| Summary: | The pre-hispanic societies in southern Perú developed socioeconomic systems perfectly adapted to the enormous natural diversity of the Andes. As a consequence, well defined ecological regions developed between the cordilleras of the Andes and the desert coast of the Pacific Ocean. The corresponding economic systems are reflected in the settlement remains of the prehispanic cultures of every region, which can be detected today with archaeological methods.The “Andean Transect” project of the German Archaeological Institutes explores the settlement patterns of the pre-hispanic populations that occupied the western slopes of the Andes in southern Peru between the provinces of Palpa on the coast and Lucanas in the highlands. More than 1500 archaeological sites, dating from the Early Archaic period to the Inka period (8000 BC – 1532 AD), have been recorded in surveys and excavations. In cooperation with the Institute of Geography of the University of Heidelberg, palaeoclimatic changes that ocurred during the Holocene were recorded in detail. Analyses of fluvial and eolic sediments of the desert coast, as well as analyses of macroremains and pollen of drill cores from peat bogs of the highlands demonstrate that climatic parameters changed gradually over time and influenced the settlement patterns of the pre-hispanic societies.
|
|---|