Researchers document early, permanent human settlement in Andes

Using five different scientific approaches, a team including University of Wyoming researchers has given considerable support to the idea that humans lived year-round in the Andean highlands of South America over 7,000 years ago.

Examining human remains and other archaeological evidence from a site at nearly 12,500 feet above sea level in Peru, the scientists show that intrepid hunter-gatherers—men, women and children—managed to survive at high elevation before the advent of agriculture, in spite of lack of oxygen, frigid temperatures and exposure to elements.

Excavations led by Haas at the site in southern Peru produced the remains of 16 people, along with more than 80,000 artifacts, dating to as early as 8,000 years ago. Evidence from that site, as well as others, has led some researchers to estimate that hunter-gatherers began living in the Andes around 9,000 years ago, but debate has continued over whether that human presence was permanent or seasonal.

The scientists found low oxygen and high carbon isotope values in the bones, revealing the distinct signature of permanent high-elevation occupation; that travel distances to low-elevation zones were too long for seasonal human migration; that the presence of women and small children meant such migration was highly unlikely; and that almost all of the tools used by the hunter-gatherers were made with high-elevation stone material, not brought from elsewhere.

"These results constitute the strongest evidence to date that people were living year-round in the Andean highlands at least 7,000 years ago,"

When did the Andes mountains rise? According to the New York
Times, (Oct. 3, 1989), pp. C1 and C14, “Archaeologists working
in Peru have unearthed stunning evidence that monumental
architecture, complex societies and planned developments first
appeared and flowered in the New World between 5,000 and 3,500
years ago.” (emphasis added) The author of the article,
William K. Stevens goes on to say, “Around 4,000 to 3,700 years
ago, activity abruptly shifted and irrigated agriculture
replaced fishing as the main economic resource”. Why would a
civilized people leave a thriving, hospitable environment to go
live inland in an inhospitable region? Stevens states, “It is
something of a mystery to archaeologists why any major
civilization would develop in the Andean valleys and on the
Peruvian coast. The region’s altitude and aridity make it
‘grossly hostile’ said Dr. [Michael] Moseley [an archaeologist
at the University of Florida who has long worked in the region]
who added: ‘That anyone ever lived there is a bit of a
surprise.’ People do not move from more comfortable regions to
ones that are “grossly hostile”. They move instead to regions
that are distinctly more conducive to life. In all texts that
deal with Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, and Mesopotamian
civilizations, the authorities claim that these civilizations
moved into hospitable river valleys from arid regions, not the
other way around. “The emerging picture of this earliest
American civilization is that of a people tied initially to the
sea, but then moving abruptly — no one knows why — into the
Andes highlands to build a flourishing economy based on
irrigated agriculture that prospered in spite of the harsh,
cold, arid climate at altitudes around 10,000 feet.” But it is
much more reasonable and probable that these cities were built
at lower elevations and were uplifted with the Andes about 3,500
years ago when civilization there declined.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/talk.origins/Nkgi6k0TKJw/5cxCfEGvXTUJ

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.