THE BATTALION Page 3
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1978
. __ __ WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1978
E \f£rM anthropologists study ancient life in Peru
SCOTT PENDLETON
Battalion Staff
' ress usually results from new
tc ogy. i n Peru, with the help
ropologists from Texas A6cM
rce Bast-sity, ancient and modern
otallouj 0 gy are both contributing to
r wr, v4 s .
Iwlogjjtss of Peru known as lomas
im todi ipported substantial prehis-
1 ‘center )mftnmities. These areas are
I I dj investigated to determine
dress je people were able to live
lisruptisjnd how they might be able to
*re again.
?re’s a modern economic
t, not just an archeological
aid Dr. Clendon Weir, assis-
ofessor of anthropology at
V&M. The Peruvian govern-
s studying the ancient com
es to see which of their
Is and resources will be use-
modern inhabitants,
r and graduate assistant
onj^.s Stearns returned July 6
ia ^ceru, where they are involved
stettin; o-year project to take a close
the very earliest evidence of
ture along the central coast of
3n a previous trip to Peru,
1 oticed a correlation between
t food production and
re-bcaring areas known as
statu tor
summer Weir verified that
1 T L r eas were the centers for an-
'"^■bod production as much as
‘ng«
spans
tance
nick dot
ears ago. Today these areas
lI ~':ually uninhabited.
• Peruvian government wants
ge this. It has started a reset-
t program, moving people
le Lima and Andean areas to
intryside in an attempt to find
r them and widen the coun-
ut , . „ onomic base.
“About eight years ago the Peru
vian government began recruiting
Andean peasants to come to Lima,”
Weir said. The government sought
international financing to establish
some light industries around Lima.
A larger available work force was a
requirement for the loan, he said.
“Instead of thousands, they at
tracted two to three million,” Weir
said. The loans were never made.
Now the government must resettle
the peasants back on the land to re
lieve the pressure on the urban
areas of the central coast.
As part of this effort, the lomas
will be repopulated. But before this
can be done, the anthropologists
must discover how earlier inhabi
tants could live there.
What happened to the original
inhabitants of the lomas areas?
“They destroyed their environ
ment,’ Weir said. He said that
overhunting of animals and overuse
of trees and grazing land made the
land uninhabitable.
Making the lomas habitable once
again will be a long-term project.
Weir said that the government will
start pilot communities in a few
years and increase the population
gradually as resources permit. He
estimates that there will be a sub
stantial number of inhabitants in 20
years. Some of the areas will have to
undergo reforestation.
“Lomas are actually very fragile
environments,” Weir said. They are
moist areas surrounded by a very
arid region, somewhat like oases in a
desert.
The problem is that all of the
moisture comes from fogs called
garuas. These fogs occur only during
the winter when the cold water of
the Humboldt current meets
warmer surface air and water. Weir
estimates that the lomas receive
several centimeters of water per
square meter from the fog each
night. In the spring there is some
runoff, but this dries up in the early
summer.
During the summer, what
moisture remains is contained in the
soil at the root level. Weir said there
hasn’t been any substantial rainfall
on the central coast since 1936.
“The ancient residents were sea
sonal,” Weir said. They only lived in
the lomas during the winter. In the
summer they returned to the Andes
or to the coast, he said.
In order to permanently settle
these areas, new residents will have
to practice “sophisticated conserva
tion,” Weir said. Some methods for
gathering water will be the same as
the ancient inhabitants used.
Modern technology will also do its
part, he said. The Peruvian gov
ernment will have to drill deep
wells and promote other methods to
provide water for the summer
months.
The government wants the new
inhabitants to raise crops such as
corn, beans, squash, and possibly
cotton during the winter, and poul
try, which require little water, dur
ing the summer. This would add
significantly to the economic base of
Peru, which relies heavily on fishing
and mining.
Weir is interested in the lomas
because they are the sites of some of
the first agriculture in the New
World. That early farming was done
on such a small scale that Weir pre
fers to call it “horticulture,” Yet it
does represent a departure from the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
The lomas’ most ancient resi
dents, the ones that concern Weir,
lived in the pre-ceramic period
about 6,000 years ago. During Ip's
last six-week stay in Peru, Weir
studied several dozen lomas and
gathered data about crops, popula
tion size, and technology.
Though a lot of the evidence they
searched for was organic, and there
fore subject to decay, much had
been preserved by the dry climate.
“Fantastic amounts of early plants
were preserved at the sites,” Weir
said.
The scientists studied ancient pol
len contained in the soil and the
plant remains to determine what the
inhabitants were using and growing.
Corn, primitive potatoes, wild to
matoes, beans, squash, and later,
cotton were grown by the ancient
inhabitants. The artifacts Weir and
Stearns found include basketry of all
kinds, nets, shellfish, and fire
hearths, and grinding stones called
batans. They have even found the
remains of wooden houses, although
there are no trees in the lomas to
day. Weir speculates that trees were
once abundant, but were used until
none remained.
Not all of the information
gathered has been analyzed, but
several conclusions have already
emerged:
— early settlements without ex
ception were associated with the
lomas.
— different lomas were centers
for different early plant crops.
— perhaps the most important
result, Weir speculates, is pinpoint
ing the lomas as the site of the ear
liest food production on the coast.
“This is the interesting thing that
'»t G
tiichi
'VI)Hq
lishet
By FLAYYA KRONE
Battalion Campus Editor
it 300 Texas A&M students,
; , and (staff are expected to do-
ood in the Aggie Blood Drive
nd Thursday, Audrey Boone,
s in rat
"siicW
'st*b*i
ly July,
: government secretary, said,
ga Phi Alpha and Alpha Phi
An ( service organizations are
time( fing,the blood drive in con-
n with student government
as A&M. It will be held in
224 and 212 in the MSC from
to 5 p. m.
;e times each year Wadley
ular Medicine of Dallas,
veteris a contract with student gov-
'nouajnt, collects blood from Texas
‘incnbitudents, faculty and staff,
is Acl;s] e much of the blood col-
10 Mcb by Wadley is used for re-
ill ispis, University students.
alumni, personnel and their families
all benefit from the blood drive,
Boone said.
If a student, alumni, faculty or
staff member or their families need
blood, they can obtain it free from
Wadley, Boone said.
“Texas A&M is one of Wadley’s
largest donors,” Boone said. “We
have had professors here who have
undergone open heart surgery and
received their blood free from the
Wadley blood bank.”
Persons receiving blood from
Wadley do not have to live in Texas.
“Wadley can transfer blood credits
anywhere in the United States,”
Boone said.
Participation in the blood drive is
not required to be eligible for free
blood, Boone said.
“However, we are urging
everyone, especially faculty and
staff members, to donate blood,”
Boone added.
Donating blood takes about 15
minutes. Boone said.
Volunteers are screened before
they can donate blood. Most donors
give a pint of blood, Boone said.
“After drawing blood, the volun
teers are given orange juice and
graham crackers and then they’re on
their way,” Boone said.
V
een As*
hnoi,»l
uesdayi
iw and 1
•d wid
ss the t
enbyfc
d out®
>ster
nister*
ne Mi"*
■t >ple is
ounces 1
*ny tW
od it is
es
it dead 1
. QuoK
>’Leal)
400 dif
e Star’
or rep®
very iS 1
n exp*
day n«
trillion, fl 1 ’
l lion, T#
entitled ^
dispatch
• r matted
► liege St^
ER
. ociafion
. tn Con^
_ .. LeeP
->b G. M
Or. CW
Eire. D#'
Listen big
...spend small
The big name in stereo receivers today is
Yamaha. Superior tonality, convenient
features, and broad flexibility make them
the most wanted brand around.
Now Yamaha is more affordable than it
has ever been before. The new CR-220
receiver benefits from the technical wiz
ardry that makes Yamaha unique, yet its
price is surprisingly modest.
One look at the specifications of this
magnificent new component tells you it is
all Yamaha;
Superb signal to noise ratio means more
music and less noise even in the softest
listening passages.
A continuously variable loudness con
trol assures you of full range fidelity from
the most resounding volumes to the softest
whispers.
Total harmonic and intermodulation dis
tortion measures a mere 0.05% — Yamaha
settles for nothing less.
Another outstanding value is Yamaha’s
YP-211 turntable, which offers the semi
automatic convenience and performance
of much more expensive units.
Yamaha’s NS-5 accoustic suspension
speaker systems provide full range fidelity
and have been compared with speakers
costing much, much more.
These components combine to make a
system with the performance and modest
cost that will amaze you.
Finding the best value in quality stereo
components from the hundreds currently
available is no easy task. All of our tech
nical and listening expertise is brought to
bear in selecting our merchandise. Yamaha
is only one example of the fine products we
have built our reputation on. Come in and
discover the competent assistance and
exceptional after sales service that will
bring you back again and again.
©YAMAHA
AUDIO
707 Texas Ave. in College Station
846-5719
we weren’t sure of up to this point,”
Weir said. “Everyone thought food
production first occurred in the
highlands. In fact, it appeared about
the same time as in the highlands.”
The study of the lomas is a two-
year project in which the Peruvian
government, the National Agrarian
University of Lima, the Center for
Investigation of Arid Zones, Texas
A&M University and the University
of Missouri at Colombia are
partners. The project is being
funded by a $90,000 grant from the
National Science Foundation.
Weir is planning to return to Peru
next summer for three months, and
several graduate assistants will stay
s;gie students, faculty, staff asked
> participate in Wadley Blood Drive
for a year. They will start a massive
campaign of collecting modern
plants and pollen and the remains of
fish, shellfish, and animals. They
want to compare the distribution,
amount, and kind of food resources
— plant and animal — that were
available in ancient times to what is
there today.
N
We're, your full-service
florist.
Fresh Flowers - Silk Flowers
Hallmark Cards & Gifts - Candles
Green Plants
We wire flowers anywhere
Aggieland Flower Shop
846-5825