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Making a Meal out of Mahamaes: A Reply to Knapp's “Prehistoric Flood Management on the Peruvian Coast”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard T. Smith
Richard T. Smith*
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England
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Abstract

While acknowledging the possible former role of floodwater in Chilca's sunken fields, this paper expresses concern about the limited and inconclusive evidence that Knapp presents in support of floodwater management. Too much reliance is placed upon inferences from integrated field layout while we still appear to lack either unequivocal and consistent stratigraphic evidence or firsthand experience of river flooding at Chilca. It is also doubtful whether one can legitimately assess the archaeological or hydraulic status of these fields without considering (1) the wider context of local irrigated farming, (2) the perennial source of underground water, and (3) the near certainty that fishing rather than agriculture was the subsistence base in such localities without perennial streams.

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Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 147 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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References

References Cited

Engel, Frederic 1966 Geografía humana prehistórica y agricuJtura pre-colombina de Ja quebrada de Chilca. UniversidadAgraria, Lima.Google Scholar
Knapp, Gregory 1982 Prehistoric flood management on the Peruvian coast: reinterpreting the “Sunken Fields” of Chilca. American Antiquity 47:144–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Smith, Richard T. 1979 The development and role of sunken field agriculture on the Peruvian coast. Geographical Journal 145:387–400.Google Scholar
Smith, Richard T. 1982 Ground water and early agriculture in the Peruvian coastal zone. In Proceedings of InternationalConference on prehistoric intensive agriculture in the tropics, August 1981, Australian National University, Canberra, in Press.Google Scholar