Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 03:54:05 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: THE SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS IN CUBA
A Report by Andrew Collins
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/atlantiscuba.htm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Early complex society revealed in Uruguay

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Early complex society revealed in Uruguay  (Read 109 times)
0 Members and 83 Guests are viewing this topic.
Ashley Washington
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 2500



« on: April 20, 2008, 09:00:35 pm »

Early complex society revealed in Uruguay

Researchers studying complex societies in the Americas have often concentrated on the civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes, but recent studies show that perhaps even earlier, there was a very culturally advanced society in southeastern Uruguay. Archaeologists formerly believed that, during the pre-Hispanic era, the La Plata basin was home to only the most nomadic societies, consisting of small groups of hunters and gatherers. The La Plata basin is a large river system surrounded by extensive grasslands and wetlands.  Findings at Los Ajos, a multi-mound site in the wetlands, has provided evidence that the inhabitants of these mounds created a complex farming society during the Late Archaic period in the mid-Holocene, between 4,800-4,200 years ago.  The mound complexes were geometrically arranged around a central area in circular, elliptical, and horseshoe formations, in some ways reminiscent of Late Archaic earthworks at Poverty Point, Louisiana.

In the 1990s, archaeologists discovered that the earliest occupations at Los Ajos dated back to a relatively dry phase of the mid-Holocene period.  Recent excavations performed by Jose Iriarte of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, indicated that the drier climate forced the inhabitants, known as “Constructores de Cerritos,” to establish a permanent farming village near the wetlands.  This environment became an attractive place to settle and raise crops, such as corn and squash. The inhabitants also constructed one of the largest and most advanced architectural sites of the La Plata basin. Three additional mound sites (Puntas de San Luis, Isla Larga, and Potrerillo) additionally indicate the growth of permanent settlements in southeastern Uruguay during the mid-Holocene period.

According to Iriate and his team, the architecture of Los Ajos shares similarities with that in lower Amazonian sites near the Atlantic Coast of Brazil.  Since the formal layout of the mounds in the La Plata Basin occurred significantly earlier, the inhabitants can be characterized as having an independent and precocious settlement pattern and architectural style.

Iriate, J. et al.,  Nature 432, 2 Dec 2004; Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec 2004

http://www.athenapub.com/archnew2.htm
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter



Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy