Climate Change and Moche Politics: A View from the Northern Chicama Valley, Peru

Summary

In this paper I will discuss the different lines of evidence pertaining to detecting El Niño and La Niña events at the site of Licapa II and surrounding Northern Chicama Valley. Flood deposits, dune encroachments episodes, malacological data, canal destruction and rebuilding events, and radiocarbon evidence are used as proxies to help understand the intensity and timing of ENSO events. I compare evidence from Licapa II to other sites inside and outside the Chicama Valley to highlight the localized impact of ENSO events. The local nature of destruction from such events has repercussions for the way that political relationships functioned at the sub-valley, valley, and intervalley level.

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15928