Under the supervision of Dr. Madonna L. Moss, Heather E. McInnis will analyze data gathered during her survey and excavations of archaeological sites in the Pampa Colorada region of the southern coastal Andes. The Pampa Colorada is one of the few areas south of Nazca, Peru with archaeological remains dating to the Middle Holocene, a poorly understood time period extending from 7,000 to 4,000 14C years ago. Although paleoclimatic and archaeological research shows that people in this area have coped with climatic fluctuations for thousands of years, we know little about the impact of long-term drought and climatic variations on subsistence, technology, and settlement patterns of coastal Andean societies during this time. McInnis's archaeological fieldwork focused on the recovery of data that will shed light on changes in land and resource use of Archaic coastal Andean foragers, and the impact of climate change on local and regional economies. Her interviews with Peruvian fishermen working in the region provide a baseline for analyses of the impact of short-term climatic events (e.g. El Nino, tsunami, etc.) on resource abundance and availability.
Research focusing on how and when people used coastal and terrestrial resources and how these choices affected their settlement is important because it evaluates adaptive strategies that demonstrate the balance between population and resource base. One cannot understand how modern societies living in marginal environments sustain viable economies, technologies, and social institutions in the face of significant climatic changes without identifying local constraints of such processes. This project examines the distribution of 100 previously unrecorded shell midden sites at the Pampa Colorada and assesses the variability of economic and technological practices from 23 of these. Identifying variation over time and across space will help explain the diversity of land and resource use of Archaic populations. Because settlement and subsistence adjustments that took place in the Pampa Colorada during the Archaic Period appear to have led to the development of sedentary fishing communities by the Late Holocene, we can use these data to assess general anthropological models of transitions to sedentism and economic specialization.
Analysis of dynamic relationships between settlement and subsistence activities and changing environmental conditions requires a detailed chronological sequence, identification of economic and technological behavioral correlates, and information about local paleoenvironmental conditions. This project focuses on the recovery and analysis of spatial data, material remains from cultural contexts (artifacts, faunal and floral remains), and marine shell and charcoal.
In addition to contributing to knowledge of Andean prehistory, investigation of archaeological remains at the Pampa Colorada will have a broader impact by focusing the attention of local, regional, and national programs of conservation and preservation on the Preceramic record of the coast. Furthermore, this study will increase awareness of the relevance of anthropological studies to real-world problems. The project has sponsored several outreach initiatives in local communities including the development of a new museum display highlighting the Preceramic occupation of the region, and the development of a cultural preservation program in the regional school system. The project also provides laboratory internship opportunities for local university undergraduates through affiliation with a Peruvian research facility. Publication of the study results in referred journals (in English and Spanish) will disseminate the results to the scientific community.
