The News
Cultivation in Americas dates back 10,000 years
By Randolph E. Schmid The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/29/2007 01:50:42 AM MDT
Washington - Agriculture was taking root in South America almost as early as the first farmers were breaking ground in the Middle East, new research indicates.
Evidence that squash was being grown nearly 10,000 years ago, in what is now Peru, is reported in today's edition of the journal Science.
A team led by anthropologist Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University also uncovered remains of peanuts from 7,600 years ago and cotton dated to 5,500 years ago in the floors and hearths of sites in the Nanchoc Valley of northern Peru.
"We believe the development of agriculture by the Nanchoc people served as a catalyst for cultural and social changes that eventually led to intensified agriculture, institutionalized political power and new towns in the Andean highlands and along the coast 4,000 to 5,500 years ago," Dillehay said.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.