A History of Landscape Transformation and Environmental Change across the Ascope Irrigation System of the Chicama Valley.

Summary

The sequence of landscape transformation across the area of the Ascope Canal System in the Chicama Valley involved both natural and anthropogenic events and processes that unfolded in nonlinear ways. We argue that early events were crucial in determining transformations later in the sequence. In the arid environment of the North Coast, water availability plays a key role in landscape histories. This paper highlights evidence for El Niño events, water management, and changing ecologies for the Paleoindian period through the Colonial period in the area, drawing from sedimentary, archaeobotanical, survey and ethnohistorical data. Retracing both the human and natural histories of this landscape reveals both their interdependence and the potential impact that early modifications had on later outcomes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Landscapes of Change: Integrated Socio-ecological Histories in the Chicama Valley, Peru

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14654