Spatial dependency between irrigation systems and settlement patterns: water management on the pre-hispanic north coast of Peru

Abstract

On the northern Peruvian coast, where seasonal flooding and aridity and the effects of the phenomenon of El Niño characterise the desert landscape, water management systems adapted to the climate and landscape were built to enable agriculture. In this article, we review the archaeological literature on water management from its beginnings in the 2nd millennium BC to the technologies of the Chimu (1000-1470 AD) to draw conclusions about pre-Hispanic state development. In doing so, we observed a spatial connection between settlement distribution and water availability, including both natural sources and archaeologically verifiable artificial irrigation technologies, conditioned by its ecological and political setting. Our revision shows a significant change in the spatial connection between water resources and settlements in the Late Intermediate Period. Linked to this could be, on the one hand, different economic and sociopolitical organisational processes and, on the other hand, the potential for conflicts and consciously exploited power structures.