Cerro de Oro and the Year A.D. 600: Changing Settlement Patterns in the Lower Cañete Valley

Summary

The year AD. 600 seems to be an important turning point in the settlement pattern of the lower Cañete valley. While settlements prior to this date tend to be small sized and located close to the river margin, the period after AD 600 shows settlements tend to be placed a few kilometers away from the river margin. The largest of these is Cerro de Oro, a 150ha densely populated settlement located on top of a mound, 13km away from the river margin. The construction and use of Cerro de Oro seems to coincide with the creation of an extensive irrigation system as well as a well-managed exploitation of agricultural products at the site. This study will attempt to establish an association between the unprecedented nucleation of people on top of the Cerro de Oro mound, the increase of the agricultural frontier through the installation of a new irrigation system in the lower Cañete valley and the well-documented climatic oscillations that characterized the years circa AD 600.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A.D. 600 Cultural and Environmental Transformation in Ancient Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15886