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<title><![CDATA[ancient civilizations news from mongabay.com]]></title>
<link>http://www.mongabay.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[ancient civilizations news.]]></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2006 mongabay.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:58:39 -0800</pubDate>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Analysis of soil charcoal in South America confirms that from a historical perspective, fire is rare in the Amazon rainforest, but when it does occur, it appears linked to human activities. The research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is based on dating of soil carbon, which provides a good indication of when fires occurred in Amazonia, according to lead author Mark Bush, head of the Department of Biology at Florida Institute of Technology.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0220-bush_amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0220-bush_amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Cacao, the source of chocolate, was in use at least at least 3000 years ago according to evidence found by archaeologists working in Honduras.  The discovery pushes back the  earliest known use of cacao by 500 years.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1112-cacao.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1112-cacao.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Crop domestication originated in compost piles]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[New research lends support to the theory that backyard gardens and refuse heaps played an important role in early crop domestication.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0819-domestication.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0819-domestication.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Failing water supply destroyed lost city of Angkor Wat]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The ancient city of Angkor in Cambodia was larger in extent than previously thought and fed by a single water system, according to a new map published by an international team of researchers.  The study, published in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, suggests that the urban settlement sustained an elaborate water management network extending over more than 1,0000 square kilometers.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0813-angkor_wat.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0813-angkor_wat.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The men charged with the 2005 killing of University of Vermont anthropology professor James Petersen in the Amazon rainforest were sentenced Tuesday to nearly 30 years in prison, close to the maximum under Brazilian law.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0712-petersen.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0712-petersen.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Guatemala gets conservation boost]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Guatemala's Eastern Maya Biosphere Reserve will receive $3 million in funding from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Bronx Zoo-based organization announced Friday.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0706-wcs.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0706-wcs.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Anthropologists have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming.  The study, which show that the crops were grown in the Peruvian Andes 5,000-10,000 years ago, is published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0628-crops.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0628-crops.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Polynesians brought chickens to Americas before Columbus]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[New DNS analysis shows that Polynesians introduced chickens to South America well before Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World.  The evidence supports the theory that the Americas were visited by sea-faring groups from the East prior to the arrival of Europeans. Using carbon dating and analysis DNA to determine the origin of chicken bones discovered at El Arenal, an archaeological site in Chile, a team of researchers led by Alice Storey of the University of Auckland found that the birds were descended from Polynesian stock and were introduced at least 100 years before the arrival of Europeans on the continent. The findings undermine claims that chickens were native to South America or that they were introduced by Spanish or Portuguese explorers.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-chickens.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-chickens.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Maize cultivated at least 7,300 years ago in Mexico]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Anthropologists have found the earliest known evidence of maize cultivation in Mexico.  The discovery, published in the April 9-13 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, pushes back farming of the ancestor of modern corn to about 7,300 years ago.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0409-maize.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0409-maize.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Chili peppers came from Ecuadorian rainforests 6,100 years ago]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Chili peppers were first cultivated 6,100 years in South America according to research published in the current edition of the journal Science.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0215-peppers.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0215-peppers.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Lost civilization found in Peru]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Explorers have found ruins of a little known civilization deep in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Amazon.  The Chachapoya, as the group is known, was a fierce tribe that battled the mighty Inca empire before the arrival of European conquistadors in the 16th century.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0119-peru.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0119-peru.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon Stonehenge suggests advanced ancient rainforest culture]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The discovery of an ancient astrological observatory in Brazil lends support to the theory that the Amazon rainforest was once home to advanced cultures and large sedentary populations of people. Besides the well-known empires of the Inca and their predecessors, millions of people once lived in the forests and shaped the environment to suit their own needs. Archaeologists with the Amapa Institute of Scientific and Technological Research said they uncovered the ruin near Calcoene, 390 kilometers (240 miles) from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, near Brazil's border with French Guiana.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0514-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 May 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0514-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Evidence of early maize cultivation and agricultural trade uncovered in Peru]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Maize, better known as corn in some parts of the world, was cultivated by people living in the Peruvian Andes of South America about 1,000 years earlier than previously believed reported a team of researchers last week.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0307-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0307-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Large Maya mural showing ancient mythology uncovered in Guatemala]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Archaeologists at an ancient Maya ceremonial site in Guatemala have uncovered the final wall of a large Maya mural dating from 100 B.C. that shows the mythology surrounding the origin of kings and a highly developed hieroglyphic script. Before the excavation of the vividly painted mural, there was scant evidence of the existence of early Maya kings or of their use of elaborate art and writing to establish their right to rule.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1213-unh.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 Dec 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1213-unh.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Easter Island&#39;s demise caused by rats, Dutch traders says new theory]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Rats and Dutch traders may be responsible for the mysterious demise of Easter Island according to research presented last week during an American Anthropological Association meeting by a University of Hawaii anthropologist.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1206-easter_island.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1206-easter_island.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Archaeologists make ancient Maya discovery in Guatemala]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Researchers working in Guatemala have unearthed a monument with the earliest-known depiction of a woman of authority in ancient Mayan culture, according to an archaeologist at the University of Calgary. Kathryn Reese-Taylor said the 2-meter high limestone monument has a portrait of a female who could be either a ruler or a mythical goddess and dates 4th Century A.D. The statue, called a stela, was found at Naachtun, a Mayan city 90 km (55 miles) north of Tikal.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1205-maya.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 05 Dec 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1205-maya.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Elite women were alcoholic brewers in pre-Inca Peru]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[If the ancient mountaintop city in southern Peru was the vanished Wari empire's unique imperial showplace, the brewery was its piece de resistance.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1114-ufl.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Nov 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1114-ufl.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Pre-Columbian Amazon supported millions of people]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Controversial evidence uncovered over the past decade suggests that the Amazon rainforest was once home to large sedentary populations of people. Besides the well-known empires of the Inca and their predecessors, the Huari, millions of people once lived in the forests and shaped the environment to suit their own needs.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1017-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1017-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Evolutionary history of the origin of potatoes revised -- study]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Humans have cultivated potatoes for millennia, but there has been great controversy about the ubiquitous vegetable's origins. This week, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, a team led by a USDA potato taxonomist stationed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has for the first time demonstrated a single origin in southern Peru for the cultivated potato.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1004-wisc.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Oct 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1004-wisc.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Easter Island Mystery revealed using mathematical model]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The history of Easter Island, its statues and its peoples, has long been shrouded in mystery. Some have suggested that aliens marooned on earth planted the statues as signals to their fellow aliens to rescue them. Others have said that the statues were constructed by a great race of guilders that were stranded on the island and built them before being rescued. Still others are convinced that an ancient society with the capability of flight constructed them along with the Nazca lines in Peru. However new evidence based on pollen analysis supports a much simpler theory, that the Easter Island inhabitants destroyed their own society through deforestation.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0901-easter_island.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Sep 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0901-easter_island.html</guid>
</item>

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