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July 26, 2009
Climate study places Incas' success down to 400 years of warm weather
Topics: Climate Change
Global warming - back in 1100 AD - turned out to be a good thing:
[...] According to new research, an increase in temperature of several degrees between AD1100 and 1533 allowed vast areas of mountain land to be used for agriculture for the first time. This fuelled the territorial expansion of the Incas, which at its peak stretched from the modern Colombian border to the middle of Chile.Continue reading ..."Yes, they were highly organised, and they had a sophisticated hierarchical system, but it wouldn't have counted a jot without being underpinned by the warming of the climate," says Dr Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a palaeo-ecologist from the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, Peru.
As the treeline moved higher up the mountains, the Incas re-sculpted their landscape to maximise agricultural productivity. They carved terraces into the mountatinsides and developed a complex system of canals to irrigate the land.
Hat tip - Patriot Room
Posted by Richard at July 26, 2009 8:08 PM
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