Evidence showing that ancient civilizations were far more superior to what we have thought has been emerging every day. For example, we have recently reported on the discovery of old Chinese writing dating back 5,000 years, an ancient calendar system in Scotland dating back 10,000 years, and the construction of a magnificent temple complex in Turkey dating back 12,000 years. Now new research has shown that our ancient ancestors had far more advanced agricultural knowledge than initially realised.
Agriculture in modern times is strongly dependent on fertilizers, either the super toxic and dangerous chemically synthesized ones or the natural organic type, such as manure. Fertilizers promote and help growth of plants and crops by providing needed nutrients. The main reason for using fertilizers is that utilising the same soil for crops again and again depletes the nutrients and thus plant growth becomes slower over time.
Now a recent discovery has revealed that farmers 8,000 years ago knew about this and found an ‘organic’ solution. The solution was to use animal dung around the plants in order to supply the plant with the necessary nutrients. Until now there was no evidence of farmers using natural fertilizers earlier than 3,000 years ago. But Amy Bogaard and her team of Oxford University have found evidence in Europe showing that the use of fertilizers was much, much older.
Their research took them to farming sites in Greece, Bulgaria, UK and Denmark finding evidence that manure was used to fertilize the crops. We need to realize here that our ‘primitive’ ancestors, as archaeologists like to call them, must have had the intelligence not only to use seeds of many different edible plants for farming, but also to observe that re-using the same land from season to season reduced the effectiveness of the crops and that adding animal manure was able to overcome the lack of nutrients in over-used soil.
The research clearly demonstrates that: a) our ancestors weren’t as primitive as we think and b) it is likely that they knew and discovered much more ‘back then’ that what we give them credit for. Not only that, but what is hidden in Earth’s past appears to be a far more ‘advanced’ and nature-friendly society compared to modern times. It is just a matter of time and courage for this evidence to be found and then brought to the public. Every day we are getting closer and closer to that moment.