Water Management and Symbolism in the Agrarian Landscape of the Sondondo Valley, Peru

Summary

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

Terraces are the clearest evidence of landscape transformation in the highlands of the South-Central Andes of Peru; they represent a magnificent and complex solution to create cultivation areas where geographical and climatic conditions were not ideal. Water management is an important piece of this system in which the water harvested in the puna area irrigates fields in the lower altitude zones of the valley.

Our team focuses on the study of the agrarian landscape and pre-Hispanic agriculture, excavating terraces at different elevations in the Sondondo Valley, Peru. Moreover, we have studied complementary areas such as storage structures, livestock corrals, and carved petroglyphs to understand the complex assembly of this system. In this contribution, we will present the analysis of the irrigation system in the valley and the study of the engraved rocky outcrops that represent the agrarian landscape, known locally as maquetas. They represent the agrarian landscape including the irrigation system as engraved canals and qochas. The excavation of one of them has shown their remarkable symbolism. The ritual significance of water in relation to the environment is still very important for Sondondo´s communities that still cultivate this landscape using ancestral knowledge.

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): 40168.0