California State University, Northridge Pollen from Raised Fields of The
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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE POLLEN FROM RAISED FIELDS OF THE CASMA VALLEY, NORTH COAST OF PERU A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology by Jacqueline Zak May 1984 The Thesis of Jacqueline Zak is approved: SteriingG. Keele L' Mark Raab California State University, Northridge ii ACKNOWLEDGEHENTS Hany people deserve credit and thanks for their help and encouragement with this thesis. Dr. Carol Mackey, as Director of Projecto Chimu Sur provided the funds and guidance for my field work in Peru. Dr. Sterling Keeley, Assistant Curator of- Botany, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History provided all equipment for extraction and identification of pollen, and contributed the invaluable help of her research assistant, Dr. Ken Curry--who himself was unselfishly generous with his time and expertise. Ann Curry and Valerie Anderson also helped in the lab. Dr. Jamie Webb guided my work in palynology since the initial stages. Drs. Hichael West and Hark Raab offered useful insights and commentary. Other important contributors to this effort include Dr. James Kus, and in the field, Genaro Barr and Samuel Oliva. Debora Zak Tataranowicz drew several of the illustrations. In the workplace, Vivian Arterbery authorized textprocessing time and Jill Brophy handled administrative details. Barbara Quint provided access to a microcomputer as well as an objective critique of work in progress. Roberta Shanman offered editorial help, and Robert Shanman, of Dames and Moore, helped me with interpretations of soils. Harjorie Taylor edited the bibliography. Barbara Neff and Donna Kim helped with interlibrary loan materials. Support and encouragement was also received from Andrea Burkenroad, Ramona Villas~ior, and Gloria Dickey. Dr. Susan Hector trained me in palynological field techniques iii through the Pajarito Archaeological Research Project. Other archaeologists who deserve thanks include Marty Rosen, Ruth Breitboard Piper, and Elizabeth Padon. Finally, my thanks for the support of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Upham, the foresight of my grandmother, Nrs. Edna Stong, who made this work possible through the establishment of funds in trust, and the endless editorial work, patience, understanding, and encouragement of my husband, Steven. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT .......................- ............................ vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................... 1 II. THE ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING .................................. 5 The Coast ............................................... 5 The Casma Valley . 12 Summary ................................................ 15 III. THE CHIMU ................................................. 16 Settlement . 16 Economy and Subsistence ................................ 24 Socio-Political Organization ........................... 27 Religion . 28 Crafts .................................................. 28 Summary ................................................ 29 IV. AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS ....................................... 31 Land Use ............................................... 32 Land Tenure . 34 Agricultural Strategies ................................ 39 Summary ................................................ 45 V. THE RAISED FIELDS . 46 Other Studies of the Casma Fields ...................... 48 Environment ............................................ 48 The Prehistoric Site of La Muenga ....................... 50 Canals .............. • ................................... 53 Ridges and Swales . 54 Causeways . 62 Discussion . 62 Summary ................................................ 70 VI . THEORY AND METHOD . 7 2 Pollen Analysis ..........._...... 73 Methodology ............................ _. 77 Summary ..................................... , . 82 VII. THE DATA AND THE INTERPRETATIONS ........................... 83 v Pollen ................................................. 83 Location of Pollen ..................................... 89 Soils .................................................. 91 Relationships of the Data to the Hypotheses . 93 Summary ................................................ 94 VIII. CONCLUSION ................................................. 98 Expansion, Environment, and Ideology ................... 98 Suggestions for Future Research ........................ 103 REFERENCES .......................................................... 105 APPEND IX ............................................................ 121 A. LOCATION OF POLLEN BY FIELD PATTERN AND DEPTH ................ 122 TABLES 1. Raised Field Measurements .................................... 61 2. Plants Represented by Pollen ................................. 84 FIGURES 1. The Chimu Empire . 3 2. Location of Peru . 6 3. Environmental Zones Described by Lumbreras ................... 10 4. The Casma Valley ............................. , ............... 13 5. Chronological Chart of Peruvian Prehistory ................... 16 6. Chium Sites in the Casma Valley .............................. 23 7. Location of La Muenga and Salt Pans .......................... 52 8. The Raised Fields, Causeways, and Acequia La Muenga .......... 56 9. Field patterns ............................................... 57 vi ABSTRACT POLLEN FROM RAISED FIELDS OF THE CASMA VALLEY, NORTH COAST OF PERU by Jacqueline Zak Master of Arts in Anthropology From approximately A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1470 the.north coast of Peru was dominated by the Chimu Empire (A.D. 900-1470), an expansionist state which based its economy on the control of land, labor, and production. The Casma Valley was incorporated during the last Chimu expansion as the empire grew southward. As part of an investigation into the purpose and consequences of this encorporation of the valley, raised fields associated with a Chimu lower-level administrative center were studied. Raised field farming is found throughout prehistoric Latin America and the modern Old World. In Peru, raised fields have so far only been noted in the highlands near Lake Titicaca and on the coast in the Casma Valley. Fields in the Casma Valley contain a variety of field patterns. Five of these patterns were sampled using palynological techniques to determine crops grown and whether a relationship exists between plants grown and field pattern. Data suggest that this agricultural strategy was well suited to problems of fluctuating water availability. vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION During the past 20 years archaeology has become increasingly concerned with relationships between culture and environment. This relatively new focus in archaeology, influenced by the ideas of Steward (1955), White (1959), and Binford (1962), among others, is based on on the concept of culture as a system of interrelating parts. In this view, the archaeologists role is not only to identify relevant material remains, but also to examine the context and relationships between this material and the ideas that produced it in an attempt to explain the processes behind culture change. Within this concept of a cultural system, agriculture is viewed as part of a broader economic sphere, with a variety of strategies for land use and resource exploitation. This variation in strategy occurs both between cultur~s sharing the same environment and within the same culture as it exploits differing habitats. But what causes this variation? What determines which resource is exploited, what crop is cultivated, how it is cultivated and where? Clearly, several mechanisms are involved. Societies both react to and are a product of the environment that surrounds them, yet they have the capacity to make choices and "every advance in the control of the natural evnironment has enlarged the scope within which this choice could operate" (Clarke 1953:238). 1 2 It is within this context that the research presented here must be considered. This research involves one aspect of the agricultural system of the Chimu (A.D. 900 to A.D. 1470), a prehistoric culture of Peru which dominated the north coast from approximately A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1470 (Keatinge and Conrad 1973). At the peak of their expansion, Chimu influence extended 1000 kilometers along the coast, reaching as far north as Tumbes an~ south to the Chillon River (Figure 1). According to Rowe (1948), expansion of the Empire came in two waves and it was during the last period of expansion that the Chimu first came to dominate the Casma Valley (Mackey and Klymyshyn 1983:42). The importance of this valley to the Chimu is still under investigation. Projecto Chimu Sur, directed by Carol Mackey and Ulana Klymyshyn, was designed to address this question, particularly the function of Chimu political integration (Mackey and K1ymysyn 1981, 1982, 1983). The research presented here, as part of Projecto Chimu Sur, was designed to gather preliminary data on raised fields 1 of the Casma Valley to 1) determine what crops were cultivated, and 2) explain the variablity of field patterns. This was considered a preliminary study with the understanding that more definitive work involving a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to determine field function and how this strategy fit into the Chimu economic network and social scheme. Before the data recovered from this research can be meaningfully presented, background information relevant to the environment, the lAlso known in some instances as drained fields and in the early literature as ridged fields (Turner 1984). In later chapters which discuss the fields