Holocene coevolution of the physical landscape and human settlement in northern coastal Peru

Abstract

Humans are constrained by the hyperarid environment of the Peruvian Desert, which they have occupied throughout the Holocene Epoch. Habitats amenable to human occupation are limited to the riparian oases and the high‐productivity coastal zone. Dramatic cultural and technological evolution was coincident with landscape evolution that responded to climatic and sea level variability. Occupation sites of hunter‐gatherers older than 8,000 years are rarely found, as much of the landscape from this period is drowned and unexplored. Seven‐thousand years ago, sea level stabilized and coastal middens of this age attest to exploitation of the now stationary marine resource. In response, rivers backfilled and the population became progressively more dependent upon terrestrial resources. The shift to an agricultural economy resulted in a migration of settlements inland along the river valleys. Extreme events (sea level stabilization, droughts, El Niño floods) have likely facilitated periods of rapid technological and cultural innovation. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

New Insights into the Evolution of an Intervalley Prehistoric Irrigation Canal System, North Coastal Peru

“…Climate proxy records and general circulation models suggest that ENSO was subdued during the early-to-middle Holocene suggesting that a key element contributing to hyperaridity (cold upwelling) along the coast would have been absent at this time. Although there is evidence for variable ENSO activity during the late Holocene (Wells & Noller, 1999;Moy et al, 2002;Rein, Lueckge, & Sirocko, 2004;Billman & Huckleberry, 2008;Langton et al, 2008;Richardson & Sandweiss, 2008), there seems to be little agreement on the timing and direction of that variability. yr B.P.…”

Stratigraphy, Petrography and Grain-Size Distribution of Sedimentary Lithologies at Cahuachi (South Peru): ENSO-Related Deposits or a Common Regional Succession?

“…As a matter of fact, if the thesis of Grodzicki was right, significant textural and compositional differences should have occurred in the sandy conglomerate at the top, with respect to the other similar lithological levels throughout the investigated section. Moreover, the sandy conglomerates of Cahuachi are quite different to the El Niño catastrophic-flood signatures described in the literature [19][20][21][22]51].…”

“…In this way, a stratigraphic study and sampling were carried out, and the grain size features and petrographic analysis were subsequently performed. As a whole, the data collected on the geological bedrock of Piramide (or Temple) Sur first allowed for a comprehensive comparison with nearby Pliocene-Pleistocene deposits, and shed light into the robustness or not of Grodzicki's thesis about the ENSO-related catastrophic river floods, considered for at least three decades as the mainstream and paradigmatic explanation of the demise of Cahuachi as for other pre-Columbian sites for which, however, the hypothesis is better supported by the data [19][20][21][22].…”

Prehispanic Arid Zone Farming: Hybrid Flood and Irrigation Systems along the North Coast of Peru

“…The region is also a hyper-arid environment: the Andean rain shadow; the cold, near-coast Humboldt current; and the South Pacific anticyclone (southern oscillation) combined to establish the dry coastal conditions by 8000-6000 BP [69][70][71][72]. Most years, the mean annual precipitation along the coast ranges between 5 and 40 mm [73], with some localities, such as the Pampa de Mocan in the Chicama Valley, receiving 12 mm annually. Again, however, the average annual precipitation does not adequately describe the experience of the climate in these valleys; in fact, there are marked wet and dry seasons.…”