Reassessing the Impact of El Niño at the end of the early intermediate period from the perspective of the Lima culture

Mauricio, Ana Cecilia

doi:10.1080/00776297.2018.1511312

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…For example, humans have actively capitalized on and prepared for ENSO-related changes to local ecology and the landscape itself in the past and present. Subsistence practices include taking advantage of El Niño floodwaters for agriculture (Caramanica et al, 2020; Dillehay and Kolata, 2004; Mauricio, 2018), exploiting resources from lomas and wetlands that flourish with ENSO-related rainfall and fog (Beresford-Jones et al, 2015; Caramanica et al, 2018) and capitalizing on bay scallop population booms triggered by strong El Niños (González, 2013). Direct evidence of El Niño or La Niña can be scarce in the archeological record.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine shellfish exploitation as a means of reducing vulnerability to resource uncertainty in southern coastal Peru (200 BCE–150 CE)

2022

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The effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are notoriously hazardous for human populations of the hyperarid Peruvian coast. Yet, ENSO climate fluctuations are fundamental to the ecology of desert plant and animal resources that have been incorporated into human subsistence economies for millennia. We examine marine shellfish exploitation among early complex societies in southern coastal Peru at the end of the first millenium BCE to better understand the subsistence vulnerability of communities in arid environments with variable resource availability and productivity. We analyze new shellfish data from Jahuay, a shoreline fishing settlement in the Topará Quebrada occupied amidst new regional social hierarchies and intensifying inner-valley agriculture. We compare mollusk taxonomic diversity and taxa rank order with published assemblages from four near-contemporaneous sites to assess local and regional trends in resource exploitation. At Jahuay, a unique focus on foraging plentiful Donax obesulus clams resistant to ENSO effects may reflect a local buffering strategy to ensure a resource supply through interannual and decadal climate oscillations. Our comparative results suggest regional reliance on intertidal resource patches, especially rocky habitats, for consumable shellfish. The relative convenience of gathering sessile intertidal taxa that form dense settlements may partly explain their regional popularity. The potential to dry and exchange mollusk meat as a protein source likely enhanced diet diversification while supporting economic and social relationships between communities. Overall, our findings imply that mollusks and intertidal foraging landscapes were important within a broad-spectrum subsistence strategy suited to maintaining and coordinating food availability in a dynamic environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine shellfish exploitation as a means of reducing vulnerability to resource uncertainty in southern coastal Peru (200 BCE–150 CE)

2022

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“…In response, and following a hazard research approach, some scholars have centered their investigations on El Niño events that appear to intersect with other sociopolitical and environmental stressors. For example, Moseley (1983Moseley ( , 1999 and others (Craig and Shimada, 1986;Keefer et al, 2003;Satterlee et al, 2000;Shimada, 1994) have argued that extreme prolonged drought, tectonic uplift, and earthquakes around AD600 and AD1100 coincided with El Niño flooding to cause a rupture in both the Moche (AD200-900) and Chimu (AD900-1460) sociopolitical systems (see also Fernandini Parodi, 2018;Mauricio, 2018;Uceda et al, 2021). Importantly, for these authors, the resulting damage to complex irrigation technology was a crucial tipping point in this process (van Buren, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building resilience from risk: Interactions across ENSO, local environment, and farming systems on the desert north coast of Peru (1100BC–AD1460)

Caramanica

2022

The Holocene

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The arid desert coast of northern Peru has traditionally been viewed either as existing in stasis, or as experiencing punctuated change from sudden flood events, followed by a return to system equilibrium. Despite these environmental extremes, the region was home to agriculture-based societies for millennia, and the success of these farming systems is considered an early example of irrigation technology transforming marginal landscapes. However, a closer examination of the long-term human-environment history of the Chicama Valley, one of the largest valleys in the coastal region, demonstrates that this landscape is the product of protracted interactions across at least three systems: the local environment, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and farming. Here, El Niño floods, typically considered high-risk events, are fundamental to local biodiversity and renewal, resulting in a desert ecosystem that is both robust and elastic. The prehispanic farmland known as the Pampa de Mocan (1100BC–AD1460), is presented as a case study to observe the co-evolution of agricultural technology and an ENSO-hyper-arid environment. This ancient farming system developed the capacity to toggle between sudden floodwater inputs and periods of water scarcity. Alongside water and soil conservation practices, prehispanic agriculturalists implemented technologies that were designed to mitigate El Niño flooding and incorporate its byproducts to supplement available resources. The convergence of these interacting systems on the Pampa de Mocan offers new insights into the role of risk in building resilience.

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Climate and Social Changes: Reviewing the Equation with Data from the Huacas de Moche Archaeological Complex, Peru

et al. 2021

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Investigations at the site of Huacas de Moche—also referred to as Huacas del Sol and de la Luna—on the north coast of Peru show a continuous occupational sequence from around AD 100 to 1500. The longest occupation corresponds to the Moche culture from around AD 100 to 850. Based on available archaeological evidence, this article examines the impact of an El Niño-like event in AD 600 on the history of Huacas de Moche. Widely held hypotheses assumed that this kind of climatic event caused the abandonment of the site; however, such explanations do not fit the current data. After almost three decades of research, archaeological evidence indicates that after the El Niño-like phenomenon of AD 600, the Old Temple of Huaca de la Luna was closed down, and the New Temple was built toward the east of the previous one, on the same slope of Cerro Blanco. Furthermore, on the opposite side of the site, the building called Huaca del Sol experienced its last and greatest architectural expansion, becoming a large-scale palace. These new lines of evidence lead us to reassess the effect that the El Niño-like phenomenon of AD 600 had on the development of the Moche culture at the site.

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Reassessing the Impact of El Niño at the end of the early intermediate period from the perspective of the Lima culture

Cited by 3 publications

References 52 publications

Marine shellfish exploitation as a means of reducing vulnerability to resource uncertainty in southern coastal Peru (200 BCE–150 CE)

Marine shellfish exploitation as a means of reducing vulnerability to resource uncertainty in southern coastal Peru (200 BCE–150 CE)

Building resilience from risk: Interactions across ENSO, local environment, and farming systems on the desert north coast of Peru (1100BC–AD1460)

Climate and Social Changes: Reviewing the Equation with Data from the Huacas de Moche Archaeological Complex, Peru

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