Mid-Holocene climate and culture change in coastal Peru

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the history of study and the current status of Mid-Holocene climatic and cultural change along the Peruvian coast, with a focus on major transitions at ca. 5800 and 3000 cal yr BP that correlate temporally with changes in El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) frequency. It begins with presenting the Peruvian archaeological record of Holocene El Nino frequency variation, considering several hypotheses to explain the data. Based on the archaeological record, it is concluded that for some time prior to 5800 years ago, the coast of Peru, north of 10°S latitude, was characterized by permanent warm water. From these data, it is hypothesized that El Nino did not operate for some period before 5800 cal yr BP; after that time, conditions as essentially the same as today were seen. Present-day climatic variability on interannual time scales in the tropics is dominated by ENSO, which involves both the atmosphere and the ocean in the tropical Pacific (e.g., Maasch, in press). Through teleconnections, extratropical climatic variability on these time scales is also impacted by ENSO. Continuous natural Holocene paleoclimate archives from northern Peru, Ecuador, and the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are difficult to find, privileging anthropogenic deposits from archaeological sites. Although precisely dating these records is difficult, climatic change determined from them is consistent. The regional paleoclimate records are presented.