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Humans settled in southwestern Amazonia and even experimented with agriculture much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of researchers.
"We have long been aware that complex societies emerged in Llanos de Moxos in southwestern Amazonia, Bolivia, around 2,500 years ago, but our new evidence suggests that humans first settled in the region up to 10,000 years ago during the early Holocene period," said Jose Capriles, assistant professor of anthropology. "These groups of people were hunter gatherers; however, our data show that they were beginning to deplete their local resources and establish territorial behaviors, perhaps driving them to begin domesticating plants such as sweet potatoes, cassava, peanuts and chili peppers as a way to acquire food."
Source: Human settlements in Amazonia much older than previously thought
José M. Capriles, Umberto Lombardo, Blaine Maley, Carlos Zuna, Heinz Veit, Douglas J. Kennett. Persistent Early to Middle Holocene tropical foraging in southwestern Amazonia. Science Advances, 2019; 5 (4): eaav5449 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav5449
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:38PM (2 children)
I was trying to learn the "what we believed before this" context by reviewing the wikipedia article on the Bering land bridge. And this graphic from a decade ago [wikipedia.org] shows amazonia being settled... 10,000 years ago.
I hate news stories for science items that say "we overturned everything we believed before" when the new evidence aligns exactly with the old theory. It's really fucking annoying.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 02 2019, @04:39PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @12:02PM
You're missing the point of academia...
Academic 1: Good news, after ten years of research I can conclusively prove that white is white...then publishes paper
Academic 2: Disputes the findings of paper published by Academic 1...then publishes paper.
Academic 3: Rushes to investigate the claims and counterclaims made by Academics 1 & 2...then publishes paper.
Academic 4: Rushes to investigate the methodologies employed by Academics 1,2 & 3...then publishes paper.
Academic 5: Rushes to investigate the statistical methodologies employed by Academic 4...then publishes paper.
Academic 6: Reviews the papers of Academics 1,2,3,4 & 5...then publishes paper.
Academic 7: Translates Academic 1's paper into Polish...then publishes paper.
Academic 8: After redoing Academic 1's research, comes to the conclusion that white is black...then publishes paper.
Academic 1: Reads Academic 8's paper, comes to the conclusion Academic 8 is an ass...then publishes paper.
Academic 9: Reads Academic 1's paper calling out Academic 8, reviews the differences in their positions...then publishes paper.
(weary years pass, brave new civilisations have arisen and collapsed, but as this is Academia we're dealing with, you wouldn't bloody know they had..)
Academic N: Good news, after ten years of research I can conclusively prove that white is white...then publishes paper
(rinse, repeat...it ain't what you know, it's how many papers/publications you've got your name on...)