Ancient Civilization Flourished in the Desert Thanks to Bird Droppings

New research shows prehistoric farmers thrived using seabird droppings imported from the coast to fertilize crops.

Despite the relative proximity of South America's the Atacama Desert to the Pacific Ocean, it has arid conditions that are often used by researchers to simulate Martian conditions. Yet, discoveries show that thousands of years ago, prehistoric farmers were able to thrive and raise crops for the community.

Prehistoric Farming

Jonathan Sandor, a researcher of ancient civilizations and agriculture from the Iowa State University, says, "People created the most amazing irrigation and terrace systems to manage the precious water they had. They developed crops that were adapted to these places."

Ingenuity and a surprising ingredient--seabird poop was the secret to this early civilization to bloom. Prehistoric farmers were aware of the scarcity of water, and they needed to maximize every drop. But they were also aware that the arid regions of the Atacama Desert needed nutrients in order to grow crops.

A new study published in the journal Nature Plants suggests that workers transported guano to the arid region's parched soils to prehistoric farmers who used them as fertilizer and worth its weight in gold.

Francisca Santana-Sagredo, co-author of the study and works at the University of Chile and University of Oxford says, "Because the arid regions of the Atacama are more than 50 miles front he coast, the use of guano instead of other animal dung, decomposed leaves, and human night soils, were utilized."

The arid and challenging conditions of the Atacama Desert were a cross to bear for residents but were highly advantageous for Santana-Sagredo and colleagues as they search for clues to the success of ancient farmers. Scraps of ancient foods and human remains were extraordinarily preserved after drying out in the ancient villages, burial mounds, and cemeteries.

Researchers were able to investigate maize, chili pepper, quinoa, gourds, beans, squash, potatoes, popcorn, and other delicacies. Food remains were prevalent and diverse that it begs the question 'how were all these crops produced in the desert?'

Uncovering the Success of Ancient Farmers in the Atacama Desert

To uncover the secrets of the agricultural success of ancient farmers, researchers sampled 246 plant remains in the South Central Andes of Northern Chile. Here they found crop nitrogen isotope values, which indicate an increase in soil nutrients that increased from 1000 A.D.

One of the things that could deliver nitrogen in large doses was seabird guano, a plentiful resource along the Pacific Coast. Feces collected from boobies, pelicans, and cormorants, splattered deep on rocky islets on the coast, were rich in nitrogen due to seabirds snacking on schools of small fish.

Lab experiments show that using guano as fertilizer supercharges plan nitrogen levels of up to 20-40%. A published study on experiments in Peruvian cornfield suggests that seabird fertilizer can boost nitrogen values by 5 times compared to lama dung.

Santana-Sagredo explains that the only logical explanation for high nitrogen values was the seabird guano. No other fertilizer could reach the same levels.

Check out more news and information on Archeology on Science Times.