Archives - History: Page 23
Author: amparo enriquez (Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:07 pm)
Title: History: Irrigation Farming
An analysis of four canals filled with silt and buried deep under sediments, showed that they were used to cultivate with water, field’s of 5,400 years ago, in one case possibly as early as 6,700 years ago, archeologist reported in a recent issue of the proceedings of the national academy of science.
It was assumed that by 4,000 or perhaps 1,000 years earlier, large scale irrigation farming was well under way in Peru, as suggested by the urban ruins of increasing size and architectural distinction. Their growth presumably depended on irrigation in the arid valleys and hills descending to coastal Peru. But the telling evidence of the canals had been missing.
Scholars hailed the discovery as adding a new historical dimension to understanding the origins of civilization in the Andes.