Putting the Rise of the Inca Empire Within a Climatic and Land Management Context : Volume 5, Issue 2 (04/03/2009)

By Chepstow-lusty, A. J.

Book Id: WPLBN0003987368
Format Type: PDF Article :
File Size: Pages 26
Reproduction Date: 2015

Title:	Putting the Rise of the Inca Empire Within a Climatic and Land Management Context : Volume 5, Issue 2 (04/03/2009)
Author:	Chepstow-lusty, A. J.
Volume:	Vol. 5, Issue 2
Language:	English
Subject:	Science, Climate, Past
Collections:	Periodicals: Journal and Magazine Collection (Contemporary), Copernicus GmbH
Historic Publication Date:	2009
Publisher:	Copernicus Gmbh, Göttingen, Germany

Member Page:	Copernicus Publications
Citation APA MLA Chicago Leng, M. J., Frogley, M. R., Carcaillet, C., Bauer, B. S., Chepstow-Lusty, A. J., Boessenkool, K. P.,...Gioda, A. (2009). Putting the Rise of the Inca Empire Within a Climatic and Land Management Context : Volume 5, Issue 2 (04/03/2009). Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Description: Institut Français d'Etudes Andines (IFEA), Lima, Peru. The rapid expansion of the Inca from the Cuzco area of highland Peru produced the largest empire in the New World between ca. AD 1400–1532. Although this meteoric rise may in part be due to the adoption of innovative societal strategies, supported by a large labour force and standing army, we argue that this would not have been possible without increased crop productivity, which was linked to more favourable climatic conditions. A multi-proxy, high-resolution 1200-year lake sediment record was analysed at Marcacocha, 12 km north of Ollantaytambo, in the heartland of the Inca Empire. This record reveals a period of sustained aridity that began from AD 880, followed by increased warming from AD 1100 that lasted beyond the arrival of the Spanish in AD 1532. These increasingly warmer conditions allowed the Inca and their predecessors the opportunity to exploit higher altitudes from AD 1150, by constructing agricultural terraces that employed glacial-fed irrigation, in combination with deliberate agroforestry techniques. There may be some important lessons to be learnt today from these strategies for sustainable rural development in the Andes in the light of future climate uncertainty.

Summary
Putting the rise of the Inca Empire within a climatic and land management context

Excerpt
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