By the 1800s, intensive agriculture had seriously depleted soil fertility along the East Coast of the United States. Guano mined from Pacific islands offshore from Peru became a prized imported fertilizer. Competition for that resource led to an 1856 law directing the country to secure access to guano by claiming sovereignty over unclaimed territories.
In the Andes Mountains today, water managers are using both ancient and modern approaches to improve supplies of this vital resource. Novel methods, including those based on Indigenous knowledge, are needed to help meet the challenges of population growth and a warming climate.
My book, "The Monumental Andes—Geology, Geography, and Ancient Cultures of the Peruvian Andes", is hot off the presses! Hooray! It is one I would have liked to read before traveling in Peru. In this blog post, I summarize a dozen of my published posts about Peru, emphasizing my favorite topics of the ancient Andeans’ construction, metalworking, and artistic achievements.
Llamas, iconic animals of the Andes Mountains, have been the trusted companions of humans for thousands of years. Llamas are superb pack animals and excel at moving on rough, rocky, and steep terrain. I’m happy to report my good fortune in recently taking an overnight camping trip with Wilderness Ridge Trail Llamas on the edge of Capitol Reef National Park. It was a fabulous trip!
Rope made from twisted or braided plant fibers can be traced back tens of thousands of years. Preservation is rare, so most artifacts have been lost in the dust of time – but there are hints about rope production, including tools that may have been used to make them. The rope bridges of the Incas were impressive structures that could extend across greater distances than any masonry bridge built in history before that time.
Stone tools work best when made from specific kinds of rock. Careful selection of rock types began early when our human ancestors (hominins) first began using stone tools millions of years ago. Volcanic rocks have been a preferred choice, from hominins to the ancient Andeans. And surprisingly, perhaps, the trail of stone tools continues into the present.
Earthquakes have destroyed settlements and wreaked havoc on societies throughout human history. In my soon-to-be published book, "The Monumental Andes", I speculate that a major earthquake, perhaps combined with disastrous effects from El Nino weather patterns, could have contributed to the downfall of the Chavín culture that once flourished in the Cordillera Blanca region of modern northern Peru.
The extraordinary Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is a famous symbol of love and devotion. Tremendous wealth was required to construct this monument. There is a direct connection to precious metals of the Incas and their ancestors – and particularly, to silver from the Potosí mine high in the Andes Mountains.
For thousands of years, ancient people collected and transported enormous rocks from quarries to carve their gigantic statues and shape blocks for pyramids, temples, and other monumental structures. The ancient Egyptians are particularly renowned for their work with massive blocks. They used around 200 different quarries over 3,000 years, and worked sandstone, limestone, basalt, granites, and many other types of rocks .
When I first visited the Peruvian Andes, I was astonished to see groves of eucalyptus — native Australian trees — at elevations greater than 10,000 feet (3,048 m). Eucalyptus is the most widely planted non-native tree in coastal California, which has a Mediterranean-type climate like that found in parts of Australia, but why are these trees in the high Andes?
