Back to Search
Start Over
‘White gold’ guano fertilizer drove agricultural intensification in the Atacama Desert from ad 1000
- Source :
- Nature Plants. 7:152-158
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile’s hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (δ15N) from around ad 1000. Maize was most affected, with δ15N values as high as +30‰, and human bone collagen following a similar trend; moreover, their carbon isotope values (δ13C) indicate a considerable increase in the consumption of maize at the same time. We attribute the shift to extremely high δ15N values—the highest in the world for archaeological plants—to the use of seabird guano to fertilize crops. Guano—‘white gold’ as it came to be called—thus sustained agricultural intensification, supporting a substantial population in an otherwise extreme environment. The source of pre-Inca agriculture in the Atacama Desert of Chile has been the subject of multiple theories, but this Article uses preserved maize remains to deduce that coastal guano deposits were utilized in an impressive display of social and ecological sophistication.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
education.field_of_study
δ13C
business.industry
Agroforestry
Archaeological record
Population
Plant Science
engineering.material
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
030104 developmental biology
Geography
Productivity (ecology)
Agriculture
Bioarchaeology
Guano
engineering
Fertilizer
business
education
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20550278
- Volume :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Plants
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....32f80dd3268e31e04ed75f3ebc6323d4