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Llama Poop Helped Inca Thrive
23 May 2011 16:55 #1
by Wily Fox aka Angela
Llama Poop Helped Inca Thrive was created by Wily Fox aka Angela
Llama Poop Helped Inca Thrive
Pollen and mites buried in mud layers of the Andes reveal how llama droppings helped the Inca fertilize vital maize crops.
THE GIST
The Inca were able to thrive 2,700 years ago thanks in part by the cultivation of critical maize crops.
Research shows that llama droppings helped make these crops possible at the high altitudes of the Andes.
Lots of llama droppings helped the ancient Inca build the largest empire ever to exist in the Americas, according to a new study.
Human populations took off and developed into complex societies in the Andes by switching from hunter-gathering to agriculture centered on maize, according to the research published in the June issue of the journal Antiquity. llama poop helped fertilize that crucial crop.
"This leap occurred 2,700 years ago and was made possible by a huge availability of animal excrement. Organic fertilizers enabled corn to be cultivated at very high altitudes, allowing the Inca to settle and flourish," Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a palaeoecologist from the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, Peru, told Discovery News.
The Inca ruled the largest empire on Earth -- stretching from the present-day southern border of Colombia to central Chile -- by the time their last emperor, Atahualpa, was executed by Spanish conquistadors in 1533.
to read more: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/l ... 10523.html
Pollen and mites buried in mud layers of the Andes reveal how llama droppings helped the Inca fertilize vital maize crops.
THE GIST
The Inca were able to thrive 2,700 years ago thanks in part by the cultivation of critical maize crops.
Research shows that llama droppings helped make these crops possible at the high altitudes of the Andes.
Lots of llama droppings helped the ancient Inca build the largest empire ever to exist in the Americas, according to a new study.
Human populations took off and developed into complex societies in the Andes by switching from hunter-gathering to agriculture centered on maize, according to the research published in the June issue of the journal Antiquity. llama poop helped fertilize that crucial crop.
"This leap occurred 2,700 years ago and was made possible by a huge availability of animal excrement. Organic fertilizers enabled corn to be cultivated at very high altitudes, allowing the Inca to settle and flourish," Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a palaeoecologist from the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, Peru, told Discovery News.
The Inca ruled the largest empire on Earth -- stretching from the present-day southern border of Colombia to central Chile -- by the time their last emperor, Atahualpa, was executed by Spanish conquistadors in 1533.
to read more: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/l ... 10523.html
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