramics) retrieved from domestic occupations and a large midden. Microbotanical analysis revealed a variety of plant food resources, such as maize, beans, olluco, and possibly chili peppers.

The site of Chavín de Huántar, Peru, lies at the heart of developing social complexity in the Andean Formative period. The archaeological contexts on the site's immediate periphery are assessed to investigate the nature of occupation, activities practised, and relationships between the area's inhabitants and Chavín's ceremonial centre. The peripheral Wacheqsa sector, which began as a modest, domestic occupation in the second millennium BC, was reconfigured c. 800 cal BC into a more substantial settlement, perhaps inhabited by craftspeople producing artefacts for the Chavín authorities. The implications of this study are relevant to wider questions regarding relationships between monumental ceremonial centres and their immediate peripheries, and the study of early socio-economic complexity.

The Paracas culture of Late Formative Period south coastal Peru (c. 900–100 BC) is renowned for its elaborate and colourful ceramics—particularly those decorated using the post-fire painting technique. The materials and the methods used to achieve post-fire painting, however, remain elusive. To investigate the evolution of, and regional variation in, this technology, the authors deploy a range of techniques to analyse a sample of Paracas ceramics curated in museum collections. The results indicate diachronic and regional variations in the paint binders and colourants used by the Paracas potters, which correlate with changes in vessel form and iconography over time.