Conquistadors Destroyed South America's Paper Trail, Not Other History

According to some historians, the Spanish military which invaded South and Central America were ordered to destroy papers telling of history and the religious ideas of the people there. The destruction was to eliminate any non Christian information. Those societies were sophisticated people with literacy and organizational skills. Their eventual defeat was caused by superior military equipment brought by the Spanish and also the diseases brought from Europe into the area where there was no immunity. 

As archeology continues, more permanent carvings and pictures are being uncovered depicting the history of the area before the Spanish conquests.

The cave art I like to refer to is not, however, the only information available. New laser technology is allowing scientists to look deep into the ground and see the remains of societies far older than those even of cave art.

Another new science is that of studying layers of soils. By carefully removing and studying the history of wind, rain and dust it is possible now to know what societies of prehistory produced, consumed and to some extent thought about. 

All of this has put an arrow into the heart of much that was thought to be know of human demographic history. The most often sited source of prehistory demographics is a work published in 1978. While the authors were honest in their disclaimer that their numbers were highly speculative, these numbers are repeated over and over. The numbers commonly used for world population at the beginning of the Common Era is 150-200 million. With the emerging archeology it is easy to conclude this number probably was far too low. We can see with lasers evidence of many societies not recorded, independent of each other and independent of empires and such that estimated populations for their own purposes. 

While it will take many decades, maybe some centuries, to sift through the sands of time, one day we will know far more than we know today about the history of humans. It seems to me this will alter religion and politics in ways we cannot now comprehend.