12. The Lake Titicaca Basin: A Precolumbian Built Landscape

Erickson, Clark L.

doi:10.7312/lent11156-015

Cited by 87 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…It has been claimed that humans are the major modi¢ers of the landscape in the Lake Titicaca basin (e.g. Erickson, 1999Erickson, , 2000, but in the Rio Ilave valley human alterations are small (agricultural enhancement of soil erosion, for example) in comparison to natural landscape evolution. In most of the watersheds of the Lake Titicaca basin (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvial history of the Rio Ilave valley, Peru, and its relationship to climate and human history

Rigsby

Baker

Aldenderfer

2003

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Fluvial strata and landforms in the Rio Ilave valley (Peru) document a history of Holocene aggradation and downcutting that is correlative with regional climatic events and provides an environmental context for human occupation of the river valley. Periods of aggradation correspond to periods of high (or rising) level in Lake Titicaca and elsewhere on the Altiplano, and increased sediment accumulation in the Rio Ilave valley. Downcutting episodes correspond to periods of low level in Lake Titicaca and low or rapidly decreasing sedimentation rates in the Ilave delta. There are five terrace tracts (T1 through T5) present in this southwestern Lake Titicaca tributary. These tracts occur as both paired and unpaired terraces and have average heights from 1.4 to 24.3 m above the valley floor. The major part of the fluvial sequence was deposited during the time period from prior to the Last Glacial Maximum until about 8300 calendar years Before Present (cal BP)^a period of generally high (but variable) precipitation on the Altiplano and high water level in Lake Titicaca. Initial deposition (aggradation) was followed by successive downcutting to the T4 and T3 terrace surfaces. Initial downcutting began immediately after precipitation, runoff, and sediment load decreased while base level dropped. It was followed by a period of episodic equilibrium and minor downcutting that included a prolonged period of soil formation between V8350 and 6780 cal BP. The major pulses of downcutting likely occurred between V6000 and 4500 cal BP and were coincident with periods of decreased precipitation on the Altiplano and decreasing levels of Lake Titicaca. Two final periods of infilling, resulting in deposition of the T2 and T1 terrace sediments at V4000 to 2500 cal BP and V2000 to 1600 cal BP (during periods of rising water level in Lake Titicaca, lacustrine sedimentation in the Rio Desaguadero valley, and increased sedimentation offshore the Ilave delta), were separated by brief equilibrium stages and a brief downcutting event. This fluvial history, when coupled with regional paleoclimatic data, relates to the region's preceramic through Tiwanakuperiod archeological records. Archeological evidence indicates that humans occupied the Ilave valley as early as 10 000 cal BP. The higher terraces (T3, T4 and T5) were occupied for at least 5000 years, but humans did not utilize the lower terraces (T1 and T2) until after V4400^3700 cal BP. Our results confirm that these lower terraces would not have been available for either occupation or agriculture until after V4000 cal BP. ß

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvial history of the Rio Ilave valley, Peru, and its relationship to climate and human history

Rigsby

Baker

Aldenderfer

2003

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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“…It has been suggested that this pattern may be linked with intensified raised field agriculture around Lake Titicaca (Thompson et al, 1988) and/or may be representative of a wider spectrum of human activity in the region, including terrace construction (Erickson, 2000).…”

Section: A Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, it is argued that this protracted period of aridity may (or may not) have been influential in hastening the demise of both the Tiwanaku and Wari cultures, centred on the southern shores of Titicaca and around Ayacucho, respectively (e.g. Binford et al, 1997;Erickson, 1999Erickson, , 2000.…”

Section: A Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Putting the rise of the Inca Empire within a climatic and land management context

et al. 2009

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Abstract. The rapid expansion of the Inca from the Cuzco area of highland Peru (ca. AD 1400–1532) produced the largest empire in the New World. Although this meteoric growth may in part be due to the adoption of innovative societal strategies, supported by a large labour force and a standing army, we argue that it would not have been possible without increased crop productivity, which was linked to more favourable climatic conditions. Here we present a multi-proxy, high-resolution 1200-year lake sediment record from Marcacocha, located 12 km north of Ollantaytambo, in the heartland of the Inca Empire. This record reveals a period of sustained aridity that began from AD 880, followed by increased warming from AD 1100 that lasted beyond the arrival of the Spanish in AD 1532. These increasingly warmer conditions would have allowed the Inca and their immediate predecessors the opportunity to exploit higher altitudes (post-AD 1150) by constructing agricultural terraces that employed glacial-fed irrigation, in combination with deliberate agroforestry techniques. There may be some important lessons to be learnt today from these strategies for sustainable rural development in the Andes in the light of future climate uncertainty.

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“…T he notion of Amazonia as a pristine wilderness has now been overturned by increasing evidence for large, diverse, and socially complex pre-Columbian societies in many regions of the basin. The discovery of numerous, vast terra preta (anthropogenic dark earth) sites bordering the floodplains of major rivers, and extensive earthwork complexes in the seasonally flooded savannas of the Llanos de Mojos (northeast Bolivia), Marajó Island (northeast Brazil), and coastal French Guiana, are seen to represent examples of major human impacts carried out in these environments (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of pre-Columbian “geoglyph” builders on Amazonian forests

Watling

Iriarte

Mayle

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

152

161

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Over 450 pre-Columbian (pre-AD 1492) geometric ditched enclosures ("geoglyphs") occupy ∼13,000 km 2 of Acre state, Brazil, representing a key discovery of Amazonian archaeology. These huge earthworks were concealed for centuries under terra firme (upland interfluvial) rainforest, directly challenging the "pristine" status of this ecosystem and its perceived vulnerability to human impacts. We reconstruct the environmental context of geoglyph construction and the nature, extent, and legacy of associated human impacts. We show that bamboo forest dominated the region for ≥6,000 y and that only small, temporary clearings were made to build the geoglyphs; however, construction occurred within anthropogenic forest that had been actively managed for millennia. In the absence of widespread deforestation, exploitation of forest products shaped a largely forested landscape that survived intact until the late 20th century.

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12. The Lake Titicaca Basin: A Precolumbian Built Landscape

Cited by 87 publications

References 55 publications

Fluvial history of the Rio Ilave valley, Peru, and its relationship to climate and human history

Fluvial history of the Rio Ilave valley, Peru, and its relationship to climate and human history

Putting the rise of the Inca Empire within a climatic and land management context

Impact of pre-Columbian “geoglyph” builders on Amazonian forests

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