The Lost Woodlands of Ancient Nasca: A Case-study in Ecological and Cultural Collapse

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David Beresford-Jones (Research Associate and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge)

The Lost Woodlands of Ancient Nasca

A Case-study in Ecological and Cultural Collapse

David Beresford-Jones (Research Associate and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge)

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English

Oxford University Press
28 April 2011

History of the Americas; Environmental archaeology; Social impact of environmental issues

Series: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Monographs

This 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 a millennium and provides forage, fuel, and food. Moreover, it is crucial to the integration of a fragile desert ecosystem, enhancing microclimate and soil fertility and moisture. Its removal exposed this landscape to the effects of El Niño climatic perturbations long before Europeans arrived in Peru.

This case-study therefore contradicts the popular perception that native Americans inflicted barely perceptible disturbance upon a New World Eden. Yet, no less interestingly, it also records correlations between changes in society and degrees of human environmental impact. These allow inferences about the specific contexts in which significant human environmental impacts in the New World did, and did not, arise.

By: David Beresford-Jones (Research Associate and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research University of Cambridge)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 249mm, Width: 187mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 892g
ISBN: 9780197264768
ISBN 10: 019726476X
Series: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Monographs
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 28 April 2011
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Beresford-Jones is a Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge. His work seeks to bring together archaeology, archaeobotany and geomorphology to better understand prehistoric human ecology. He has directed the lower Ica Valley Archaeological Research Project in Peru since 2003. He also has interests in the origins of agriculture and the synthesis of archaeology and historical linguistics, especially in the Andes. He has contributed articles to journals such as Current Anthropology, Latin American Antiquity and Catena.