'Unpredictable levels of rainfall, particularly in the tropics, appear to have had a negative impact on pre-Columbian populations until 6,000 years ago,' an archaeologist who worked on the study explained.
Ancient populations in South America declined dramatically around 8,000 years ago as people struggled to cope with sudden changes to the climate, archeologists believe.
To find out more, the team looked at population and climate data, including radiocarbon dates, and marine sediments which provide an insight into rainfall in millennia past. As the team aren’t climatologists, they were unable to confirm what caused the changes to the region’s climate, but the Middle Holocene is known to have been a global phenomenon, Riris continued.
“[The] abandonment of certain zones and the need to adapt quickly to new circumstances, may have promoted the exploration of alternative strategies and new forms of subsistence, such as incorporating domestic plants,” he said. This is the first time researchers have shown how climate change affected the South America on a continent-wide scale in the run-up to Mid-Holocene, whereas previous studies have looked at local and regional effects, Riris told Newsweek.
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