Physical Geography, Department of Geography
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Research projects

Late Holocene fluvial dynamics and landscape development
at the Rio Grande de Nazca, southern Peru

Principal investigator: PD Dr. J. Baade
Research group: PD Dr. J. Baade, Dr. R. Hesse
Start of project: 01.06.2002
Status: finial report: 2008
Financial support: German Science Foundation (DFG)
Grant: BA1377/6-1, BA1377/6-2
Collaboration: Dr. M. Reindel, KAVA, Bonn, Johny Isla, Lima

Summary

Arid environments are characterized by an exceptionally strong coupling of physical environment conditions and human development. There is strong evidence for a contemporancy of El Nino induced extreme flooding events damaging fields and settlements and periods of cultural change in the northern peruvian coastal desert. Some reports suggest similar correlations for coastal desert sites in southern Peru. Based on geomorphological and geoarchaeological investigations of fluvial deposits and field sites in the valley bottom, the aim of this project is to establish flooding event chronologies for allogenic and endogenic catchments within the Rio Grande de Nasca catchment in the coastal desert of southern Peru (14°30'S). It is believed that these investigations will enhance the understanding of man-environment interactions in the coastal desert of southern Peru during the late Holocene.

Publications

  • Hesse, R. & J. Baade (2007a): Palaeoenvironmental changes in the Nazca-Palpa region, Southern Peru - alternative interpretations of geoarchaeological evidence: A comment on B. Eitel et al., Geoarchaeological evidence from desert loess in the Nazca-Palpa Region, Southern Peru: Palaeoenvironmental changes and their impact on pre-columbian cultures, Archaeometry, 47(1), 137-58, 2005. - Archaeometry, 49(3), 595-602.
  • Hesse, R. & J. Baade (2007b): Early Horizon anthrosols in the Palpa Valley, southern Peru. - GEOÖKO 28, 3-4: 160-186.
  • Baade, J. & R. Hesse (2008): An overlooked sediment trap in arid environments: ancient irrigation agriculture in the coastal desert of Peru. In: In: Schmidt, J., T. Cochrane, C. Phillips, S. Elliott, T. Davies & L. Basher (Eds.): Sediment dynamics in changing environments. IAHS Publ 325. Wallingford: IAHS, 375-382.
  • Hesse, R. (2008): Fluvial dynamics and cultural landscape evolution in the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage basin, southern Peru. [Ph.D. thesis, Chemisch-Geowissen-schaftliche Fakultät, FSU Jena]. British Archaeological Reports International Series, Vol. 1787, Archaeopress, Oxford.
  • Hesse, R. & J. Baade (2009): Irrigation agriculture and the sedimentary record in the Palpa Valley, southern Peru. - Catena 77,2: 119-129.
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