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posted by martyb on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the archeology-has-a-growing-interest dept.

New Atlas:

Over 10,000 years ago, ancient human settlers began the construction of around 4,700 artificial forest islands in ancient Amazonia, according to the results of a recently-published paper. Archaeologists believe that the islands were used for farming, and that they can still be seen to this day.

[...] The team used satellite data to map 6,643 forest islands located in present-day Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia. Of these, 82 were surveyed, samples were taken from 30, and four were excavated.

Sixty-three of the islands were found to harbor dark sediments rich in organic matter including charcoal, burnt earth, animal bones and shells, which are indications of human occupation. It was concluded that they were not existing landscape features, and had instead been constructed completely artificially for the purpose of cultivating food.

Based on their findings, the researchers extrapolated that ancient settlers gradually built around 4,700 islands on which to grow food, with construction starting over 10,000 years ago. These forest islands had an average size of 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), and were raised 0.5-3m (1.6-9.8 ft) above the savanna in order to remain above the water level during the wet season.

Researchers posit that the area represents another birthplace of agriculture, similar to Meso-America, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and others.

Journal Reference:
Umberto Lombardo, José Iriarte, Lautaro Hilbert et al. Early Holocene crop cultivation and landscape modification in Amazonia, Nature (DOI: doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2162-7)

Source: University of Exeter.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:40AM (3 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:40AM (#981474) Journal
    Looks like they domesticated the manioc (best known today as the main ingredient in tapioca) locally, and then very quickly afterwards imported squash from the north. This might be sampling error, however, and it's possible that they arrived /with/ squash from the north, which would make more sense.

    At any rate, several thousand years later, maize finally arrived. But there seems to be no mention of beans. That's disappointing. Beans are a critical and necessary addition to make this a remotely healthy diet, without rather large and regular additions of food from outside the system (most likely from hunting and gathering activities.)

    Manioc alone is just starch, pure carbs. A powerful booster on top of a hunter/gatherer diet, but utterly insufficient to sustain life over any long term by itself.
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:22PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:22PM (#981508) Journal

    640 calories ought to be enough for anybody.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:26PM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:26PM (#981527) Journal
    I see from another study [plos.org] that beans were present by 5k years ago. From that abstract:

    Southwestern Amazonia is considered an early centre of plant domestication in the New World, but most of the evidence for this hypothesis comes from genetic data since systematic archaeological fieldwork in the area is recent. This paper provides first-hand archaeobotanical evidence of food production from early and middle Holocene (ca. 9,000–5000 cal. BP) deposits at Teotonio, an open-air site located on a 40 m-high bluff on the south bank of the Madeira river. Such evidence includes the presence of local and exotic domesticates such as manioc (Manihot esculenta), squash (Cucurbita sp.) and beans (Phaseolus sp.), alongside edible fruits such as pequiá (Caryocar sp.) and guava (Psidium sp.) that point to the beginnings of landscape domestication. The results contribute to an ever-growing number of studies that posit southwest Amazonia as an important centre for early crop domestication and experimentation, and which highlight the longue-durée of human impacts on tropical forest biodiversity around the world.

    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:35PM

      by Arik (4543) on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:35PM (#981600) Journal
      Thanks, interesting read.

      It makes sense to me that squash would have come first, because it's the one that usually requires the least protection from animals. The first stage of domestication would have been scattering seeds at particular spots and returning to those spots later to harvest, and squash would be obviously advantageous for this as few animals can eat it and most avoid it.
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