Dr. David Beresford-Jones
Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Relict canal course, Lower Ica Valley, PeruAreas of Interest
Ethnobotany and agroforestry of the genus Prosopis
Archaeobotany of the Peruvian coast
Archaeology of of Early Horizon and Early Intermediate Period of the Peruvian south coast
Pre-Columbian textiles
Archaeobotany of Upper Palaeolithic Europe
Arid Land Geomorphology
Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic
Download a PDF containing a statement of my research interests and projects.Press and Useful Links on South Coast Peru Research
Nature: Native American culture sowed seeds of its own collapse
BBC: Logging `caused Nazca collapse'
LA Times: Peru's Nazca culture was brought down with its trees
The Times: Nazca civilisation sealed its own fate by cutting down last line of defence
New York Times: Ecosystem in Peru Is Losing a Key Ally
Kew Gardens: The archaeobotanical record in the Ica Valley
Youtube: The King of The Desert is Dying
NERC: Nazca were responsible for environmental collapse
El Comercio: La cultura Nazca desaparecio por deforestar un bosque de huarango
New Scientist: Clearing oasis trees felled ancient Peru civilisation
Archaeology and Linguistics in the Andes
VII SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE ARQUEOLOGIA PUCP
Archaeology and Linguistics in the Andes
Techniques
Desiccated plant macrofossils
Wood charcoal analysis
Geomorphology, including physical geography analyses & soil micromorphology
Publications
BOOKS
Putting the Tree Back Into the Landscape: An Archaeological Case-Study of Ecological and Cultural Collapse on the South Coast of Peru. Forthcoming. British Academy Postdoctoral Monograph Series, Oxford University Press.EDITED BOOKS
Archaeology and Language in the Andes, co-edited by D. Beresford-Jones and P. Heggarty. Forthcoming. Papers by leading archaeologists and linguists of the Andes arising out of the Symposium held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge. 11th to 13th September 2008, including two chapters by the editors. To be published in the Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford University Press
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Heggarty, P. and Beresford-Jones, D. In press. Agriculture and Language Dispersals: Limitations, Refinements, and an Andean Exception? Current Anthropology (a major, commented article to be published in April 2010).
Beresford-Jones, D., Arce Torres, S., Whaley, O. and Chepstow-Lusty, A. 2009 The Role of Prosopis in Ecological and Landscape Change in the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley, South Coast Peru from the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period. Latin American Antiquity 20: 303-332.
Beresford-Jones, D., Lewis, H. and Boreham, S. 2009 Linking cultural and environmental change in Peruvian prehistory: Geomorphological Survey of the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley. Catena 78: 234-249.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Beresford-Jones, D.G. and Heggarty, P. In press. What Role for Language Prehistory in Redefining Archaeological Culture? A Case-Study on New Horizons in the Andes, in Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability and Transmission, edited by Roberts, B and Vander Linden, M. New York: Springer.OTHER
Beresford-Jones, D. 2009 Offspring of the marriage of archaeology and ethnography in the Andes. Book Review. Antiquity 83: 855-858.
Heggarty, P. and Beresford-Jones, D. 2009. Not the Incas? Weaving Archaeology and Language into a Single New Prehistory. British Academy Review 12.
Beresford-Jones D. 2005. The Tree of Life. Planet Earth, Summer 2005.
Beresford-Jones, D., Arce Torres S. and Grimaldo C. 2004. Informe de los Trabajos Realizados Durante la Primera Temporada 2002. Presentada ante la Comisión Técnica de Arqueología. Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú. Lima, Peru.
Beresford-Jones, D. G. 2005. Pre-Hispanic Prosopis-Human Relationships on the South Coast of Peru: Riparian Forests in the Context of Environmental and Cultural Trajectories of the Lower Ica Valley. PhD Dissertation. Dept of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
