Re: More on lost Amazon Civilization

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 08:39:38 -0500 (CDT),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> 
>Saturday, September 20, 2003, 12:22 A.M. Pacific 
>
>Amazonian find stuns researchers 
>By Thomas H. Maugh II 
>Los Angeles Times 
>
>Deep in the Amazon forest of Brazil, archaeologists have found a network
>of 1,000-year-old towns and villages that refutes two long-held notions:
>that the pre-Columbian tropical rain forest was a pristine environment
>that had not been altered by humans, and that the rain forest could not
>support a complex, sophisticated society. 
>A 15-mile-square region at the headwaters of the Xingu River contains at
>least 19 villages that are sited at regular intervals and share the same
>circular design. The villages are connected by a system of broad,
>parallel highways, Florida researchers reported in yesterday's issue of
>Science. 
>The Xinguano people who occupied the area not only built the complex
>towns but also dramatically altered the forest to meet their needs,
>clearing large areas to plant orchards and cassava while preserving
>other areas as a source of wood, medicine and animals. 
>Researchers have theorized for 10 to 20 years that such societies were
>possible in Amazonia, said archaeologist Jim Petersen of the University
>of Vermont, "but this is the first proof." 
>The new findings are a crucial part of "a growing body of evidence that
>Amazonia could support reasonably large villages and complex societies,"
>added archaeologist Robert Carneiro of the American Museum of Natural
>History in New York. 
>The region today is composed primarily of small villages with
>populations of fewer than 150 people, each of which is independent of
>other settlements. 
>Before the current work, most of the Xinguano remaining in the region
>were not even aware of the accomplishments of their ancestors before the
>population was decimated by diseases brought by the invading Spanish in
>the 16th century, said archaeologist Michael Heckenberger of the
>University of Florida, who led the research. 
>Current attitudes about the region were shaped nearly 50 years ago by
>researchers such as archaeologist Betty Meggers of the Smithsonian
>Institution's National Museum of Natural History, whose research led her
>to conclude that the Amazon basin was a "counterfeit paradise." 
>Despite the seeming abundance of plants and wildlife in the rain forest,
>she said, the soil in the region is so poor that it could not support
>the intensive agriculture necessary for the establishment of large
>communities. 
>Little evidence has been collected to refute that idea, Petersen said,
>largely because the Amazon area — roughly the size of the United
>States — is one of the "last poorly known archaeological regions on
>the face of the Earth." 
>Heckenberger estimates that more than 50 percent of the forest in the
>region was cut down and replaced with fruit orchards and fields of
>cassava, which grows better in the poor soil than most other crops. 
>He speculates that the Xinguano got about 80 percent of their calories
>from the cassava, which is still prepared today in much the same fashion
>as it was in the pre-Columbian era. The remainder of the diet was
>composed primarily of fruit and fish. 
>The 19 villages, occupied between roughly A.D. 800 and A.D. 1600, were
>arranged in two large clusters, each supporting populations of 2,500 to
>5,000 people. Residential areas in the villages were dispersed in a
>large circle around an empty hub, which probably was ceremonial,
>Heckenberger said. 
>The individual villages were about 1-½ to 2 miles apart, connected by
>straight roadways that were as much as 150 feet wide, some with high
>mounds or "curbs" along their edges. The team also found excavated
>ditches in and around the ancient settlements, bridges, artificial river
>obstructions and ponds, raised causeways, canals and other structures,
>many of which are in use today. 
>"They are organized in a way that suggests a sophisticated knowledge of
>mathematics, astronomy and other sciences," Heckenberger said. "It's not
>earth-shattering compared to what was going on in the rest of the world
>at the same time, but nobody expected it in the Amazon." 

I should also note that people are saying the deep forest of
africa were only recently occupied; however when one looks
at depth of genetic diversity it is within the forest biaka
pygmies, and many peoples that spread into the tropics also
have similar qualities and live in similar environments and
tend to have the oldest connections with africa (except
south america, whose old world connection points in the
direction of pre-Yayoi Japan). Thus it comes as no surprise
that sophisticated societies are built out of forest. Living
in the forest requires very adaptive living strategies, and
a finer use of tools and landscape to survive (possibly why
pygmies and negritos tend to have a high representation in
such habitats). I would not be surprised at all if the seeds
of mesoamerican civilization were born out of lowland
forests of central america and that central and south
american civilization share a common origin in such tropical
forest. The most basic requirment of humans, water, is
continually supplied in the tropical forest, people who live
in places where water is unpredictable have to move and
cannot set up continuous civilizations as easily. The
difference between forest peoples is that they have to learn
to convert water from harmful overabundance into useful.
In addition tropical forest provide waterways, that are
useful for boat travel from place to place and for fish
harvesting (supplimenting cultivation). The issue with the
rain forest is that the food supply is often in the canopy,
and burning of areas are required to bring the nutrients
down to the ground. However with high rates of rainfall
these nutrients are rapidly depleted from the soil. What is
missing from these amazonian societies is a culture
associated with composting the soft parts of the trees and
terrian modification and using the wood parts for building.
This is kind of hard to do with out highly developed stone
or metal tools.