August 26, 2009 • 9 mins
In the arid Norte Chico region of Peru, archaeologists found several ancient mounds and a large amount of fish bones. Why did the city's founders move to an inland desert? How did they get all these fish? Learn more in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert, joined today by Sarah Downy. Hey. Sarah, Hey, Katie,
Since you're the Green editor, I thought this was a
(00:21):
good question for you. Did climate change create a mysterious
civilization five thousand years ago? We think it did, and
we think that because of some fish bones we found
in a desert. Yeah, so let's start with what they
did find. In two thousand one, archaeologists in the Norte
Chico region of Peru found fish bones in a desert
(00:44):
along with these giant stone mountains, but not that giant.
If you were just going on the size of the
mounds alone, they don't seem super impressive. They're no more
than eighty five ft tall. But still there's something important
out them. And what would that be, Sah. They're really
really old, being older than the Pyramids, old older than
(01:07):
the Pyramids, much older than any of the Incan or
Mayan pyramids too, at least by a thousand years. So
it could be that we've found the first complex civilization
in the America's period. So let's talk a little bit
more about what these archaeologists found and why it matters.
So we've got these massive man made structures, not too massive,
(01:30):
but you know, massive seashells and fish bones in the
middle of a desert. Some anthropomorphic figurines which were found
in the city, and circular plazas and houses built from adobe, wooden, poles, cane,
and mud. But the seashells and fish bones are the
big part of the mystery here. We're really far away
from water, there's no vegetation. It's ten miles from the ocean.
(01:56):
So how did they get there? Right? And why would
there be a civilization around a place where there is
no water and no vegetation and we are calls it
a moonscape. That is a good and if you look
at pictures, if you if you look up north to
Chico online, you'll see it does not look like it's
part of this world. The theory goes that fishermen on
the coast of Peru survived on the sea and they
(02:18):
were hunter gatherers. And I think of hunter gatherers, I
usually think of people picking berries, but or caveman hunting
mammoth well exactly, but you can also be the kind
of hunter gatherer that gathers up clams and muscles on
the seaside of Peru. But in three thousand BC, their
whole lifestyle changed, and that's because the El Nino regular
(02:38):
weather event started to shift up a little. El Nino
brings heavy rains and warms up the ocean around South America,
and it's a cyclical event. It usually is tied to
the hurricane season and happens every couple of years. But
when the El Neno cycles started picking up, it started
to really mess with the climate of North Chico or
(03:00):
the coastal area right there. There was a lot more
rain and the ocean temperature went up, which was the
kicker because all the cold water fish left and the
clams and muscles died, and there was also a lot
of rain and flooding. So they decided to move inland,
being the enterprising hunter gatherers that they were. But that
(03:21):
changed everything. So climate change had made this area, the
Nartichico area, into something more fertile because there was so
much more rain. Yeah, and it was easy to irrigate.
People actually still have simple irrigation systems in the area.
So they learned how to irrigate. They started cultivating crops
like squash, cotton, beans, and avocados, and they traded them
(03:45):
for fish like anchovies with the coastal people, and so
that's how we ended up with fish bones in the
middle of the desert. Mystery once solved. Yeah, it was
a symbiotic relationship between the fisherman who remained at the
coast and the people living in these centralized cities. Because
they were growing cotton weaving nuts, they could trade those
to the fishermen they in return would get fish, and
(04:08):
it all worked out and it was the start of
civilization in the Americas, which is a pretty big accomplishment.
Were these little hunter gatherers in Peru. So they've got
flourishing trade and they start building and because of this
kind of food production and trade, they need all more
centralized society, so they all start building houses and developing
(04:31):
a government and possibly even developing an organized religion, which
is why we ended up with those little anthropomorphic figurines.
Not to mention building these mounds, which are they're actually
described as birthday cakes. Yeah, big stone birthday ye kind
of like the side of that. Uh. They covered them
in plaster and would paint them colors and probably had
(04:51):
a religion and we're had all the hallmarks of civilization
except a few, right, right, They didn't The things that
the archaeologists didn't find where perhaps more significant almost They
didn't find pottery. They didn't find weapons or art or
dependency on a staple grain crop. The lack of ceramics
(05:13):
seems especially odd to me that you could have the
technology to build these enormous mounds. They actually wove baskets
out of reads to carry these huge loads of rocks
and plaster to cover them, and it took a lot
of energy, and they were constantly remodeling and replastering things.
(05:35):
So it wasn't like they just built them and that
was the end of it. It was an ongoing labor
of love. It seems like ceramics would be born from that.
But they haven't found a single shard of pottery anywhere.
And because of that, some people say you wouldn't consider
it a civilization at all, because ceramics is one of
the hallmarks of a civilization, as well as urbanization, you know,
having urban centers, which this one maybe did and maybe didn't.
(05:59):
It had meeting they did, which is part of the
reason for those those sunken plazas. Um They also might
have had a proto writing system called quiepoo, which is
it looks like not on strings basically could have just
been a mnemonic device, but something some kind of rudimentary
writing perhaps, And they might have also had music. Several
(06:22):
flutes have been found. And we have a great quote
from Professor Winifred Creamer, who is an anthropologist at Northern
Illinois University, and she said, the people who built the
first of these structures had no model to go by,
no precedent to use in building a monument. It's a
bit like deciding to build a functioning spaceship in your
backyard and succeeding. I like that. I love that because, seriously,
(06:44):
think about it, you had absolutely no model. This is
the very start of civilization, seeing the pyramids and seeing
the Incan in mind pyramids. So these little hills don't
look like much to our eyes, but imagine if you'd
never seen something like that. And the other cool thing
is that, of course this is the exact place where
we stopped being hunter gatherers and started forming into societies.
(07:09):
And the civilization may have spawned other Andean cultures, and
it seems like some of those traditions went out across
South America as well, definitely, but like most civilizations, this
did not last forever. They were around for about a
thousand years before there was another shift in climate that
made irrigation too difficult, so they might have abandoned their
(07:33):
little complex of cities, but they did adapt, so presumably
these people lived on to start up new civilizations or
at least new communities. Right, And they're not the only
civilization that was affected by this sort of climate shift.
Some people say that China's Tang dynasty, which fell in
nine oh seven a d may have been also because
(07:55):
of climate shift, which altered the monsoon season. Yeah, and
around the same time, oddly enough, on the other side
of the world, the Mayan civilization started to fall, and
people have linked that to a lot of different things.
By the end of the Mayan civilization, they were in
big trouble for many reasons, but the point one comes. Yeah,
they had some problems by then, but a series of
(08:18):
droughts might have been what detimin. They were already maxed
out for the food they could grow for the size
of their population, and you have a drought for a
few years and you don't know when it's going to end.
That's it. When that was the point in agriculture based
society in the face of those kinds of changes, has
to adapt where it ends. So it's an interesting thing
(08:41):
to think about in the face of water shortages, just
the ways of civilization has to adapt to move on.
And that's the final word from our green So if
you'd like to check out the article did climate change
create a mysterious civilization you five thousand years ago? And
(09:02):
also check out the Stuffy Misston History Class blog and
Sarah's Green blog, go to our homepage at www dot
how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com and be sure
to check out the Stuff You mist in History Class
(09:23):
blog on the how stuff works dot com homepage
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert, joined today by Sarah Downy. Hey. Sarah, Hey, Katie,
Since you're the Green editor, I thought this was a
(00:21):
good question for you. Did climate change create a mysterious
civilization five thousand years ago? We think it did, and
we think that because of some fish bones we found
in a desert. Yeah, so let's start with what they
did find. In two thousand one, archaeologists in the Norte
Chico region of Peru found fish bones in a desert
(00:44):
along with these giant stone mountains, but not that giant.
If you were just going on the size of the
mounds alone, they don't seem super impressive. They're no more
than eighty five ft tall. But still there's something important
out them. And what would that be, Sah. They're really
really old, being older than the Pyramids, old older than
(01:07):
the Pyramids, much older than any of the Incan or
Mayan pyramids too, at least by a thousand years. So
it could be that we've found the first complex civilization
in the America's period. So let's talk a little bit
more about what these archaeologists found and why it matters.
So we've got these massive man made structures, not too massive,
(01:30):
but you know, massive seashells and fish bones in the
middle of a desert. Some anthropomorphic figurines which were found
in the city, and circular plazas and houses built from adobe, wooden, poles, cane,
and mud. But the seashells and fish bones are the
big part of the mystery here. We're really far away
from water, there's no vegetation. It's ten miles from the ocean.
(01:56):
So how did they get there? Right? And why would
there be a civilization around a place where there is
no water and no vegetation and we are calls it
a moonscape. That is a good and if you look
at pictures, if you if you look up north to
Chico online, you'll see it does not look like it's
part of this world. The theory goes that fishermen on
the coast of Peru survived on the sea and they
(02:18):
were hunter gatherers. And I think of hunter gatherers, I
usually think of people picking berries, but or caveman hunting
mammoth well exactly, but you can also be the kind
of hunter gatherer that gathers up clams and muscles on
the seaside of Peru. But in three thousand BC, their
whole lifestyle changed, and that's because the El Nino regular
(02:38):
weather event started to shift up a little. El Nino
brings heavy rains and warms up the ocean around South America,
and it's a cyclical event. It usually is tied to
the hurricane season and happens every couple of years. But
when the El Neno cycles started picking up, it started
to really mess with the climate of North Chico or
(03:00):
the coastal area right there. There was a lot more
rain and the ocean temperature went up, which was the
kicker because all the cold water fish left and the
clams and muscles died, and there was also a lot
of rain and flooding. So they decided to move inland,
being the enterprising hunter gatherers that they were. But that
(03:21):
changed everything. So climate change had made this area, the
Nartichico area, into something more fertile because there was so
much more rain. Yeah, and it was easy to irrigate.
People actually still have simple irrigation systems in the area.
So they learned how to irrigate. They started cultivating crops
like squash, cotton, beans, and avocados, and they traded them
(03:45):
for fish like anchovies with the coastal people, and so
that's how we ended up with fish bones in the
middle of the desert. Mystery once solved. Yeah, it was
a symbiotic relationship between the fisherman who remained at the
coast and the people living in these centralized cities. Because
they were growing cotton weaving nuts, they could trade those
to the fishermen they in return would get fish, and
(04:08):
it all worked out and it was the start of
civilization in the Americas, which is a pretty big accomplishment.
Were these little hunter gatherers in Peru. So they've got
flourishing trade and they start building and because of this
kind of food production and trade, they need all more
centralized society, so they all start building houses and developing
(04:31):
a government and possibly even developing an organized religion, which
is why we ended up with those little anthropomorphic figurines.
Not to mention building these mounds, which are they're actually
described as birthday cakes. Yeah, big stone birthday ye kind
of like the side of that. Uh. They covered them
in plaster and would paint them colors and probably had
(04:51):
a religion and we're had all the hallmarks of civilization
except a few, right, right, They didn't The things that
the archaeologists didn't find where perhaps more significant almost They
didn't find pottery. They didn't find weapons or art or
dependency on a staple grain crop. The lack of ceramics
(05:13):
seems especially odd to me that you could have the
technology to build these enormous mounds. They actually wove baskets
out of reads to carry these huge loads of rocks
and plaster to cover them, and it took a lot
of energy, and they were constantly remodeling and replastering things.
(05:35):
So it wasn't like they just built them and that
was the end of it. It was an ongoing labor
of love. It seems like ceramics would be born from that.
But they haven't found a single shard of pottery anywhere.
And because of that, some people say you wouldn't consider
it a civilization at all, because ceramics is one of
the hallmarks of a civilization, as well as urbanization, you know,
having urban centers, which this one maybe did and maybe didn't.
(05:59):
It had meeting they did, which is part of the
reason for those those sunken plazas. Um They also might
have had a proto writing system called quiepoo, which is
it looks like not on strings basically could have just
been a mnemonic device, but something some kind of rudimentary
writing perhaps, And they might have also had music. Several
(06:22):
flutes have been found. And we have a great quote
from Professor Winifred Creamer, who is an anthropologist at Northern
Illinois University, and she said, the people who built the
first of these structures had no model to go by,
no precedent to use in building a monument. It's a
bit like deciding to build a functioning spaceship in your
backyard and succeeding. I like that. I love that because, seriously,
(06:44):
think about it, you had absolutely no model. This is
the very start of civilization, seeing the pyramids and seeing
the Incan in mind pyramids. So these little hills don't
look like much to our eyes, but imagine if you'd
never seen something like that. And the other cool thing
is that, of course this is the exact place where
we stopped being hunter gatherers and started forming into societies.
(07:09):
And the civilization may have spawned other Andean cultures, and
it seems like some of those traditions went out across
South America as well, definitely, but like most civilizations, this
did not last forever. They were around for about a
thousand years before there was another shift in climate that
made irrigation too difficult, so they might have abandoned their
(07:33):
little complex of cities, but they did adapt, so presumably
these people lived on to start up new civilizations or
at least new communities. Right, And they're not the only
civilization that was affected by this sort of climate shift.
Some people say that China's Tang dynasty, which fell in
nine oh seven a d may have been also because
(07:55):
of climate shift, which altered the monsoon season. Yeah, and
around the same time, oddly enough, on the other side
of the world, the Mayan civilization started to fall, and
people have linked that to a lot of different things.
By the end of the Mayan civilization, they were in
big trouble for many reasons, but the point one comes. Yeah,
they had some problems by then, but a series of
(08:18):
droughts might have been what detimin. They were already maxed
out for the food they could grow for the size
of their population, and you have a drought for a
few years and you don't know when it's going to end.
That's it. When that was the point in agriculture based
society in the face of those kinds of changes, has
to adapt where it ends. So it's an interesting thing
(08:41):
to think about in the face of water shortages, just
the ways of civilization has to adapt to move on.
And that's the final word from our green So if
you'd like to check out the article did climate change
create a mysterious civilization you five thousand years ago? And
(09:02):
also check out the Stuffy Misston History Class blog and
Sarah's Green blog, go to our homepage at www dot
how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com and be sure
to check out the Stuff You mist in History Class
(09:23):
blog on the how stuff works dot com homepage
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