Ancient residents of Peru's Lambayeque Valley appear to have weathered the harsh swings of El Niño without a measurable rise in violence or accidents, according to a new study. Researchers examining human remains dating from roughly 1500 B.C. to A.D. 1500 found no statistical connection between periods of environmental stress and injuries to the people buried there.
The work was led by Thomas Snyder of New York University and Haagen Klaus of George Mason University, who analyzed more than 1,600 skeletons. The period they studied was shaped by El Niño events, which brought long droughts and destructive flooding to the region. Earlier scholars had linked the Moche and Sicán cultures, which flourished there, to mass ritual sacrifices during these El Niño-era stresses, making the new findings a notable challenge to that picture.
In the remains, the team identified 25 skulls with wounds that may have come from violence and 77 bodies with injuries that may have resulted from accidents. When they compared those injuries against the timing of environmental hardship, they found no meaningful relationship. The researchers argue that the population instead likely relied on the ocean as a food source during difficult years, a strategy that would have helped communities endure shortages on land.
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. It offers a more measured view of how coastal societies in ancient Peru handled recurring climate shocks, pointing to adaptation rather than social breakdown as the more supported explanation.
Credit. Based on reporting by Jessica Esther Saraceni for Archaeology Magazine. Is this your work? Write to us.
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