Presenter(s): Jacob Dicken − Anthropology
Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey
Poster 147
Research Area: Social Science
The Norte Chico civilization represents the earliest known example of an urban society in the Andean region and the Americas as a whole, having existed from around 3500 BC until its gradual decline around 1800 BC. The economy of ancient Norte Chico relied on both the growth of early domesticated plants such as cotton as well as the harvesting of wild resources such as fish. The success in attaining these resources hinged largely on the climatic conditions which made them possible. The Norte Chico civilization first emerged during a period of relatively low El Niño activity, allowing for a relatively stable agricultural economy and abundant marine resources, creating the food surplus necessary for the emergence of a large-scale civilization. This presentation will focus on both climatic and archaeological data to show how climatic conditions thousands of years ago made large-scale civilization both viable and attractive. Norte Chico can provide for us an important case study on the use of environmental resources in an early civilization and how climatic changes which affect the viability of these resources can shape the nature of the societies as they develop in relation to them.