Fluvial Dynamics and Cultural Landscape Evolution in the Rio Grande de Nazca Drainage Basin, Southern Peru

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reconstruct the landscape evolution in the lower Rio Grande drainage basin during the Late Holocene and to detect interrelations between landscape evolution, cultural development, climatic changes and extreme events. Central to this is to identify and, if possible, quantify factors of landscape change. In doing so, the author differentiates natural from anthropogenic factors, i.e. to determine both the natural and the human impacts on the landscape. An important question is whether climatic changes and extreme events have had an influence on past societies. To answer these questions, this work goes beyond physical geography approaches to paleoenvironmental reconstruction and includes the wealth of archaeological evidence and interpretations available for the research area. The volume consists of a main section and an extensive appendix containing sketches and detailed interpretations of the investigated sediment proƒiles as well as graphs showing the results of the laboratory analyses.