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Environmental conditions and human-landscape interaction during the onset of the irrigated agriculture in Oasisamerica are not clear yet. In la Playa site (Sonora, NW Mexico), the evidences of sedentary population, land cultivation, and water management developed after the end of Altithermal period (around 4500 yr BP) include more than 550 archaeological features including hundreds of human cremations and a net of buried artificial channels. These findings were closely associated with several palaeosol levels alternating with sediments within a large alluvial fan. We studied micromorphological features, physical characteristics (color, texture, rock magnetic properties), and composition of organic matter, from three profiles (Maravillas, Zanja, and Cuatro Suelos), to reconstruct pedogenesis and sedimentary environment of the palaeosol sequences. Additional paleoenvironmental information was extracted from …