Seabirds as Proxies for Past El Niño Events in Coastal Peru: An Archaeo-ornithological Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This thesis sets an initial foundation for an archaeo-ornithological approach to understanding past El Niño events on the coast of Peru and the use of avifaunal remains as proxies for ecological conditions. Here I examine the extent to which El Niño phenomena could influence avifaunal resources and the effect this would have had on the subsistence practices of Andean coastal communities through time. Taking a human-ecodynamics approach, I also examine ethnohistoric records, including published oral histories, and early Peruvian visual culture (e.g., ceramics, geoglyphs, regalia, textiles) to further guide my understanding of the relationship between coastal societies and their local ecology. Based on the apparent human-Aves ecodynamics between coastal Peruvian societies and local avifauna, I propose that marine avifauna could have acted as sentinels for ecological conditions, offering coastal occupants a warning of impending change. In some cases, avian responses to El Niño (e.g., massive die off, mass migrations, nest abandonment) could have presented a boon to industrious hunter-gatherers, a topic I also explore. Further paleoenvironmental research potential lies in determining the effects that different varieties or “flavors” of El Niño Southern Oscillation (Central Pacific, Coastal) would have posed on early subsistence practices and adaptation strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40105.0