Arid landscapes and environmental transformations in ancient Southwestern Ecuador

Stahl, Peter W.

doi:10.1080/00438243.1991.9980151

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…Paleoenvironmental archives for the Holocene period in the Andes (c. 11,500 cal BP-present) are recovered primarily in three forms: sediment cores (primarily from lakebed contexts [e.g., Abbott et al 1997a;Weng et al 2006] but also marine records [e.g., Rein et al 2005]), glacial ice cores (e.g., Ramirez et al 2003;Thompson et al 1995), and biota in archaeological contexts (e.g., Reitz 2001;Sandweiss 2003;Smith 1980;Stahl 1991). Landforms-e.g., moraines evidencing timing of glacial advance and retreat, movement of dune fields marking periods of aridity, flood deposits testifying to storm magnitude and frequency-also are used to provide paleoclimate assessments (e.g., Farber et al 2005;Seltzer 1990;Seltzer and Rodbell 2005).…”

Section: Paleoenvironmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Environment: Insights from the Prehispanic Central Andes

Contreras

2010

J Archaeol Res

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Attention to human-environment relationships in the central Andes has a long history. Although the area is not a neat microcosm of the globe, wholly representative of worldwide trends in the archaeology of human-environment interactions, it has been the site of both seminal investigations in archaeology and a substantial body of recent work that investigates themes of broad archaeological relevance. Specifically, central Andean environments have been variously conceived as structuring, modified, and sacred. These approaches to some extent reflect broad trends in archaeology, while also suggesting directions in which the archaeology of human-environment interactions is moving and highlighting archaeology's relevance to discussions of contemporary human-environment interactions. This article characterizes concepts that are key for describing central Andean environments and considers the ways in which the particular ecology of the central Andes has informed archaeological research in the region. The example of the central Andes highlights the importance of understanding environments as dynamic, considering both geomorphic and anthropogenic contributors to that dynamism, and examining both ecological (''environment'') and ideological (''landscape'') implications of archaeological landscapes.

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Section: Paleoenvironmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Environment: Insights from the Prehispanic Central Andes

Contreras

2010

J Archaeol Res

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“…These events have been implicated in prehistoric agrarian collapse and large-scale population displacements. However, their buried signatures are potentially similar to those of annual or seasonal storms, floods, and droughts (58, 134,149,151,154,155,166,184,196,206,231).…”

Section: Holocene Biodiversity and Environmental Changementioning

confidence: 99%

HOLOCENE BIODIVERSITY: An Archaeological Perspective from the Americas

Stahl

1996

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Any understanding of contemporary biodiversity change in the Americas is likely to be uninformative and misleading if it employs a prehistoric baseline imbued with pristine characteristics. Archaeological evidence clearly displays a protracted history of environmental transformations at varying geographical and temporal scales throughout the Holocene (that is, the past 10,000 years). Because of problems inherent to the interpretation of the archaeological record, the genesis of these transformations often can only be ambiguously attributed to environmental and/or anthropogenic origins. However, at any given time or place, both the distribution of the numbers of different kinds of organisms and their relative abundances were in a constant state of flux since the retreat of glacial cover some 10,000 years ago. Here I review archaeological evidence to illustrate the dynamism of prehistoric biodiversity, which can be attributed to environmental events, to anthropogenic causation, or as a response of these to each other. If travellers, the moment they set foot in a tropical region, and even while on islands, in the vicinity of the sea coast, imagine that they are within the precincts of a primeval forest, the misconception must be ascribed to their ardent desire of realizing a long-cherished wish. Every tropical forest is not primeval forest. I have scarcely ever used the latter term in the narrative of my travels.…

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A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Initial Introduction of Maize into Coastal Ecuador

Staller

Thompson

2002

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Arid landscapes and environmental transformations in ancient Southwestern Ecuador

Cited by 11 publications

References 26 publications

Landscape and Environment: Insights from the Prehispanic Central Andes

Landscape and Environment: Insights from the Prehispanic Central Andes

HOLOCENE BIODIVERSITY: An Archaeological Perspective from the Americas

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Initial Introduction of Maize into Coastal Ecuador

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