Earthen Terrace Technologies and Environmental Adaptation in the Montane Forests of Pre-Columbian Northeastern Peru

ABSTRACT

The pre-Columbian Andes are renowned for agricultural terrace systems in areas of steep terrain. Most studies have concentrated on regions characterized by seasonally-variable limited precipitation, yet research in high-precipitation and cloud-forest regions of the North and Eastern Andes demonstrates the diversity of terrace technologies adapted to different landscapes. This paper presents research from survey, excavation, and digital modeling of three types of well-preserved agricultural terraces found in a 50 km² area in central Chachapoyas, northeastern Peru. These terrace types—which we refer to as linear segmented, contour, and sinkhole—were all comprised entirely of earth, not stone. Results from digital modeling using ArcGIS hydrology tools indicate different manners through which each terrace type structured the movement of water over the ground surface, supporting previous arguments that similar earthen terrace infrastructure in Colombia, Ecuador, and eastern Peru were likewise designed to manage runoff drainage rather than support irrigation.

KEYWORDS:

• terracing
• earthworks
• irrigation
• infrastructure
• Northern Andes
• Eastern Andes
• montane forest
• Peru

Acknowledgments

Financial support for this research was provided by the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration (grant #HJ-090-R17) and the Rust Family Foundation Archaeological Research Grant. Permissions were granted by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture (Permits 151-2017/DGPA/VMPCIC/MC and N^o 105-2018/DGPA/VMPCIC/MC). The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their constructive comments; Edward Swenson and Justin Jennings for the use of the UAV; the landowners who generously supported research that took place on family property; the Comunidad Campesina, the Municipalidad, and the Casa de Cultura “Elisabeth Gehrer” of Leymebamba; and our collaborators from Leymebamba, Peru, Europe, and North America whose participation made this research possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributors

Anna Guengerich (Ph.D. 2014, University of Chicago) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University whose research focuses on landscape, built space, and human-environmental relations in the pre-Columbian Andes. Since 2011, she has directed the Tambillo Archaeological Project in Chachapoyas, Peru, which explores long-term changes in sociopolitical organization and montane forest landscapes from 200 b.c. to the early colonial period.

Stephen Berquist (M.A. 2011, 2012, Columbia University) is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Toronto who specializes in geoarchaeology and geospatial analysis. He has conducted research across much of the Andean region, as well as Cambodia, coastal Lebanon, and the eastern United States. His current research focuses on sociopolitical changes on the North Coast of Peru during the Late Middle Horizon and the implications of this transition for labor organization, hydropolitical organization, and political centralization.