El Niño and second-millennium BC

monument building at Huaca Cortada

(Moche Valley, Peru)
Jason Nesbitt∗

The El Niño phenomenon can cause

0 km 500
devastating inundation with catastrophic
social and economic impacts. Evidence for
N multiple second-millennium BC El Niño
events is present as laminated sediment
Huaca Cortada
layers at Huaca Cortada, a large Initial
Period monument of the Caballo Muerto
Complex in the Moche Valley, Peru. These
indicate that one response to this period
Lima of climatic flux was the renewal and
expansion of temple architecture, perhaps in
an effort to demonstrate control over nature,
and to maintain a symbol of community
permanence. The final abandonment of
Huaca Cortada is also associated with an El
Niño event around 1000–900 BC.

Keywords: Peru, Initial Period, El Niño, geoarchaeology, disaster, human response,

monumental architecture

Introduction
The El Niño phenomenon occurs as a consequence of episodic warming of ocean surface
temperature on the Pacific coast of western South America (Enfield 1989). Strong El Niño
events cause the normally arid Peruvian coast to be inundated with high precipitation that
can result in catastrophic floods, as well as alterations to local marine species habitat (Quinn
et al. 1987). The social and economic impacts of El Niño can be devastating, and for several
decades archaeologists working in coastal Peru have discussed the correlation of El Niño with
culture change, particularly ‘collapse’ (e.g. Moseley 1987; Sandweiss et al. 2001, 2007; van
Buren 2001; Dillehay & Kolata 2004; Sandweiss & Quilter 2008). The connections between
abrupt climate shifts and assumed cultural transformations are, however, complicated

∗
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA (Email: jnesbitt@tulane.edu)

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by a number of factors (Coombes & Barber 2005), including the difficulty of precisely
correlating proxies for environmental alterations with the archaeological record (Calaway
2005; Sandweiss & Quilter 2008). Consequently, problems of accurate correlation make
it challenging for archaeologists to interpret human responses to abrupt environmental

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change.
Palaeoclimate proxy data from Peru demonstrate that the frequency of the El Niño
phenomenon varied over time. During the first half of the Holocene, it was either absent
or very low in terms of frequency. Between c. 5800 and 3000 BP, El Niño occurred,
but less frequently than today, perhaps less than once in a generation. Finally, after 3000
BP, El Niño occurs more or less at modern periodicity (Sandweiss et al. 2001, 2007;
see also Rein 2007; Carré et al. 2014). Importantly, it is during these latter two time
periods that the central and north coast of Peru witnesses the development of early
traditions of monumental architecture. Monument building especially flourished during
the first half of the second millennium BC and continued until approximately 800 BC
(Burger 1992), a time period known as the Initial Period (c. 1700–800 BC). Initial
Period monuments are characterised by large, terraced platform and plaza complexes
that functioned as temples. On the Peruvian coast, most temple complexes are located
in inland river valley settings, reflecting a subsistence economy based largely on irrigation
agriculture (e.g. Billman 2002; Burger & Salazar 2012). El Niño-induced debris flows and
flooding would have posed significant hazards to irrigation canals and agricultural fields (see
below).
The proliferation of monument construction during a time of environmental dynamism
raises the question of how people actively adjusted to these changes. It is therefore critical
to have direct associations between the environmental event and the archaeological record
in order to address these questions adequately.
In addition, the issue of direct correlation is critical because the intensity of El Niño
rainfall and flooding can vary significantly between coastal valleys (Waylen & Caviedes
1986). This article presents geoarchaeological evidence in the form of sediment proxies for
multiple second-millennium BC El Niño events at Huaca Cortada, a large Initial Period
monument that forms part of the Caballo Muerto Complex in the Moche Valley. The proxies
are unique because they are associated with specific construction phases, and in one case are
dated by AMS. Although not all proxies were dated in absolute terms, the data presented
here contribute high-resolution records of flooding at Huaca Cortada, which confirm and
add detail to the findings of other scholars regarding El Niño in the second millennium BC
(Sandweiss et al. 2001, 2007). Furthermore, the close connection between temple building
and abrupt changes in climate permit a discussion about the nature of human response to
unforeseen meteorological phenomena.

The environmental setting of the Caballo Muerto Complex

The Caballo Muerto Complex is situated in the lower Moche Valley at an altitude
of 150m asl, and approximately 16km from the Pacific shoreline (Figures 1 & 2).
Caballo Muerto is one of the largest Initial Period sites on the north coast of Peru,
and consists of at least eight terraced platforms, dating from the early second to

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the mid first millennium BC (T. Pozorski

1983; Nesbitt et al. 2010; Nesbitt 2012a).
This complex of mounds is widely
distributed over a core area of 150ha that
is bounded to the west by two large hills,
Cerro la Virgen and Cerro San Lorenzo
(Figure 3).
The landscape that surrounds Caballo
Muerto affords both agrarian opportunities
and environmental hazards. Several of the
largest Initial Period mounds at Caballo
Muerto are situated near Vichansao, one
of the major irrigation canal intakes
in the lower valley, signifying that
irrigation agriculture formed an important
component of the subsistence economy
(Moseley & Deeds 1982; Farrington
1985; Billman 2002). Analysis of organic
remains from Initial Period ceremonial and
Figure 1. The location of the Caballo Muerto Complex and domestic contexts at Caballo Muerto iden-
its position on the north coast of Peru. tified macrobotanical and microbotanical
remains of manioc (Manihot esculenta),
peanut (Arachis hypogaea) and common
bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), as well as small quantities of maize (Zea mays), supporting the
notion of a largely agrarian economy (Pozorski & Pozorski 1979; Vásquez & Rosales Tham
2009a). Faunal remains at the site specify a reliance on coastal resources including fish and
molluscs, as well as inland game such as deer (Pozorski & Pozorski 1979; S. Pozorski 1983;
Vásquez & Rosales Tham 2009b).
Caballo Muerto is situated within an environment susceptible to El Niño flooding.
Towards the north and west of the site are a series of dry stream channels (or quebradas) that
were the source of significant debris flows during El Niño years. As with other areas of the
Moche Valley, these channels are almost certainly late Holocene in age, and their formation
reflects increased alluviation linked to El Niño (Huckleberry & Billman 2003). At Caballo
Muerto, flooding of the Rio Seco quebrada was responsible for significant destruction of
structures to the west side of the Huaca de los Reyes mound (Conklin 1985: 143). There
are signs that these debris flows reached the valley bottom where smaller-scale settlements
were located. Excavations just to the south of Huaca Cortada revealed a thick layer of coarse
river gravels overlying an early Initial Period domestic occupation surface. It is probable that
this deposit was formed through the flooding of a relict channel sometime in the early half
of the Initial Period (Nesbitt 2012b). There are no Initial Period occupational remains on
top of the deposit and, therefore, it appears that flooding caused the relocation of low-lying
settlements to other areas of the floodplain around Huaca Cortada.
Like other Initial Period settlements on the Peruvian coast (Burger 2003), Caballo Muerto
was situated in a landscape that was vulnerable to catastrophic inundation brought on by El

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Figure 2. The Moche Valley showing the Caballo Muerto Complex and other Initial Period settlements.

Niño. Flooding and resultant debris flows would have damaged or destroyed irrigation
canals—potentially disrupting the subsistence economy—as well as settlements in the
floodplain (Nials et al. 1979). In the following sections, the effects that El Niño had
on the temple architecture of Caballo Muerto will be examined.

The Huaca Cortada mound

Huaca Cortada is situated today in the midst of agricultural fields at the base of Cerro la
Virgen. The mound is one of the earliest monuments at Caballo Muerto, with a history of
occupation beginning in approximately 1600 BC (cf. T. Pozorski 1983; Nesbitt et al. 2010).
Absolute and relative chronological information suggests that it was during the early Initial
Period that some of the largest building projects at Caballo Muerto were first initiated.
For example, the first phases of Huaca Cortada were contemporary with the equally large
Huaca Herederos/Huaca Herederos Chica, located 250m to the south (Figure 4) (T. Pozorski
1983). Huaca Cortada is faced by Huaca Curaca, a much smaller mound that was occupied
in the early and middle first millennium BC (Nesbitt 2012a).
Huaca Cortada (Figures 5 & 6) is composed of a large central mound that is flanked by
two low platforms, creating an overall U-shaped layout that encloses a 50 × 60m rectangular

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Figure 3. Satellite image of the Caballo Muerto Complex: 1) Huaca San Carlos; 2) Huaca de los Reyes; 3) Huaca de la
Cruz; 4) Huaca Guavalito; 5) Huaca Cortada; 6) Huaca Curaca; 7) Huaca Herederos Grande and Huaca Herederos Chica.
Image courtesy of the GeoEye Foundation.

plaza (Pozorski 1976: 299). Surrounding the base of the monument are a number of deeply
buried buildings that include ephemeral residential/domestic areas (Nesbitt 2012b), as well
as small religious structures (Pozorski 1976: 25–28).
The main mound of Huaca Cortada dominates the landscape of the Caballo Muerto
region. Measuring approximately 90 × 100m at its base and approximately 20m in height,
Huaca Cortada is one of the two largest Initial Period buildings at Caballo Muerto. The
mound consists of four masonry terraces, the first two of which are more than 4m in height.
The terraces were built from locally available andesite boulders quarried from the nearby
hills that surround Caballo Muerto. Each terrace was covered with multiple layers of clay
plaster and white paint, corresponding with periodic renovations to the temple architecture
over its long history of occupation.
Huaca Cortada (‘cut mound’) takes its name from a large looter’s trench that split the
mound in half along the length of its east–west axis. The result of this enterprise was
the obliteration of the central part of the mound, which would have included rooms
on the mound summit, as well as its central access. Although the looter’s trench was
quite destructive, it also yielded opportunities to examine the construction technique and

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Figure 4. Huaca Cortada and some of the other mounds of the Caballo Muerto Complex. Note the presence of the large
looter’s trench that bisects the Huaca Cortada mound.

Figure 5. Plan of Huaca Cortada showing the location of excavation units.

building sequence of Huaca Cortada. Based on profile cleaning, it is estimated that the total
volume of the mound is comprised of approximately 65 000m³ of rubble fill (Nesbitt et al.
2010).
Huaca Cortada was not the product of a single building stage. Chronological information
indicates that Huaca Cortada was used as a temple from approximately 1600 BC until at
least 1000 BC (Nesbitt et al. 2010). Excavations placed on the northern side of the looter’s

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Figure 6. Photograph of Huaca Cortada looking to the north.

trench uncovered two superimposed terrace walls associated with buildings located on
the preserved part of the mound summit. The two walls are separated by a boulder fill
with the upper wall approximately 1m above the other. The superposition of the walls
demonstrates that the height of the building was gradually increased over time, suggesting
that Huaca Cortada, as with other Initial Period monuments (Burger & Salazar 1991), was
subjected to cyclical remodelling efforts throughout its long history as a temple. As will
be discussed later in this paper, at least some of the construction phases were linked with
remodelling or additions following flooding accompanying the El Niño phenomenon.
The following section details the contexts of the El Niño proxies present at Huaca
Cortada.

Mid-second-millennium BC El Niño proxies at Huaca Cortada

Sedimentary proxies for heavy rains connected with El Niño were found primarily
along the eastern façade of Huaca Cortada. The excavations in this area consisted of
a trench that exposed: 1) a segment of the surface on top of the lowest terrace; and
2) a large platform addition that abuts the central area of the eastern façade. The
excavation of the central platform revealed the earliest sedimentary deposits indicative of
El Niño.
The central platform is a large rectangular addition to the eastern façade that measures
approximately 12m in width and 5m in height. Post-abandonment destruction on top
of the platform permitted two small excavations designed to clarify the construction

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Figure 7. The north side of the central platform wall: 1) post-abandonment staircase; 2) eastern façade terrace wall; 3)
post-abandonment fill; 4) rubble fill of the central platform; 5) northern wall of the central platform.

of this structure (Figure 7). These confirmed that the platform formed a component
of an early Initial Period construction episode that covered the two lower terraces.
The platform was filled in with a combination of mud, boulders and a small quantity
of adobe bricks. Two sherds were found in the platform fill: a single, long-necked
bottle and an enclosed cooking pot, both of which are diagnostic of the early Initial
Period at Caballo Muerto. The presence of early Initial Period pottery styles supports
the mid-second-millennium BC radiocarbon dates that will be discussed later in the
article.
Underneath the platform fill was a grey, plastered terrace floor that dates to an earlier
building phase prior to the construction of the central platform. Sandwiched between the
terrace surface and the platform fill was a thick layer of light brownish-grey (10YR 6/2)
silt with ripple marks on the surface. In profile (Figure 8), the sediments are laminated and
measure approximately 100mm in thickness. The laminated structure of the deposits is
clearly formed through water action resulting from torrential rains and flooding that only
occur on the arid Peruvian coast during strong El Niño events (e.g. Uceda & Canziani
1993; Sandweiss et al. 2009). As the surfaces on which the sediments were found are
hydrologically isolated from the natural drainage around the mound, the deposits must
originate from rainfall running down the sides of the structure and picking up sediment

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Figure 8. Profile image of the laminated sediments located at the base of the north area of the central platform: 1) rubble fill
of the platform; 2) laminated sediments; 3) terrace floor; 4) wall of the eastern façade (scale bar is 30cm).

from the top of the mound, and then redepositing it as the water and sediment settle over
the terrace floor. Furthermore, the laminated deposits suggest that the terrace floor was
exposed for a short period of time before being quickly covered over (and protected) by the
construction of the central platform.

Dating the earliest El Niño proxy

There was no material to directly date the flood deposits underlying the central platform.
Nevertheless, because the platform was clearly built immediately following the deposition
of the flood sediments, dating this structure provides a close age estimate of the earliest
known El Niño event at Huaca Cortada. The trench excavations uncovered the southern
retaining wall that forms the edge of the central platform. These same excavations exposed
a large segment of the floor on top of the lowest terrace with a series of five superimposed
floors, coinciding with periodic remodelling of the temple (see below). The earliest of these
floors joins with the central platform and is clearly contemporary with its construction.
Marking the abutment of the floor, the eastern façade and the platform was a small
twig that was placed horizontally, possibly as some kind of construction marker. The
twig yielded two dates of 3297±45 and 3330±41 BP, producing a combined calibrated
age range of 1620–1445 cal BC for the construction of the central platform (Table 1).

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Table 1. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from Huaca Cortada; calibration based on the ShCal13
curve (Hogg et al. 2013).
Calibrated
Lab. Context Radiocarbon Calibrated date date (BC;

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13
number description date C/12 C (BC; 68.2%) 95.4%)

AA85746a Twig, Trench 1, 3300±41 −20.1 1611–1497 1633–1432

Layer 9/10
Terrace floor
AA85746b Twig, Trench 1, 3297±45 −20.1 1611–1572 (20.5%) 1640–1427
Layer 9/10 1566–1496 (40.7%)
Terrace floor 1475–1460 (7.0%)
Combined 3299±31 1610–1576 (21.3%) 1620–1445
date 1565–1497 (46.9%)

Given that there is strong evidence that the central platform was built immediately
following the flooding of the terraces, a date of c. 1600–1450 BC is estimated for the
earliest El Niño at Huaca Cortada. This correlates with the period just after the first
pulses of monumental construction at Huaca Cortada, and at Caballo Muerto more
generally.

Later El Niño proxies at Huaca Cortada

There are sedimentological proxies for subsequent El Niños that affected Huaca Cortada.
As mentioned earlier, the excavations of the terrace to the south of the central platform
revealed a superposition of five clay-plaster floors (Figure 9a). Each of the final (most
recent) three floors is overlain with laminated sediments identical to those described above.
The laminar deposits are composed of silt and measure between 90mm and 120mm in
thickness (Figure 9b). In some instances, there are very thin layers of white paint within
the laminated sediments, which formed as some of the water washed off the painted,
plastered surfaces of the terrace walls. At present, there are no radiocarbon samples to date
these subsequent events in absolute terms, but pottery found on the surface of the terrace
consists of bichrome and monochrome stirrup-spout bottle fragments known to date to
the late Initial Period, between 1100 and 900 BC (Nesbitt et al. 2010). It can therefore
be tentatively concluded that Huaca Cortada was affected by several additional El Niño
events that probably date to the late second millennium BC, a time when El Niño frequency
apparently increased to modern periodicity (Sandweiss et al. 2001, 2007). Moreover, it is
during this time that the final construction phases and abandonment of Huaca Cortada
occurred.
In sum, there is good archaeological and proxy data to indicate that Huaca Cortada was
struck by numerous El Niño events that date to the second millennium BC. The fact that the
proxies were so visible in the archaeological record could signify that the flooding deposits at

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Figure 9. a) The south side of the central platform and the floors on the top of the lower terrace: 1) terrace surfaces; 2)
retaining wall of the lowest terrace; 3) damaged section of the eastern façade; 4) southern wall of the central platform; 5)
mouth of the looter’s trench (scale bar is 1m). b) Laminated sediments, which post-date the central platform, overlying a later
terrace floor: 1) plastered southern wall of the central platform; 2) laminated sediments with thin layer of white paint; 3 &
4) Initial Period floors (scale bar is 30cm).


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Huaca Cortada were the product of strong or very strong El Niños with high precipitation
and damaging floods (Quinn et al. 1987).

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Discussion
The role that El Niño played among coastal Andean populations has been the subject
of considerable debate in the archaeological literature (van Buren 2001). Writing about
this interpretive ‘black box’, Billman and Huckleberry (2008: 117) state that “[h]uman
societies enter one end of the box, El Niño occurs, and societies exit the box transformed
in some dramatic fashion”. Yet the information from Huaca Cortada, where there are
clear associations between El Niño proxies and architectural phases, suggests that no major
transformations occurred during the early Initial Period as a result of El Niño. Furthermore,
the chronology of Caballo Muerto as a whole points to an uninterrupted florescence in
monument building throughout much of the second millennium BC (T. Pozorski 1983;
Nesbitt 2012a). In other words, the data presented in this article confirm observations made
by other archaeologists who argue that during most of the Initial Period, the social, religious
and economic mechanisms that allowed for the mobilisation of labour for monument
construction were not negatively impacted by El Niño (Sandweiss et al. 2001).
That Huaca Cortada thrived through periods of abrupt environmental shifts during the
Initial Period may be explained by the relatively low frequency of El Niño during the early
and middle half of the second millennium BC (Sandweiss et al. 2001, 2007). During this
time, El Niño events apparently occurred less than once in a generation and the data from
Huaca Cortada support this claim. Yet, even at this frequency, strong El Niño events were
persistent, hazardous occurrences (Pozorski & Pozorski 2005: 143; Sandweiss et al. 2009).
How did the ancient inhabitants of Huaca Cortada, and the Caballo Muerto complex more
generally, perceive and attempt to counter these kinds of unpredictable events?
In recent years, the archaeological study of human interaction with the environment
has emphasised agency-based perspectives that incorporate various human decision-making
processes in order to explain how specific societies address sudden or unexpected changes
in the climate (e.g. McIntosh et al. 2000; van der Leeuw & Redman 2002; Thompson
2014). Invoking this perspective, Sandweiss and colleagues (Sandweiss et al. 2001: 605)
illustrate the complexities of cultural adaptation to El Niño, stating that, “[t]echnology,
history, cultural practices, religion, perception and individual and group idiosyncrasies can
all affect the way a society and its members respond to change”.
At Huaca Cortada it is probable that some combination of mitigating actions was
undertaken. For instance, the kind of communal social organisation that was periodically
pooled for monument building could have been repurposed for irrigation canal clearing.
Furthermore, it is conceivable that food exchange networks with unaffected regions in the
highlands could buffer against short-term agricultural shortages (Burger 1985: 277). Yet
it is probable that other mechanisms were also at play, particularly in societies where the
relationship between culture and nature might be entangled. In this respect, the associations
of El Niño proxies with specific building phases of Huaca Cortada permit a deeper discussion
of the specific role that temple-based institutions and ritual played in response to potential
environmental disasters.

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There are indications that the torrential rains, flooding and other environmental
perturbations brought on by the El Niño phenomenon were viewed as important
supernatural occurrences in the cosmology of ancient Andean coastal people (Roscoe 2008:
93). As an illustration, there is archaeological (Bourget 2001) and historical (Rowe 1948:
38–39) documentation that human sacrifices were associated with prolonged periods of El
Niño rainfall during the later periods of Andean prehistory in order to placate deities driving
the forces of nature.
During the Initial Period, the settlement landscape of the Peruvian coast was dominated
by monumental temple architecture. I argue that ceremonial architecture and religious
leaders were important elements of the cultural resilience that characterised Initial Period
societies at Caballo Muerto and elsewhere. Initial Period temples served a variety of social
and religious functions within coastal society, including to dissipate/manage fluctuating
supernatural forces, which certainly would have included ecological disruptions (Lathrap
1985). Given the association of many temples with irrigation canal intakes, temple rituals
were also orientated towards the maintenance of agricultural production (Williams 1985;
Burger & Salazar 2012). In this light, it is interesting that one of the foci of responses to
the different El Niño events at Huaca Cortada was the continual renewal and expansion of
temple architecture. Immediately following the El Niño, dated to c. 1620–1450 BC, one of
the largest additions to Huaca Cortada was built in the form of the large central platform.
Restructuring of the monument during a period of climatic flux might be interpreted as
an effort by temple leaders to demonstrate that they could manage and even control the
fluctuating forces of nature.
Furthermore, temples were an important symbol of community identity during the Initial
Period. Thus, while the dispersed, small-scale settlements in the Moche Valley floodplain
were periodically destroyed, forcing people to move to different locations, large monuments
such as Huaca Cortada would represent a symbol of community permanence. In this sense,
temples would have served as a way of maintaining place, and for this reason were continually
renovated by local populations. It has been observed historically that during strong El Niño
events, indigenous peoples would retreat to the summits of ancient mounds (Copson &
Sandweiss 1999: 215). Taking refuge at these types of buildings might be recalling an earlier
tradition, where ancient mounds were thought to protect against environmental disaster.

Conclusion
Archaeologists have long realised that disaster is largely a cultural construct (Sheets & Cooper
2012), and that environmental perturbation is only a problem when ancient societies are
unable to adjust to it successfully (McIntosh et al. 2000). Shannon Dawdy (2006: 724) has
further stated that human response is mediated by what are perceived to be vulnerabilities,
which could be social, economic or religious. In the case of Initial Period Huaca Cortada,
some of those vulnerabilities were religious in nature and were responded to in kind through
the renovation of temple architecture. These kinds of practices should push archaeologists
to explore human-environmental dynamics in a broad manner that takes into account how
religion, ritual and ‘symbolic reservoir’ (McIntosh et al. 2000: 26–27) can be an equally
important means for dealing with abrupt climate change.

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The protection of public architecture was an apparent cultural priority during the Initial
Period, especially given that many of the largest coastal settlements were located in areas
subject to flooding. On the central coast of Peru, the builders of the Initial Period monument
of Manchay Bajo built a massive perimeter wall to shield it from repeated debris flows (Burger

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2003). For much later time periods in Peruvian prehistory, there have been reported cases of
monument rebuilding associated with El Niño events. Examples include major construction
episodes of north coast public architecture at Huaca de la Luna (c. AD 400–700) and a
late thirteenth-century AD building at Túcume (Uceda & Canziani 1993; Narváez 1995:
105–106), which point to an emphasis on temple renewal following sudden torrential rains
and flooding.
More generally, religious responses to climate change were common in antiquity. Moyes
and colleagues (2009) recently documented how Maya cave rituals apparently intensified
significantly during a period of drought in the Late Classic Period in Mesoamerica. Likewise,
Arlene Rosen (2007: 147–48) recently concluded that an increase in temple building in
the Levant during the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200 BC) coincided with a decrease in rainfall.
The increased investment in temple construction was seen as a correlate for temple priests
attempting to convince the population of their control over rain deities. Rosen notes that
these attempts at temple expansion ultimately failed because populations put their energies
into religious activity rather than other means of mitigating against environmental stress.
This kind of argument is worth taking into account when thinking about Huaca Cortada.
As stated earlier, the abandonment of Huaca Cortada was associated with an El Niño that
occurred sometime around 1000–900 BC. This abandonment was part of a larger process
at Caballo Muerto in which all Initial Period monuments ceased to operate as temples.
Subsequent mounds of the early and mid first millennium BC at Caballo Muerto were
fewer in number and significantly reduced in size. It is possible that responding through
investment in monumental architecture was perceived as an inadequate or failed response
as El Niño frequency increased in the late second millennium BC (Sandweiss et al. 2001,
2007).

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