A nutrient-rich natural fertilizer

Now Bongers has actually turned his attention to examining the biochemical signatures of 35 maize samples excavated from buried burial places in the area. He and his co-authors discovered substantially greater levels of nitrogen in the maize than in the natural soil conditions, recommending the Chincha utilized guano as a natural fertilizer. The guano from such birds as the guanay cormorant, the Peruvian pelican, and the Peruvian booby includes all the vital growing nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. All 3 types are plentiful on the Chincha Islands, all within 25 kilometers of the kingdom.

Those outcomes were more boosted by historic written sources explaining how seabird guano was gathered and its significance for trade and production of food. Throughout colonial periods, groups would cruise to neighboring islands on rafts to gather bird droppings to utilize as crop fertilizer. The Lunahuana individuals in the Canete Valley simply beyond Chincha were understood to utilize bird guano in their fields, and the Inca valued the things so extremely that it limited access to the islands throughout reproducing season and prohibited the killing of the guano-producing birds on charge of death.

The 19th-century Swiss biologist Johann Jakob von Tschudi likewise reported observing the guano being utilized as fertilizer, with a fist-sized quantity contributed to each plant before immersing whole fields in water. It was even imported to the United States. The authors likewise mentioned that much of the iconography from Chincha and close-by valleys included seabirds: fabrics, ceramics, balance-beam scales, spindles, embellished gourds, adobe friezes and wall paintings, ritualistic wood paddles, and gold and silver metalworks.

“The real power of the Chincha wasn’t simply access to a resource; it was their proficiency of a complicated eco-friendly system,” stated co-author Jo Osborn of Texas A&M University. “They had the conventional understanding to see the connection in between marine and terrestrial life, and they turned that understanding into the farming surplus that constructed their kingdom. Their art commemorates this connection, revealing us that their power was rooted in environmental knowledge, not simply silver or gold.”

PLoS ONE, 2026. DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0341263 (About DOIs).