Human settlements in Amazonia much older than previously thought

EurekAlert! ^ | April 24, 2019 | Penn State

[SunkenCiv]

"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."

The archaeological team conducted its study on three forest islands -- Isla del Tesoro, La Chacra and San Pablo -- within the seasonally flooded savanna of the Llanos de Moxos in northern Bolivia.

"These islands are elevated above the surrounding savanna, so they do not flood during the rainy season," said Capriles. "We believe people were using these sites recurrently as seasonal camps, particularly during the long rainy seasons when most of the Llanos de Moxos become flooded." ...

Capriles noted that the human bones on these forest islands were preserved despite the poor conditions because they were encased within middens -- or trash heaps -- containing abundant fragments of shell, animal bones and other organic remains.

"These people were foraging apple snails during the wet season and disposing of the shells in large heaps, called middens," said Capriles. "Over time, water dissolved the calcium carbonate from the shells and those carbonates precipitated over the bones, effectively fossilizing them."

Because the human bones were fossilized, the team was unable to date them directly using radiocarbon dating. Instead, they used radiocarbon dating of associated charcoal and shell as a proxy...

[SunkenCiv]

The rest of the Amazonia keyword, chrono sorted:

• Archeological Plant Remains Point to Southwest Amazonia as Crop Domestication Center [2018]
• Amazon Jungle Once Home to Millions More Than Previously Thought [2018]
• A lost world in the heart of the Amazon rainforest was actually home to one MILLION people [tr] [2018]
• Is the Amazon rainforest MAN-MADE? At least 8 MILLION humans may have lived and farmed the basin [2015]
• Is the Amazon rainforest MAN-MADE? At least 8 MILLION humans may have lived and farmed the [tr] [2015]
• Mysterious Earthen Rings Predate Amazon Rainforest [2014]
• Searching for the Amazon's Hidden Civilizations [2014]
• Hidden shell middens reveal ancient human presence in Bolivian Amazon [2013]
• Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall [2010]
• In Amazon, traces of an advanced civilization [2010]
• Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years [2010]
• Evidence of Ancient Amazon Civilization Uncovered [2010]
• Fordlandia: The Failure Of Ford's Jungle Utopia [2009]
• Superdirt Made Lost Amazon Cities Possible [2008]
• The African Source Of The Amazon's Fertilizer [2006]
• Putting the carbon back: Black is the new green [2006]
• Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert' [2006]
• Another 'Stonehenge' discovered in Amazon [2006]
• 'Amazon Stonehenge' found in Brazil [2006]
• 'Brazilian Stonehenge' discovered [2006]
• Reproducing the Amazon's black soil could bolster fertility and remove carbon from atmosphere [2006]
• Bird's-Eye View Of The Amazon (Airborne Archaeologist Challenges The Myth Of A Pristine Wilderness) [2004]
• Different Terrain, Common Tactics in Brazil [2004]
• Ancient Hearths Test Carbon Dating (Humans In Brazil 56K+ Years Ago) [2003]
• Amazonian find stuns researchers [2003]
• 'First Americans Were Australian' [2003]
• An origin of new world agriculture in coastal Ecuador (12,000 BP) [2003]
• Rainforest Researchers Hit Paydirt (Farming 11K Years Ago in South America) [2002]
• Human settlements far older than suspected discovered in South America. [2002]

[dp0622]

I want everyone who comes to this thread to look up every link shown and write a 10 page thesis by tomorrow :)

10,000 years.

Wow.

So LONG to us and such a drop of water in universe time.

[bingoplayer]

Never heard of the place.

[SunkenCiv]

• Evolution in Your Face Patrick Huyghe, Omni, Antimatter

  Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, is home to more than 300 species of cichlids. These fish, which are popular in aquariums, are deep-bodied and have one nostril, rather than the usual two, on each side of the head... what's surprising is that Lake Victoria was bone dry not very long ago, suggesting that all the cichlids in it have evolved in a remarkably short time. Seismic profiles and cores of the lake taken by a team headed by Thomas C. Johnson of the University of Minnesota, reveal that the lake dried up completely about 12,400 years ago. This means that the rate of speciation of cichlid fishes has been extremely rapid: something on average of one new species every 40 years! ..."My work suggests that the actual duration of the burst that produced the current fauna was much shorter than even the 12,400 years that the lake has been recently full of water," Kaufman says. "It is likely that many of the species formed during the refilling of the lake. However, they appear to be derived from a diversity of lineages that evolved during previous episodes during which there was a large lake in the basin..."

• Mysterious Earthen Rings Predate Amazon Rainforest
• The African Source Of The Amazon's Fertilizer

[TexasGator]

Single or double spaced?

[Theoria]

Took them 8 years to confirm. Down south, out of Chile:Scientists in Chile have found a 15,000-year-old footprint, the earliest sign of humans' presence in the Americas

A late Pleistocene human footprint from the Pilauco archaeological site, northern Patagonia, Chile

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, right.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Theoria.

[SunkenCiv]

Another useful keyword:

• annaroosevelt

[Steely Tom]

Human settlements in Amazonia much older than previously thought

I thought Bill Levitt built Amazonia after WWII, for when the GIs came home. Way out, south of Ronkokoma. Now I found out people have been there thousands of years? What can I tell ya?

[BenLurkin]

Fascinating.

[Cementjungle]

I have stuff in my fridge that might be that old.

[SunkenCiv]

I grok that. I found some lost scrolls behind a pile of old pizza boxes.

[umgud]

I’d like to see these islands. Are they in your links?

[SunkenCiv]

To get the Clovis-first-and-only jokers and repliacement a-holes off everyone's backs, we could try pushing the narrative that South America was settled by prehistoric navigation from South Africa. :^)

[BenLurkin]

It seems that the antediluvian civilization(s) was so wide-spread, I think it’d be impossible to say which direction the initial migrations went.

[deport]

A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas

Immediately upon arrival, European alleles began to flow, admixed into the
indigenous population, and that process has continued ever since: European DNA is
found today throughout the Americas, no matter how remote or isolated a tribe might
appear to be. But before Columbus, these continents were already populated. The
indigenous people hadn’t always been there, nor had they originated there, as
some of their traditions state, but they had occupied these American lands for
at least 20,000 years.

[alexander_busek]

Never heard of the place.

Quick, someone: Take this article down, stat! bingoplayer never heard of the place!

Regards,

[dp0622]

ROFL!!!!

Mine would be 15 space :)

[dp0622]

Tremendous number of threads on that link regarding the Amazon. wow

They thought previously that untouched land actually had about a million people at one time!?!!?

There’s a miss!