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Researchers Discover First Use of Fertilizer

Posted by Unknown on from the circle-of-life dept.

sciencehabit writes "Europe's first farmers helped spread a revolutionary way of living across the continent. They also spread something else. A new study reveals that these early agriculturalists were fertilizing their crops with manure 8000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought."

18 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Fertilizer... by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even native americans knew burying a fish next to a corn plant helped it grow faster (assuming a raccoon didn't dig up the fish first)

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Fertilizer... by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2

      Yeah, the native americans that white people met when they arrived in the 16th century.

      We have no idea what the native americans did or didn't know 8000 years ago.

    2. Re:Fertilizer... by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And much more of it is preserved and undisturbed by 12 thousand years of European warfare and constant reworking of the land.

      Instead it was disturbed by 12000 years of warfare and reworking of the land in the Americas. It is a shame though that most of the Amerindians didn't have writing. There are so many things we could learn, for example, about the Mississippian culture, the spread of maize agriculture northward and its effect on how people lived, ecological problems they encountered in say the Southwest and Ohio Valley, etc. etc., etc. Not to mention the eternal riddle of why they tolerated those hairy smelly invaders from across the Atlantic.

      P.S. Great book on the pre-Columbian Americas is 1491 (there's also a good "sequel" called 1493).

    3. Re:Fertilizer... by ebno-10db · · Score: 2

      Even native americans knew burying a fish next to a corn plant helped it grow faster

      As far as anyone can tell that was actually a European trick that some Indians had learned. When the Indians taught it to the Pilgrims, the Pilgrims just figured it was an Indian trick.

    4. Re:Fertilizer... by betterprimate · · Score: 2

      You do realize they have a robust written and verbal language composed of multitudes of dialects and languages? We also know they have the oldest and longest sustained democracy history has ever seen.

      The Iroquois's "greatness" rivals that of the Ancient Greek.

    5. Re:Fertilizer... by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Instead it was disturbed by 12000 years of warfare and reworking of the land in the Americas. It is a shame though that most of the Amerindians didn't have writing. There are so many things we could learn, for example, about the Mississippian culture, the spread of maize agriculture northward and its effect on how people lived, ecological problems they encountered in say the Southwest and Ohio Valley, etc. etc., etc. Not to mention the eternal riddle of why they tolerated those hairy smelly invaders from across the Atlantic.

      P.S. Great book on the pre-Columbian Americas is 1491 (there's also a good "sequel" called 1493).

      Well, actually no. There were no major wars on North America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Minor tribal skirmishes, but no enduring structures overlaying prior structures. In fact the only enduring structures of any kind were in the desert southwest. Natives did not heavily work the land, and practiced slash and burn for their agriculture more than anything else. This is why early viking settlements stand out so obviously.

      The net result is that many (thousands) of native north american settlements were discovered in undisturbed state, even in heavily populated areas of the north eastern states. Even Clovis and pre-Clovis sites, when found, don't show the heavy disturbance of plows, later civilizations, or buildings. Mound builder's mounds are virtually always intact. The history of the land was very different.

      Middle american indigenous people did build extensive structures which were also more or less abandoned intact after the Spanish.

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    6. Re:Fertilizer... by Seumas · · Score: 2

      I just always assumed fertilizer was discovered by a CEO.

    7. Re:Fertilizer... by icebike · · Score: 2

      Really? I mentioned the Spanish in passing, as the very last word, and that's all you saw?

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    8. Re:Fertilizer... by betterprimate · · Score: 2

      tl;dr I am drunk. LOL.

    9. Re:Fertilizer... by niado · · Score: 2

      You do realize they have a robust written and verbal language composed of multitudes of dialects and languages? We also know they have the oldest and longest sustained democracy history has ever seen.

      The Iroquois's "greatness" rivals that of the Ancient Greek.

      #1 - The Iroquois did not have a written language. Cherokee (which is a southern Iroquois language) has a syllabary developed by Sequoyah in 1821. Other extant Iroquois languages are now written using IPA.
      #2 - The Iroquois league was probably formed after 1450. Democracy in ancient Greece supersedes this date by ~2000 years. It is certainly likely that rule by consensus (a form of democracy) was practiced on a local level before this date, though this would be hardly unique.

      This is not to take away from what the Iroquois accomplished.

  2. Typical... by kd4zqe · · Score: 4, Funny

    We find out that we excel at the use of spreading bullshit even earlier than we thought... The joys of being human!

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    You're not paranoid if they really ARE out to get you...
  3. What's really surprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is that people were convinced that fertilizer was a modern "invention" in the first place. I'm sure it didn't take the genius of a particle physicist to notice that the grass grew better where the animals took a shit, but then I'm not an archaeologist. Kind of like the conspiracy theorists who claim that there was no way human beings could have build the Pyramids without some kind of advanced technology or alien intervention...people seem to seriously underestimate the wisdom of their ancestors, almost to the point of arrogance.

    The funny part is that essentially nothing has changed beyond our level of technology. People believed in crazy, stupid shit in antiquity, how is that any different from today? Our ancestors had wonderful things like white make-up made from lead, they drank "radium water" to CURE illnesses. I can't imagine that worked out like it said on the tin. We're much more advanced now though. Now we have people drinking homeopathic remedies containing exactly zero molecules of often poisonous compounds like arsenic, we have walking pairs of tits like Jenny McCarthy telling people not to vaccinate their children...and for all of our wondrous technology, even despite "putting man on the moon," we still have people killing each other over what imaginary friend they've bonded with. Just like the good old days.

    1. Re:What's really surprising... by able1234au · · Score: 2

      I grew up on a farm and it was obvious that around cattle dung the grass was greener due to both the nutrients and that the dung held moisture longer. This would be obvious to any vaguely observant farmer. The bigger question is whether they would gather it or not. This works well when you have stables as the manure builds up. But would you go around picking up dung? That is time consuming. More likely you would let the animals into the fields after harvest to eat the stalks and leave their dung behind for next year's crop.

  4. Early Discovery Due to Regional Climate? by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Farmers in the Near East—what is today Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and neighboring countries—began cultivating plants and herding animals about 8000 B.C.E., but there are no signs that they used animal dung for anything other than as fuel for fires.

    Since it's far more arid in the Middle East, the use of dung for fuel was more obvious due to dried dung being a common thing to find laying around. Where as in Europe, which is far wetter, seeing green things sprout up in dung in the Spring was more easily observed.

    1. Re:Early Discovery Due to Regional Climate? by icebike · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Since it's far more arid in the Middle East, the use of dung for fuel was more obvious due to dried dung being a common thing to find laying around. Where as in Europe, which is far wetter, seeing green things sprout up in dung in the Spring was more easily observed.

      Not true. 8000 years ago was smack dab in the middle of the middle of the ‘African Humid Period’.

      Much of north Africa and ME countries were much wetter, and much more lush in prior times, beginning 12,000 years ago and lasting until 3,500 years ago. There is no way civilization would have begun in a middle east as arid as it is now, let alone flourished.

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    2. Re:Early Discovery Due to Regional Climate? by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Informative

      Since it's far more arid in the Middle East

      8000 years ago it wasn't as arid. Once upon a time, what now seems like the ironically named Fertile Crescent really was fertile. A lot of the degradation also has to do with soil exhaustion and erosion, cutting down too many trees, etc.

  5. Pfft, it has nothing on superdirt from the Amazon by transporter_ii · · Score: 5, Informative

    It still covers up to 10% of the Amazon basin, is man made, and if we could figure out how they did it:

    If recreated, the engineered soil could feed the hungry and may even help fight global warming, experts suggest.

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081119-lost-cities-amazon.html

    Imagine if manure spread thousands of years ago still grew crops today. The terra preta —"dark earth" — of the Amazon is still working today.

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  6. Obvious corollary by real+gumby · · Score: 4, Funny

    If they learned to harness bullshit 8,000 years ago, than surely corporate bureaucracy must be that old as well!