The Amotape complex is an archaeological culture on the northern coast of Peru dated to between c. 9,000 and 7,100 BCE.[1] It constitutes some of the oldest evidence for human occupation of the Peruvian coast.[2] The Amotape complex was identified by the American anthropologist James Richardson III, who located a dozen small camps in the Peruvian coastal desert at the foot of the Amotape hills, near the modern city of Talara.[when?][3] The people of the Amotope complex were hunter–gatherers who manufactured unifacial stone tools in chalcedony and quartzite to exploit a variety of local plants and animals.[4] They also collected shellfish in the mangrove swamps which covered the coastline at that time.[5]
The contemporary developments at Huaca Prieta and Siches area (north Peru, close to Ecuador) also share similar features.[6]
