Late Chiribaya agriculture and risk management along the arid Andean coast of southern Perú, A.D. 1200–1400
✍ Scribed by Gregory Zaro; Adán Umire Alvarez
- Book ID
- 102843454
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 568 KB
- Volume
- 20
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-6353
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Recent investigations at the coastal spring site of Wawakiki in southern Perú have identified an intensive, late pre‐Hispanic agricultural production strategy along a sea cliff some 30 km north of the Ilo River. Excavations identified buried stone‐faced agricultural terraces underlying Spanish colonial and post‐colonial furrows, and long irrigation canals that transported water along steep hill slopes from inland springs. Depositional patterns, cultural debris, and calibrated radiocarbon age ranges suggest the site was farmed most intensively between A.D. 1200 and 1400, a period characterized by prolonged highland drought and recurrent El Niño–induced floods in southern Perú. Farmers transformed this arid coastal promontory into a productive agricultural landscape by exploiting multiple spring sources, steep canals, and stone‐faced terraces in an area where water is a very limited commodity and steep barren hills are highly prone to erosion. Furthermore, high‐relief terrain left much of the agricultural infrastructure well protected from periodic floods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.