Development of agriculture in South America
- From: Hayabusa <peregrine@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:07:29 +0200
Development of agriculture in South America
In Science 316, 1890, 2007 evidence is given of rather early traces of
plant cultivation. The first author is Tom Dillehay, the excavator of
Monte Verde in southern Chile. The ages are so early that it is fair
to say that the first steps into the Neolithic were done more or less
simultaneously in the Americas and western Asia. The new data come
from coastal northern Peru.
Plants cultivated in the Andes were ptatoes, corn squash, beans,
manioc, cotton, and chili peppers, and the minimum age for their
cultivation was thought to be near 5000 BP.
9240 ± 50 to 7660 ± 40 squash seed
7840 ± 40 peanut
8000-7500 quinoa
5490 ± 40 cotton
Human cultural stages involved were the P Paiján 10-9ky BP, Pircas
9-7ky BP, and Tierra Blanca 7-4.5ky BP. Most of the remains had
morphological properties that make them distinct from modern
counterparts, and none of them is native to the region:
- The peanut is thought to be originated in the region from the
Bolivian eastern Andean slopes to Paraguay and on to southern Brazil.
The peanuts now analyzed from Peru are similar to the wild form, as is
expected of the very early culture forms.
- Squash seeds have been found in SE Ecuador from 10-7 ky BP and
Amazonian Bolivia 9.3-8ky BP. The seeds from Peru now are a
domesticated form because they are dark, which is not shown by the
wild form. Primitive forms (wild forms?) were found in Amazonian
Bolivia.
- Cotton appears to be native in coastal Ecuador and northern
Peru. It was found only in the Tierra Blanca stage; it was used for
fishing nets, and probably for storage bags and clothing.
- Quinoa is native around Lake Titicaca and the highland, and
was thought to be domesticated around 4000 BP. The fact that quinoa is
now found in the new context along the coastal lowlands indicates a
long tradition of agriculture because the quinoa seed does not last
long in storage, it must be planted annually.
The development of agriculture initiated social changes that led from
dispersed homesteading to villages, cooperation, institutionalized
political power and eventually the early states between 5500-4000 BP.
Agricultural communities fostering cooperation for the construction of
canals and other structures between 7000-6000 BP are suggested by
small mounds that were in use for ca.2000 years.
The squash data are only 3000 years younger than the first Einkorn
data from Turkey. (Since the domestication of grain may have been a
long process during which only scant evidence is left in the Near
East, the same may be assumed for South America. That is, the above
data may well be minimum ages.)
(Question: there is a convention in radiometric dating regarding ages
bp and ages BP, but I forgot it. One is calibrated, the other is not,
but I forgot which is which. Any help?)
Hayabusa
.
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