Holocene landscape change on the Santa Delta, Peru: impact on archaeological site distributions

Abstract

Archaeological site distributions on the Santa Delta, Peru, are a result of both the initial settlement pattern and subsequent patterns of erosion and deposition. The appearance of the physical landscape during the time of human occupation has been significantly altered by alluvial deposition and erosion and by littoral ptogradation. Subsistence resources (agricultural and maritime) are concentrated in the floodplain and coastal zone, and their spatial distribution has changed in response to physical landscape evolution. Floodplain and deltaic aggradation have increased the amount of arable land from near zero at the time of the maximum shoreline transgression to roughly 11 000 ha at present. The development of a floodplain physically limits the extent of agriculture through time and also has the potential to remove much of the archaeologic record through burial. The rapid progradation of the shoreline makes the relationship between archaeological sites and the shoreline at the time of their occupation difficult to determine. However, the surface distribution of sites can be used to place inland limits on the possible location of the shoreline during occupation. The most complete record of occupation is preserved on the desert pampas (plains) which have been relatively stable through time but this relationship does not rule out extensive occupation in more active areas of the landscape. When site distributions are compiled on palaeogeographic maps, the relationships between the prehistoric human settlements and the physical landscape can be determined.