Agrciultural potential is limited, and with no suitable 'founder crops' native to the area?What about the Amur? One of the ten longest rivers on earth. Watershed is huge.
Korean civilization probably had its origins along the Liao River, possibly beginning with the Hongshan culture (4700-2900 BC), as artifacts from the region bear similarities with those excavated from the Korean Peninsula dating back to the same time period. This was then followed by the Lower Xiajiadian (2200-1600 BC) and the Upper Xiajiadian (1000-600 BC) cultures, of which the former was matched by a sudden increase in settlement and population. Archeological evidence, specifically dolmen, bronze daggers, and stylized pottery begin to appear in large numbers within Liaoxi and Liaodong by 1000 BC or so (although bronze products appear around 1500 BC), and spread to the Korean Peninsula by 700 BC or so. However, more sophisticated ones begin to appear around what is now Pyongyang by 300 BC, which coincides with the invasion of Gojoseon by the Yan around that time, while historical records suggest that the first major migration into the peninsula also occurred then, as numerous individuals would have attempted to flee from the chaos.
After Gojoseon's collapse in 108 BC, Buyeo, Goguryeo, and Balhae limited their territorial extent to east of the Liao River for a millennia, although Goguryeo temporarily seized Liaoxi after its victory over the Sui. After Balhae's fall in 926, Goryeo and Joseon managed to gradually extend their control up to the Yalu (Amrok) and Tumen (Duman) Rivers, and although Goryeo temporarily extended its control to Liaodong under Yuan influence, it never managed to exert direct control, and Joseon renounced all claims soon after.
However, it's important to note that it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for an entity to retain control of both Liaoxi and Liaodong, as it would have directly confronted another one militarily expanding from the Huang He and/or the Yangtze. In addition, the northeastern culture does not seem to have possessed an independent writing system, which would have eventually caused it to adopt that of its neighbor, leading to gradual cultural assimilation. On the other hand, various Korean successors could have retained most of the territory east of the Liao River until the present if events had gone differently, making it relatively easier to analyze the cultural continuity for millennia.
What about the Amur? One of the ten longest rivers on earth. Watershed is huge.
I’d like to throw in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York. It has extremely fertile floodplains, it is located in a temperate climate zone, and it is geologically owne of thr most ancient rivers on Earth. My (obviously-biased) Pennsylvania-born earth science professor once put it on par with great rivers like the Nile and the Yangtze in terms of its agricultural potential. The indigenous people never had much opportunity to take advantage, however - the Susquehannocks were hunter-gatherers until recieving the Mesoamerican crop package fairly late, and shortly after that, the Europeans showed up.
How could animals such as Guinea Pigs, Turkeys and Llamas come to the Rio de la Plata?
The indigenous people never had much opportunity to take advantage, however - the Susquehannocks were hunter-gatherers until recieving the Mesoamerican crop package fairly late, and shortly after that, the Europeans showed up.
Wild Llamas (or their cousins) historically did range to the Rio de la Plata.
Turkeys were a N. American bird. Quail were indigenous and could conceivably be domesticated.
And was maize and potatoes present among the local Native farmers?
The Guarani people of the la Plata prior to European contact raised maize and manioc.
Well, nothing would survive what happened to Indus civilization, aka the river drying up . It did not really end, more like moved to Indus (from Sarasvati) and Ganges. Mississipi is somewhat special case, due to its being located in America (in old world it would be hard to have early civ that later on gets hit by diseases as virgin soil).There actually appear to have been quite a few early civilizations along other major rivers, that happened to collapse at some point. The Amazon, the Indus/Sarasvati, the Danube, the Usumacinta (Mayan civilization) and I would include the Mississippi too.
Civilizations seem to be very fragile when they are in their early stages. It appears that they become more stable only once they reach a sufficiently advanced social/technological stage that they can survive climatic stresses that would have destroyed them at an earlier time. (Or not, it appears that environmental stress and resource depletion due to overexploitation of natural resources have had large roles in their collapses.)
So maybe it was pure chance that the civilizations on the Nile, the Tigris/Euphrates and the Huang-He survived? It seems possible to me that if history could be re-run, the civilizations on the Danube and the Amazon might survive while those on the Huang-He and Euphrates collapse.
So maybe it was pure chance that the civilizations on the Nile, the Tigris/Euphrates and the Huang-He survived? It seems possible to me that if history could be re-run, the civilizations on the Danube and the Amazon might survive while those on the Huang-He and Euphrates collapse.
Living in California myself, if faster growing varieties of oaks could be domesticated, a Californian civilization based around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Valley seems completely plausible. If you want to write a TL on the subject, I have a good amount of knowledge on the subject of Precolumbian California.Id be favorable to the writing of a California Civilization TL.