The oasis of the chicama valley: water management from the chimú to the spaniards (eleventh to seventeenth century AD) on the north coast of Peru

Abstract

The Chicama Valley is an extremely arid region, irrigated by its eponymous river that forms an oasis. From the eleventh century AD, the Chimú culture developed the irrigation system, extending the limits of this oasis. After the Inca conquest ca. 1470 AD, and especially in 1532 AD with the arrival of the Spaniards, many upheavals (demographic collapse and abandonment of canals) transformed the landscape of the valley. From then on, the exploitation of the Chicama Valley changed dramatically. This raises the question of the management of this oasis by the Chimú, by the Incas and then by the Spaniards. What were the economic policies of land use and allocation of water resources during these three periods? The combination of archaeological data and ethnohistorical information from colonial archives provides an understanding of the processes of economic transformation of this oasis, between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries AD.