Collaborative Proposal: Impacts of El Nino Flooding on Sociopolitical Organization in the Moche Valley, Peru

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。Brian Billman和Gary Huckleberry将在秘鲁北部沿海的Moche山谷进行两个季节的地质实地调查。厄尔尼诺（EN）是厄尔尼诺-南方涛动暖期的区域性表现，影响全球大部分地区的气候。在秘鲁北部沿海地区，强烈的EN事件导致大量鱼类死亡，并在原本极度干旱的沙漠地区引发灾难性洪水。有人提出，过去强烈的EN事件强调了该地区的史前农业和海洋社会，因此是文化变革的催化剂，包括社会组织的变化。这种关系的确切性质存在争议，部分原因是不存在可以与史前文化事件相关的史前EN事件的可靠年表。1997年，对莫希河谷中部进行的地质考古勘测发现，在克布雷达德洛斯奇诺斯河口处发现了一条100多米长的溪流。4米高的暴露面包含至少11个离散的洪水沉积物，其间穿插着有机土壤和文化物质。这提供了一个机会来确定至少11个强烈的史前事件的日期，并将这些事件与山谷的文化年表联系起来。Drs。比尔曼和哈克贝利将记录地层并确定年代。这将包括沉积物的剖面、摄影和实验室分析，以准确地识别和区分沉积和成土过程。年龄控制将由临时诊断陶瓷和放射性碳定年木炭提供。目标是建立一个大约2500年的代用记录。在此基础上，通过将Quebrada de los Chinos地层与其他古洪水和考古遗址进行比较，将有可能测试EN事件与文化变化之间的同向性，并分析秘鲁沿海史前EN洪水的纬度变化。这项研究将与古气候学家和考古学家相关，并增加我们对文化发展如何受到严重环境扰动的影响的理解。它将为复杂社会的兴衰过程提供新的启示。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Brian Billman and Gary Huckleberry will conduct two seasons of geological fieldwork in the Moche Valley in coastal Northern Peru. A regional manifestation of the warm phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, El Nino (EN) affects climate over a broad part of the globe. In northern coastal Peru, strong EN events result in massive fish die-offs and catastrophic floods in an otherwise hyperarid desert. It has been proposed that strong EN events in the past stressed prehistoric agricultural and maritime societies in the region and was thus a catalyst for cultural change, including changes in social organization. The exact nature of this relationship is debated in part because a solid chronology of prehistoric EN events that could be correlated to prehistoric cultural events does not exist. In 1997 a geoarchaeological reconnaissance of the middle Moche Valley resulted in the discovery of a 100+ meter long streamcut at the mouth of Quebrada de los Chinos. The 4 meter high exposure contains at least 11 discrete flood deposits intercalated with organic soils and cultural materials. This provides an opportunity to date at least 11 strong prehistoric events and to correlate these to the cultural chronology for the Valley. Drs. Billman and Huckleberry will document and date the stratigraphy. This will include profiling, photography and laboratory analysis of the sediments to accurately identify and discriminate depositional and pedogenetic processes. Age control will be provided by temporally diagnostic ceramics and radiocarbon dated charcoal. The objective is to construct an approximately 2,500 year proxy record. On this basis it will be possible to test the synchronicity between EN events and cultural change and to analyze the latitudinal variability of prehistoric EN flooding in coastal Peru by comparing the Quebrada de los Chinos stratigraphy with other paleoflood and archaeological sites.This research will be relevant to both paleoclimatologists and archaeologists and increase our understanding of how cultural development is affected by severe environmental perturbation. It will shed new light in the processes which lead to the rise, and decline, of complex societies.