Archaeologists push back beginning of civilization in Americas 400 years

The Daily Telegraph ^ | Dec. 23, 2004 | Nic Fleming

[bruinbirdman]

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that the oldest civilisation in the Americas dates back 400 years earlier than previously thought, according to research published today.

New radiocarbon dating of 95 samples taken from pyramid mounds and houses suggest that by 3100 BC there were complex societies and communal building of religious monuments across three valleys in Peru.

This emerging civilisation was the first in the Americas to develop centralised decision-making, formalised religion, social hierarchies and a mixed economy based on agriculture and fishing.

The newly uncovered sites in the Fortaleza and Pativilca valleys, along with the nearby previously reported sites in the Supe valley are seen as the earliest common roots of the Inca empire.

Jonathan Haas, of the department of anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago, who is the lead author of the research published in the journal Nature, said: "The scale and sophistication of these sites is unheard of anywhere in the New World at this time, and almost any time. . . .

[Auntie Dem]

I kinda like this west africa to Brazil theory.

There's no reason that people could not have come to the Americas from all over the world. We aren't limited to just one migration source.

[SunkenCiv]

back to topic. A similar story.

First American civilisation sprang up fast
by Jeff Hecht
22 December 2004
NewScientist

In less than 150 years, people went "from small hunter-gatherer bands to great big permanent communities with monumental architectures," says Jonathan Haas of the Field Museum in Chicago, US, whose group carbon-dated samples from 13 of more than 20 sites in the Norte Chico region. The ancient South American culture began building massive stone structures about the same time Egyptians built their first large step-pyramids. Yet their culture followed a different pattern. They lacked pottery, which preceded stone monuments in the Middle East. They also lacked writing, art and sculpture... The Norte Chico civilisation differs from all other early [known] civilisations in being based on marine resources rather than the cultivation of grains, says Winifred Creamer at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, US, Haas's wife and colleague. Their study reveals new complexity, with sites along the rivers growing squash, beans and avocados, and irrigating fields to grow cotton, which they exchanged for fish from the coast... [T]he civilisation thrived for 1200 years, expanding to include more settlements in a zone of about 1500 square kilometres, but retaining its distinctive reliance on the sea and non-grain crops. Change arrived in about 2000 BC, with the large mounds disappearing and cultivation shifting toward corn. The centres of the evolving Andean culture moved into the larger valleys to the north and south, which offered more room for cultivation, and little was built in Norte Chico for thousands of years.

GGG non-ping. ;')

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[SunkenCiv]

well said.

[SunkenCiv]

interesting post.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_atoz.html

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. Nice post up there, the one about the amulet.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Site Sheds Light on Human Arrival
Source: AP via Yahoo
Published: May 26, 2001
Posted on 05/27/2001 06:25:12 PDT by sarcasm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b11003848e1.htm

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

Nice post by Thinkin' Gal. This is just an update to the ping message.

Archeological Riddle, Science Frontiers #67, Jan-Feb 1990, William R. Corliss