GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FROM DESERT LOESS IN THE NAZCA–PALPA REGION, SOUTHERN PERU: PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND THEIR IMPACT ON PRE-COLUMBIAN CULTURES*

Authors: B. EITEL; S. HECHT¹; B. MÄCHTLE¹; G. SCHUKRAFT¹; A. KADEREIT²; G. A. WAGNER²; B. KROMER³; I. UNKEL³; M. REINDEL⁴

Source: Archaeometry, Volume 47, Number 1, February 2005 , pp. 137-158(22)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

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Abstract:

The paper presents proxies from an interdisciplinary geoarchaeological working group. Sediment analyses and geomorphological studies, radiocarbon ages of snail shells and luminescence dating of loess allow a preliminary chronology of the environmental evolution of the eastern Atacama desert, Nazca–Palpa region (southern Peru). Until now, typical desert loess was unknown from the arid western flank of the Andes (southern Peru). The loess points to periods of more humid conditions with open grasslands at the eastern Atacama desert margin in the early and middle Holocene. In the footzone of the Andes, aridification set in before the Paracas Culture (c. 800–200bc) evolved, but the Cordillera Occidental remained semi-arid. A second push of increasing aridity started at the latest in the Middle Nazca Period (afterad250). During this time, the Nazca settlement centres moved upstream through the river oasis, following the eastward-shifting desert margin. It is possible that culminating aridity afterad600 caused the collapse of the Nazca civilization. During the Late Intermediate Period (ad1000–1400), more humid conditions favoured the massive reoccupation of the eastern Atacama up to a distance of about 40 km from the Pacific coast. Since the 14th and 15th centuries, the Palpa region has again been part of the hyper-arid Atacama. The study shows that in the Nazca–Ica region, the deep cultural changes of Pre-Columbian civilizations were not caused by catastrophic run-off of El Niño events, but by a shifting eastern desert margin due to the changing monsoonal influence.

Keywords: PERU; NAZCA; DESERT LOESS; GEOARCHAEOLOGY; CHRONOMETRY; PALAEOENVIRONMENTS

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2005.00193.x

Affiliations: 1: Geographisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, INF 348, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany 2: Forschungsstelle Archäometrie der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften am Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 3: Forschungsstelle Radiometrie der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, INF 248, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany 4: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Kommission für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Archäologie (KAVA), Endenicher Strasse 41, 53115 Bonn, Germany

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