Oldest South American Canals Found

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

In the Peru's Andean foothills, a group of archaeologists say they have found remnants of the oldest known irrigation canals in South America, which they hope will provide clues to the origin of the region's agriculturally based societies.

 

"There are four sites in the area that have canals that date minimally 5,300 years ago, maybe a little earlier," team leader Tom D. Dillehay, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told The Associated Press.

 

Dillehay started his research nearly 30 years ago in the Zana Valley, 37 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and about 385 miles northwest of Lima.