Destruction in ancient Peru
Updated on 02 November 2009
Evidence of the Nazca civilisation in southern Peru, which flourished some 2,000 years ago, suggests man's destruction of the environment is nothing new.
New research by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge has unearthed how an ancient south American civilisation sowed the seeds of its own destruction by wrecking its environment.
The Nazca civilisation flourished in what is now southern Peru, between the time of Christ and 500 AD. However the civilisation declined very rapidly.
This once bountiful region is one of the driest deserts in the world.
But did man have a hand in creating this dust bowl?
Dr David Beresford-Jones of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, who recently returned from Peru, joins Carl Dinnen.
