Peru

About 5,000 years ago in Peru, culture [kicked:picked] into high gear. During what's called the late Archaic period, South Americans formed permanent communities with [complex:complicated] architecture, religion and agriculture. And now scientists have shown that maize played a big [part:pub] in this development. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For decades, researchers have argued about whether corn was a [dietary:directory] staple in the late Archaic. The answer, it turns out, was hidden in the turf, tools and toilets of 13 archaeological [sites:sittings] along the coast of Peru. Of 126 soil samples dating back to the late Archaic, 48 percent contained maize pollen. Of 14 stone tools found at one site, 79 percent still carried [traces:trails] of maize. And finally, scientists analyzed 62 human and canine coprolites, or fossilized feces. Maize was the [dominant:predominant] starch, present in 69 percent of the ancient samples. Some of the evidence is literally crap, but the [confusion:conclusion] isn't: a corny dietary staple helped drive the growth of civilization in the late Archaic.