(Phys.org) —A study by a pair of researchers with the University of Maine suggests that the northern coast of Peru may have been altered due to population shifts as a result of the Spanish conquest in the 1500’s. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Daniel Belknap and Daniel Sandweiss describe a field study they conducted in the area that suggested that Inca living on the coast prior to the Spanish conquest, may have inadvertently been supporting the existence of sand ridges by discarding mollusk shells.
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Study indicates Spanish conquest of Peru may have resulted in changes to coastal shoreline