Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-9k27k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-20T04:54:26.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geoarchaeological evidence for multidecadal natural climatic variability and ancient Peruvian fisheries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniel H. Sandweiss ,
Kirk A. Maasch ,
Fei Chai ,
C.Fred T. Andrus  and
Elizabeth J. Reitz
Daniel H. Sandweiss*
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA Climate Change Institute, Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Kirk A. Maasch
Affiliation:
Climate Change Institute, Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Fei Chai
Affiliation:
Climate Change Institute, Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA School for Marine Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
C.Fred T. Andrus
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Elizabeth J. Reitz
Affiliation:
Georgia Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-1882, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Department of Anthropology, South Stevens Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5773. Fax: (207) 581-1823.E-mail address:[email protected] (D.H. Sandweiss).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Understanding the influence of natural climatic variability on modern fisheries is complicated by over a century of industrial fishing. Archaeological data provide unique opportunities for assessing precolonial and preindustrial fisheries. Records show that anchoveta-vs sardine-dominated fisheries correlate with 20th-century climate change in the Pacific Basin and are linked to multidecadal climatic variability. The “anchovy regime” is characterized by cooler conditions and lower frequency El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, while the “sardine regime” is associated with warmer conditions and higher frequency ENSO. Fish remains excavated at Lo Demás, an Inca-period (ca. A.D. 1480–1540) fishing site at 13°25′S on the Peruvian coast, document a shift from an anchoveta-to a sardine-dominated fishery at about A.D. 1500. This shift correlates with records for increasing ENSO frequency at the same time. Middle and late Holocene sites have archaeofish assemblages that also suggest regime changes. Here we show that changes in fish regimes can result from natural variability and we support the potential role of archaeological assemblages in tracking multidecadal climate change in the Pacific Basin throughout the Holocene (0–11,500 cal yr B.P.).

Keywords

Climate changeGeoarchaeologyFishEl NiñoPeru
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , May 2004 , pp. 330 - 334
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bakun, A., (1996). Patterns in the ocean: ocean processes and marine population dynamics. California Sea Grant College System Report T-037, La Jolla.Google Scholar
Barber, R.T, Chavez, F.P, (1983). Biological consequences of El Niño. Science. 222, 1203–1210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barber, R.T, Chavez, F.P, (1986). Ocean variability in relation to living resources during the 1982/83 El Niño. Nature. 319, 279–285.Google Scholar
Benfer, R.A, (1984). The challenges and rewards of sedentism: the preceramic village of Paloma, Peru. Cohen, M.N, Armelagos, G.J, Paleopathology at the Origin of Agriculture. Academic Press, New York., 531–558.Google Scholar
Chavez, F.P, Ryan, J, Lluch-Cota, S.E, Ñiquen, C.M, (2003). From anchovies to sardines and back: multidecadal change in the Pacific Ocean. Science. 299, 217–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chavez, F.P, Strutton, P.G, Friederich, G.E, Feely, R.A, Feldman, G.C, Foley, D.G, McPhaden, M.J, (1999). Biological and chemical response of the equatorial Pacific Ocean to the 1997–1998 El Niño. Science. 286, 2126–2131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantua, N.J, Hare, S.R, (2002). The Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Journal of Oceanography. 58, 35–44.Google Scholar
Philander, S.G.H, (1999). A review of tropical ocean–atmosphere interactions. Tellus. 51, 71–90.Google Scholar
Pozorski, S, Pozorski, T, (1986). Recent excavations at Pampa de Las Llamas Moxeke, a complex Initial Period site in Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology. 13, 381–401.Google Scholar
Quilter, J, (1985). Architecture and chronology at El Paraı́so, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology. 12, 279–297.Google Scholar
Quilter, J, Ojeda, E.B, Pearsall, D.M, Sandweiss, D.H, Jones, J.G, Wing, E.S, (1991). Subsistence economy of El Paraı́so, an early Peruvian site. Science. 251, 277–283.Google Scholar
Quinn, W.H, (1992). A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for AD 622–1900 incorporating Nile River flood data. Diaz, H.F, Markgraf, V, El Niño Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK., 119–149.Google Scholar
Reitz, E.J, (2003). Resource use through time at Paloma, Peru. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 44, 65–80.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H, (1992). The archaeology of Chincha fishermen: specialization and status in Inka Peru. Bulletin of Carnegie. 29, .Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H, (2003). Terminal Pleistocene through mid-Holocene archaeological sites as paleoclimatic archives for the Peruvian coast. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 194, 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H, Maasch, K.A, Burger, R.L, Richardson, J.B III, Rollins, H.B, Clement, A, (2001). Variation in Holocene El Niño frequencies: climate records and cultural consequences in ancient Peru. Geology. 29, 603–606.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H, Richardson, J.B III, Reitz, E.J, Rollins, H.B, Maasch, K.A, (1996). Geoarchaeological evidence from Peru for a 5000 years BP onset of El Niño. Science. 273, 1531–1533.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.G, (1992). Quelccaya ice core database, 1992. IGBP PAGES/World Data Center-A for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series 92-008. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.G, Mosley-Thompson, E, Morales Arnao, B, (1984). Major El Niño/Southern Oscillation events recorded in stratigraphy of the tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap. Science. 226, 50–52.Google Scholar