Andean Civilization

Question 1

Andean civilization

Answer 1

• The coastal desert was inhabited for millennia by fishermen, and many of their settlements have been studied by archaeologists.
• Archaeologists, particularly non-Peruvian scholars, have concentrated on the study of coastal peoples: they have found that sites are more accessible along the Pan-American Highway; that the hot and dry climate presents none of the challenges of the high altitudes; and that the remains, mummified in the desert sands, are immediately rewarding.
• These peoples cultivated many varieties of tubers, of which only the potato has achieved widespread use in the world.
• A significant improvement in agriculture was the construction of massive terraces, which not only extended the cultivated area but also created protected microclimates where particular varieties could flourish.
• Another incentive for settlement at high altitudes was the presence of glacier-fed pastures for alpaca herds.
• The names the several prehistoric populations called themselves are not known, and archaeologists have come to distinguish the various peoples and civilizations by descriptive terms—the Late Preceramic, the Initial (or Lower Formative) Period, the Early Horizon, the Early Intermediate Period, the Middle Horizon, the Late Intermediate Period, and the Late Horizon (also called the Upper Formative, or Inca, Period). Each of the periods lasted for centuries, some for millennia.
• There is ample evidence of human occupation by 3500 bc, at which time there was already considerable diversity along the Pacific.