British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
14TH BRITISH ACADEMY POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP SYMPOSIUM
Abstract
Putting the Tree Back Into the Landscape:
An Archaeological Case-Study of Ecological and Cultural Collapse on the South Coast of Peru
Dr David Beresford-Jones
The lower Ica Valley, on the hyperarid south coast of Peru is today depopulated and bereft of cultivation. Yet its extensive archaeological remains attest to substantial prehispanic populations and thereby present a prima facie case for radically altered ecological and landscape conditions. This paper will outline archaeological fieldwork conducted in the Ullujaya and Samaca basins which has aimed to understand the timing, scale and causes of this agrarian collapse.
Dr. David Beresford-Jones completed his PhD in archaeology at the University of Cambridge in 2005. He is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge. His main interest is tracing human historical ecology using archaeobotany and geomorphology on the south coast of Peru. To this end he has since 2000 run the lower Ica Valley Archaeological Project, co-directed by Susana Arce of the Museo Regional de Ica.