Ancient agriculture and climate change on the north coast of Peru

Abstract

Because of its long-term perspective on human–environment relationships, archaeology is well positioned to study how people respond to past climate change and natural disasters. In interpreting these relationships, archaeological perspectives have shifted from viewing people as passively reacting to environmental change, to instead focusing on human action, decision making, and resilience theory (1). Adopted from ecology, resilience theory emphasizes how people foresee, adapt, and recover from disasters without significant cultural disruptions (2). As a theoretical tool, the concept of resilience enables archaeologists to consider the social and economic mechanisms that allow people to withstand periods of climate flux. One way of studying resilience to climate shifts is through the study of farming systems (3). In a paper titled “El Niño resilience farming on the north coast of Peru” in PNAS, Caramanica et al. (4) present evidence that the ancient inhabitants of the Chicama Valley developed sophisticated, flexible systems of agriculture to manage “catastrophic” El Niño (El Niño–Southern Oscillation [ENSO]) flooding over the last 2,000 y. These findings prompt reconsideration of the malleability of ancient Peruvian agricultural systems and how archaeologists think about disaster. At first glance, coastal Peru appears to be a difficult environment for human settlement. The region is a hyperarid desert that is susceptible to water shortages, tectonic activity, and episodic, but devastating flooding brought on by ENSO (5). However, the area also has environmental advantages that served as the economic basis for complex societies for millennia (6). The Pacific coast is home to one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, which supported large fishing communities throughout prehistory (7, 8). In addition, the desert coastline is watered by a series of river systems fed from the adjacent Andes mountains, enabling irrigation agriculture. … [↵][1]1Email: jnesbitt{at}tulane.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1