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Prehistoric Human Occupations of the Western Venezuelan Llanos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alberta Zucchi
Alberta Zucchi*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Apartado 1827, Caracas, Venezuela
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Abstract

Recent archaeological research in the western Venezuelan llanos has provided very old dates related to maize cultivation. The evidence obtained at Mound I, at the site Hato de la Calzada, indicates that these seasonally flooded savannas were occupied from 920 B.C. to A.D. 500 by the Caño del Oso people who practiced hunting, fishing, and maize farming. Around A.D. 500 manioc cultivation and artificial earthworks were introduced in this area. Both elements were probably obtained from the Arauquinoid people who inhabited the Orinoco riverbanks. The available data regarding the antiquity of manioc, based on agricultural systems in seasonally flooded savannas of South America, suggests that such systems developed in the Amazon Basin.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 1973 , pp. 182 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1973

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