An Empire Built on Llama Dung

The shift from semi-nomadic existence to settled agriculture in the Americas may be the result of llama waste used as a fertiliser

On the hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Inca city Machu Picchu, high in the Andes, by Hiram Bingham, new research suggests that the foundations of this vast empire, the largest in the Americas, may well have rested on llama dung. A city such as Machu Picchu at the height of over 2,300 metres was built in the final phase of the empire before the Spanish conquest, but in the long history of the Americas, a crucial step was taken some 2,700 years ago when a transition was made from a semi-nomadic culture to settled agriculture. In a paper published in the journal Antiquity, the author Alex Chepstow-Lusty from the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima has attempted to explain the sudden shift to maize cultivation that happened around 700 BC. Until this shift, potatoes and the grain quinoa were the staple food of these semi-nomadic people.

By studying sediments at the bottom of a small lake near Machu Picchu, Chepstow-Lusty has shown that the spike in maize pollen coincides with an increase in the number of mites that feed on llama dung some 2,700 years ago. Speaking to Discovery News, Lusty has said that the leap “occurred 2,700 years ago and was made possible by a huge availability of animal excrement. Organic fertilisers enabled corn to be cultivated at very high altitudes, allowing the Inca to settle and flourish.” Llamas used as pack animals for transport were also used for their meat and wool. They tend to defecate communally, so using the dung for fertiliser would not have been difficult. Without this shift to settled agriculture, the Inca Empire would not have been possible. A crop such as maize would have allowed the production of a surplus and thus fostered trade. Much of the transport through the region was through manual labour or pack animals. The easier transport and storage of maize as compared to potatoes would have been another factor in the growth of the empire.

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Hartosh Singh Bal