CLIMATE change isn’t always bad news – for the Incas, it may have fuelled the growth of an empire.
Sediments from a core going back 4000 years have revealed a surge in Inca land use and agriculture around 1100. The sediments, which contain evidence of Inca farming including the remains of seeds and mites that feed on llama dung, come from Marcacocha, a small lake near Cuzco, Peru, at the heart of the ancient empire.
Lead researcher Alex Chepstow-Lusty of French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, Peru, says warmer temperatures enabled the Inca to build mountainside terraces for growing…
