Engineered waterways helped Ancient Amazonians became master maize farmers

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/maize-farmers-amazonians-casarabe

by andsoitis • 1 year ago

60 9 1 year ago

eszed2• 1 year ago

It seems extraordinary to me that in the past ~decade the idea of Amazonia being this primordial rainforest has been demolished. I'm now curious whether there's any trace of this in the ethnology and folklore of the native people there? Any oral histories about the downfall of civilization? No one would have been expecting it before, so it seems like it could have been overlooked.

marcosdumay2• 1 year ago

This one is about savanna.

If you meant to say that the Amazon forest never had human development in it, this is true for almost all of the forest. Nothing was demolished.

But then, I'm not sure what you mean by "primordial rainforest". It is a very young forest if that's your question.

eszed2• 1 year ago

It is a very young forest

That's what I meant - sorry that wasn't clear.

I remember being taught, '80s -' 90s, that the Amazonian rainforest ecosystem had existed in basically its present form for thousands of years.

That was said in the context of explaining why it shouldn't be cut it down at the rate it currently is. I certainly don't mean to say that now that we know it is such a young forest it's OK to cut it down! I just find it interesting that, and how quickly, such an accepted, "obvious", point of fact has been found not to be true.

What do you mean by "nothing was demolished"?

[Edit: Wait - I think I answered my own question. I meant the idea (of an old forest) had been demolished. Not that anything physical had been. Glad we cleared that up!

mahrain• 1 year ago

I hate to suggest it but it’s extensively explored by Graham Hancock when discussing the Americas in season 2 of Ancient Apocalypse.

Even dismissing his ideas around an older civilization wiped away by a “younger dryas event”, the archeological findings in the Amazon were new to me.

barbazoo• 1 year ago

How do you know what you got from it was based on reality? I’ve watched Stefan Milos videos on his Atlantis hypothesis and it seemed like he’s not a serious scientist.

unwind• 1 year ago

Meta: typo in title, "became" should be "become", right?

financetechbro• 1 year ago

Correct

Engineered waterways helped Ancient Amazonians became master maize farmers

Related Stories