Project description
Tracing ancient coastal El Niño events
Coastal El Niño (CEN) events have long affected Peru’s northern coast. Fortified settlements from 320 to 200 BCE reflect a period of instability, possibly linked to the Chankillo fortress. Well-preserved wood from Chankillo reveals a wide tree ring, suggesting heavy rainfall induced by a CEN event before its construction. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PACHACUTI project will investigate whether a catastrophic event occurred prior to Chankillo’s construction. By combining dendroarchaeology, stable oxygen isotope analysis, and radiocarbon wiggle-matching on samples from Chankillo’s timbers, the project will establish hydroclimate variability over the 120 years preceding its construction. If confirmed, these findings will identify the oldest known CEN event.
Objective
Coastal El Niño (CEN) events have affected the northern half of Peru's coast for millennia bringing very warm climate conditions that lead to heavy rainfall and floods. In the central Peruvian desert of Casma, the presence of numerous fortified settlements dating from around 320-200 BCE suggests that their construction occurred during a period of warfare and regional instability. However, the reasons behind this instability remain unclear. The larger of these fortresses, Chankillo, may hold the key to understand when and why these structures were built.
Well-preserved wooden lintels in Chankillo’s structures provide an opportunity to study the environmental past. A preliminary tree-ring width study revealed an anomalous wide ring in timbers from the lintels just before Chankillo’s construction, which could be the result of a CEN-induced catastrophic episode of heavy rainfall. This extreme CEN may have sparked instability and warfare, shaping central Peruvian history around 2,300 years ago.
PACHACUTI aims to determine whether a catastrophic CEN event took place around 320-200 BCE, before Chankillo’s construction, by combining dendroarchaeology, annually-resolved stable oxygen isotope (18O) analysis and radiocarbon wiggle-matching. This ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach will use samples from Chankillo’s architectural timbers to develop an 18O chronology capturing hydroclimate variability over the 120 years before Chankillo’s construction. This novel record will encapsulate the frequency, magnitude and impacts of past CEN events during this period, offering insights into the climatic context surrounding Chankillo’s origins. Furthermore, it will also serve to date other archaeological sites in the region. If proven, this discovery will reveal the oldest known CEN event with a significant societal impact, highlighting the need to improve mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of future extreme hydroclimatic events for modern societies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology geochronology
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology dendrochronology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes el niño
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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2333 CR Leiden
Netherlands
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