Data supporting the PhD Thesis 'Socio-economic responses to Late Holocene climate variability and environmental change in the Peruvian Andes'

Primary data included within the Handley 2022 PhD Thesis 'Socio-economic responses to Late Holocene climate variability and environmental change in the Peruvian Andes'. Data consists of pollen, phytolith, micro-XRF, and organic matter content records for three infilled basins in the Peruvian Andes (Huarca, Callejón de Huaylas, Ancash Region; Antaycocha, Chillón Valley, Lima Region; Ayapampa, Chicha-Soras Valley, Apurímac Region). The three sites provide a transect across the Andes to better understand regional differences in social responses to, and variations in, environmental change over the past 2500 years. The three basins span from full-Holocene (Huarca ~11,500 yrs) sequences to Late Holocene timescales (Antaycocha ~3000 yrs; Ayapampa ~4000 yrs). However the focus for most of the analysis for this thesis has focused on the last 2500 years as this is the period of greatest cultural and agricultural development in the Peruvian Andes. Pollen data was obtained by standard procedures following Faegri and Irersen (1989) and Moore, Web and Collinson (1991) and involving the sieving, heavy liquid density separation and acetolysis of pollen samples. Phytolith analysis was carried out using the dry-ashing method outlined in Parr et al., 2001, with the addition of a sonication step (Lombardo et al., 2016). Both phytolith and pollen analysis was carried out using a high-powered stereo microscope and the raw counts obtained from these analyses is included within this dataset. Micro-XRF data was obtained using a ITRAX core scanner housed at the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (BOSCORF). XRF exposure time was 15 seconds per sampling point, using a Mo tube and run at a voltage of 30KV and a current of 30mA. Data presented in this dataset are in counts per second as obtained via the ITRAX scanner. Organic Matter Content (OMC) was obtained via Loss on Ignition, with material being heated to 550oC (following Bengtsson and Enell, 1986).