Newsletter May 2007

An international team of archeologists led by Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the Universite de Montpelier in France has found an interesting new way to trace the rise and fall of the Inca civilization, as well as other South American societies. The method involves measuring the numbers of mite fossils in soil samples and dating them. Mites feed on the droppings of llamas, the main working animal in the region. The number of mite fossils is related to the number of llamas, which is in turn related to the size of the population.

The researchers studied core samples from the sacred lake Marcacocha in the Patacancha Valley near Cuzco. The remnants of the lake lie within a major trade route between the Amazon forest and the Inca settlement of Ollantaytambo. It is known that during the height if the Inca Empire llama trains consisting of as many as 1,000 animals used the trade route regularly.

The researchers were not surprised to find a marked increase in the numbers of mite fossils as the Inca Empire expanded from Cuzco in the early 1400s. Later they saw a very sudden drop in numbers that correlates to the drastic indigenous population collapse during the Spanish conquest. The samples also show an increase in fossils in the 1600s, when the Spanish introduced their own livestock to the area. The early 1700s however show a decline in numbers. Not only was this time the coldest part of the climatic period known as the Little Ice Age, but there was also a plague running wild, killing as many as 600 people a day in Cuzco.

Source: northjersey.com

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