Within archaeology there is a growing shift away from the purely aesthetic towards making the past relevant to present and future needs and demands. The Past Water Futures project charts the impact of ancient dam rehabilitation on climate change-induced water scarcity in the North Central Andes. The rehabilitation of late period (AD 750-1532) Prehispanic dams is a novel approach to assuage increasing water shortage among the rural communities of the Andean highlands. Nevertheless, until now, we lacked data on the real-time impact of these modern conservation and rehabilitation projects. Here we present preliminary results, including volume capacity, potential demand, hydrological and hydraulic analysis and a reservoir filling log of the Prehispanic Weetacocha 'Lake of Flowers' Dam, which was rehabilitated in late 2024. Weetacocha belongs to the rural community of Racratumanka, District of Pamparom & aacute;s, Province of Huaylas, Ancash Region, Peru. Importantly, we analyse the cost per m3 unit of water recovered through the rehabilitation of the Weetacocha Dam, proving that the restoration of water dams can provide a viable, cost-effective, community-led, sustainable alternative to modern micro-dam construction in the Central Andes and potentially further afield.
This study analyzes the geomorphological context, weathering processes, and evolution of granitic shelters bearing rock art in the Parque Arqueol & oacute;gico Provincial La Tunita (Sierra de Ancasti, Northwest Argentina), a key repository of Aguada Culture pictographs (ca. 600-900 AD). The research pursued four main objectives: (i) to characterize the spatial location and geomorphological setting of the principal shelters; (ii) to generate a three-dimensional record of the cavities in relation to the distribution of pictographs; (iii) to identify inherited morphologies and ongoing degradative processes; and (iv) to propose a geomorphological evolutionary model for the area. Methodological procedures combined systematic photogrammetric recording with the production of 3D models. Weathering diagnosis was supported by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine lithological composition, alteration products, and patinas, complemented by petrographic thin sections. The evolutionary model indicates that megatafoni and vault morphologies correspond to forms developed through prolonged weathering under warm-humid conditions. The tafoni interiors show vaults and ribs, some of which display higher resistance to uniaxial compression (RCU) than the surrounding rock. Active weathering results from the combined influence of humidity, salts, and biological/anthropic agents. Weathering fronts, gypsum and calcite neoformation, together with capillary humidity, partially affect the pictographs. Physical disintegration-granular disaggregation and exfoliation-is concentrated in overhangs and block supports, where compressive stress and water infiltration through fractures compromise the edges of certain paintings.
The Oshara Tradition is the classic culture-historical framework used for the Archaic period in the American Southwest. It was defined during fieldwork conducted by Cynthia Irwin-Williams for the Anasazi Origins Project (AOP) in the 1960s and early 1970s. Chapin has provided an overview of many of the excavated sites from the AOP, with the exception of the La Bajada site, which is the Type site for the Bajada phase, though it has never been reported on. We present the results of geologic, geomorphic, and bifacial technological studies of this site. A newly identified dacite/andesite source was used for manufacturing Bajada points at the La Bajada site. The surface of the site is relatively stable, with most of the artifacts being recovered from on or near surface contexts. The reduction trajectory for the points involved the use of large biface blanks from local materials. The Early Archaic foragers residing at the La Bajada site moved seasonally along a south-north corridor across approximately 185 km.
Irremovable silica and iron deposits, as well as dissolution etching on Paleoindian lithic artifacts from Grass Valley, Nevada, can imitate wear polish and obscure use-wear traces on lithic tools. Previously unrecognized on Great Basin artifacts, researchers unfamiliar with such accumulations may mistake silica crusts on buried artifacts for carbonates or fail to recognize silica-glazed or etched artifacts without examination under magnification. Because these deposits cannot be entirely removed without artifact damage, our goal is to describe their genesis and effects so other researchers can recognize and avoid misinterpreting them in future lithic studies. This study describes the alterations and processes that create these phenomena, places them in regional and specific contexts, identifies the types and sources of iron and silica involved, and examines variation with toolstone type, landform age and stability, soil type, pH, and depth below the surface. These processes are likely to affect lithic artifacts elsewhere in a broad region of arid North America west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains with tephra-rich duric soils and in other regions with similar climate, sources of silica, and soil chemistry.
Iran is among the regions most vulnerable to environmental and climatic change. Similar environmental transformations also occurred in the past, leaving deep impacts on the habitability and cultural trajectories of human societies. One of the most significant of these transformations was the 8.2 ka BP climatic event, which has been associated with notable shifts in the subsistence systems of seventh-millennium BC communities across the Northern Hemisphere. However, no in-depth study has yet examined the effects of this event on Neolithic societies in Iran. This paper examines the possible implications of the period of climatic instability associated with the 8.2 ka BP event for Neolithic communities in southern Iran, drawing primarily on long-term archaeological surveys and excavations conducted by the author in southern Iran. In addition, previously published archaeological data from Fars, along with relevant climatic and environmental proxy records from Western Asia, were also taken into consideration. The principal objective of this study is to identify and interpret the cultural and economic adaptation strategies developed by Neolithic societies to Holocene climatic fluctuations. Results suggest that during the latter half of the seventh millennium BC, Neolithic communities in the Fars Cultural Zone experienced significant changes in settlement organisation and subsistence strategies, accompanied by developments in craft production and regional exchange. Together, these patterns indicate a flexible process of cultural and economic adaptation during a period of increasing environmental uncertainty broadly associated with the 8.2 ka BP climatic event.
