Linking cultural and environmental change in Peruvian prehistory: Geomorphological survey of the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley, Peru

The lower Ica Valley on the hyperarid south coast of Peru is today largely depopulated and bereft of cultivation. Yet its extensive archaeological remains attest to substantial pre-Hispanic populations. We provide a case-study of Pre-Hispanic culturally induced environmental change through combining field archaeological and geomorphological survey with archaeobotanical, sedimentary and soil micromorphology approaches. Our investigations reveal that, although major El Niño climatic perturbations occurring around the end of the Early Intermediate Period are part of the explanation, more gradual, human-induced reduction in riparian dry-forest vegetation also lie behind major landscape change, which culminated during the Middle Horizon.