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 Niñ o floods) have likely facilitated periods of rapid technological and cultural innovation. ᭧

Life on the Margins : An Archaeological Investigation of Late Holocene Economic Variability, Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia

“…Others have interpreted this type of pattern as a re ection of human interaction with the environment, speci cally related to landscape and climatic changes in the Holocene, habitat development, and the availability and distribution of exploitable resources (Jerardino 1997;Wells and Noller 1999;Bourke 2000Bourke , 2003Bailey and Craighead 2003). Variability has been attributed to landscape changes such as erosion, progradation and barrier formation, which have taken place since sea level stabilisation (Head 1983(Head , 1986Godfrey 1989;Sullivan and O'Connor 1993;O'Connor and Sullivan 1994).…”

Rise and Decline of Chinchorro Sacred Landscapes Along the Hyperarid Coast of the Atacama Desert

“…The lack of a specific Holocene sea level curve for the region prevents a more detailed evaluation of the impact of eustatic sea level changes on the inter-valley connectivity. However, reconstructions for other regions in Chile and Peru suggest a low sea level stand of several meters below present-day level until 8,000-7,000 years BP (Isla et al 2012;Wells and Noller 1999). This sea level regression may have allowed the presence of marine platforms of moderate slope (i.e.…”

Landscape and Environment: Insights from the Prehispanic Central Andes

“…As she points out, similar criticism might also be leveled at arguments involving other catastrophic events. If precise linkages remain to be explained, however, chronological correlations between climatic perturbations and cultural change are becoming increasingly well documented (deMenocal 2001; Sandweiss et al 1999Sandweiss et al , 2001Sandweiss et al , 2007Wells and Noller 1999), and explicit recognition that the linkages need better articulation has become more common (e.g., Andrus et al 2008;Coombes and Barber 2005;Marchant et al 2004). …”

“…Pioneering arguments by Moseley and colleagues (Browman 1983;Clement and Moseley 1991;) ascribed the greater extent of prehistoric cultivation relative to modern agriculture primarily to tectonic uplift and channel incision that stranded canal intakes and left previously cultivated swaths of desert unirrigable. Resulting dispute (Kus 1984;Ortloff et al 1983;Pozorski and Pozorski 1982) centered on interpretation of canal infrastructure and evidence for uplift (Wells and Noller 1999). Later work has focused on the physical damage to irrigation systems associated with strong El Niño events (Browman 1983;Reycraft 2000;Satterlee et al 2001;Williams 2002).…”