Irrigation Systems as a Chronological Proxy? Continuous Occupation at the Valley Edge, Chicama Valley, Peru.

Summary

The extension of irrigation systems from valley centers into the desert margins has been used by archaeologists in the Virú, Moche and Chicama valleys both as a form of relative dating and as a measure of societal complexity. Chronological periods in these valleys have become tied into uniform evolutionary sequences: the expansion of irrigation systems is correlated with population growth, technological advancement, and social hierarchy in the form of increased levels of bureaucracy and the emergence of a managerial elite. However, recent research in the agricultural landscape of the Pampa de Mocán in the Chicama Valley, suggests that marginal landscapes were irrigated and occupied continuously from pre-ceramic periods through the Late Horizon. In order to understand the nature of occupation of landscapes at the distal ends of irrigation systems, the project carried out a full coverage survey of the area. In view of the results, I argue that the distance of irrigation systems from the river is not a reliable proxy for time or complexity. Instead, I suggest that its occupation was not due to any one prime-mover pushing populations into open areas at the Valley edges, but rather the result of the long-term formation of landscape capital.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Recent Research and a Chronological Reevaluation of the Viru-Moche-Chicama Valleys

Keywords

Spatial Coverage