Description
Book SynopsisThis book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 BC and culminating in a collapse during the Middle Horizon, around AD 900. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley - today depopulated and bereft of cultivation and yet with archaeological remains attesting to substantial prehistoric occupations - thereby presenting a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. Previous archaeological interpretations of cultural changes in the region rely heavily on climatic factors such as El Niño floods and long droughts. While the archaeological, geomorphological and archaeobotanical records presented here do indeed include new evidence of huge ancient flood events, they also demonstrate the significance of more gradual, human-induced destruction of Prosopis pallida (huarango) riparian dry-forest. The huarango is a remarkable leguminous hardwood that lives for over
Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The South Coast Desert ; 3. A Lost Landscape - Ancient Settlement of Ullujaya and Samaca ; 4. Tracing Landscape Change - The Geomorphological Record ; 5. Tracing Human Ecology - The Archaeobotanical and Malacological Record ; 6. Deforestation ; 7. The Huarango - The Genus Prosopis on the South Coast ; 8. The Huarango in Desert Riparian and Agricultural Ecosystems ; 9. The Sonoran Desert - An Ethnoecological Analogue ; 10. Putting the Tree Back into the Landscape
