Posted on 05/22/2011 4:51:51 PM PDT by decimon
One of the world's greatest ancient civilisations may have been built on llama droppings, a new study has found.
Machu Picchu, the famous Inca city set in the Peruvian Andes, celebrates the centenary of its "'discovery" by the outside world this July.
Dignitaries will descend on site for a glitzy event in July marking 100 years since US explorer Hiram Bingham came upon the site, but the origins of Machu Picchu were far less glamorous.
According to a study published in archaeological review Antiquity, llama droppings provided the basis for the growth of Inca society.
It was the switch from hunter-gathering to agriculture 2,700 years ago that first led the Incas to settle and flourish in the Cuzco area where Machu Picchu sits, according to the study's author Alex Chepstow-Lusty.
Mr Chepstow-Lusty, of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, said the development of agriculture and the growing of maize crops is key to the growth of societies.
"Cereals make civilisations," he said.
Mr Chepstow-Lusty has spent years analysing organic deposits in the mud of a small lake, "more of a pond really," called Marcaccocha on the road between the lower-lying jungle and Machu Picchu.
His team found a correlation between the first appearance of maize pollen around 700BC - which showed for the first time that the cereal could be grown at high altitudes - and a spike in the number of mites who feed on animal excrement.
They concluded that the widespread shift to agriculture was only possible with an extra ingredient: organic fertilisers on a vast scale.
In other words, lots of llama droppings.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
This whole article is garbage.
Civilization may be based on cereals, but somebody forgot to tell the Andean peoples. Their civilization was based on potatoes and fish.
Prior to the Inca empire around 1400, maize was grown as a status food, not a staple crop. Certainly a civilization starting in 700 BC wasn’t “based on maize.” This was true of all Meso-American civilizations, but not the Andean ones.
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Mostly for the Fleece, (Fiber), I have found that it is superior to Sheep’s wool for the texture, softness and the Hypo-allergenic properties. Wool however is superior for keeping you warm even when it is wet. But does itch like crazy...
We also breed for superior animals, The American Alpaca industry is still very small and we can use as many breeders as we can get. The goal is to get the national herd above one million. It’s a round number, but we believe that at that size the commercial processing costs will drop considerably. For now though, Fiber processing is either done at mini-mills or by home crafting enthusiasts or fiber artists.
Ande ewe can do better? Cria me a river. ;-)
We’ve had llamas for years. Something interesting about their behavior is that they use communal dung piles. One of them picks a place to do their business and all of them will use that spot over and over. If they stay in one area for a while, they will create an area that will stay significantly greener and more productive for years. I can see how someone might have capitalized on this.
Interesting. Good luck.
Maybe you can fake them out by moving some of the pile.
For superior non-itching, warmth inducing natural fiber, nothing beats cashmere. Gotta love those goats!
Someone once wrote, “...if you like cats, you’ll like goats. Goats see being fenced in as though living in a gated community they’re free to leave at will!”
Um, GGGGG.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs, Grains, and Guano.
“Maybe you can fake them out by moving some of the pile.”
Yep, that’s how you do it. They will immediately start using that spot.
Didn’t she appear in “Secret of the Incas?”
It’s getting their heads stuck in the fence that’s the rub.
LOL! A writer of one article I read in Hobby Farms insists that to raise goats, one must be a romantic.
I have no idea what the above means. I hope one day to have a couple of miniature Jersey cows and a small flock of Santa Cruz sheep. No goats. I’m supposing no genes for romance.
Goatgranny has me convinced that goats will be our next project.
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