Prehispanic
Raised Field Agriculture:
Applied Archaeology in the Bolivian Amazon
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Prehispanic raised fields in the
savannas of the Llanos de Moxos of |
Until about 30 years ago, Western academic opinion agreed that the
Shallow floodwaters cover much of the low-lying lands in the Llanos de Moxos during part of the rainy season. The rest of the year, dry conditions prevail and water is scarce. The alternation between seasonal flooding and seasonal drought, combined with poor soil conditions and lack of drainage, make farming in these areas difficult. The ancient inhabitants of the area created an agricultural landscape to solve these problems and make the area highly productive. They constructed a system of raised fields, or large planting surfaces of earth elevated above the seasonally flooded savannas and wetlands. Experiments have shown that the raised fields improve soil conditions and provide localized drainage and the means for water management, nutrient production, and organic recycling.
Experiments in raised-field agriculture began in 1990 at the Biological
Station of the Department of the
The raised fields have produced impressive harvests of manioc and maize.
Community members carefully record data on each field
to see whether these high levels can be sustainable over a long period of
continuous cropping makes raised field farming a labor-efficient technology.
Little maintenance is necessary to keep the fields in production. Many areas
with similar conditions throughout lowland tropical
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Construction of experimental raised fields in the Community of Bermeo, |
Adapted from Erickson, Clark L. 1994 Raised Fields for Sustainable
Agriculture in the Bolivian Amazon. In 1994 Festival of American Folklife: Culture and Development in
Applied Archaeology: Peru
o The Lost Art of the Waru Waru: A short article on Andean raised fields.
o Neo-environmental determinism and agrarian "collapse" in Andean prehistory (1999 article)
o Applied Archaeology and Rural Development: Archaeology's Potential Contribution to the Future (1998 article)
o Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin: Putting Ancient Andean Agriculture Back to Work (1988 article)
o The Lake Titicaca Basin: A Precolumbian Built Landscape (2000 article)
o Defining the Prehispanic AndeanCommunity: An Application of the Archaeology of Landscapes
o Kris Hirst's recent Internet interview with Clark Erickson about "applied archaeology"
§ Part I of Interview: "Introduction"
§ Part II of Interview: "Recreating Raised Field Agriculture"
§ Part III of Interview: "Implications of the Research"
Applied Archaeology:
o Bird’s-Eye View of the Amazon: Airborne Archaeologist Challenges Myth of a Pristine Wilderness. A short article about Clark Erickson’s research on the archaeology of landscapes and historical ecology in the Bolivian Amazon (Penn Arts and Sciences News, Spring 2004, pp. 18-21.
o Earthmovers of the Amazon and The Good Earth: Did People Improve the Amazon Basin? Two articles published in Science by Charles Mann summarizing new archaeological finds in the Bolivian Amazon.
o Pre-Columbian Fish Farming in the Amazon. Expedition. 43(1):7-8 (2001)
o
An
Artificial Landscape-scale Fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature
408:190-193 (
o Lomas de ocupacion en los Llanos de Moxos. (Settlement Mounds in the Llanos de Moxos) (2000 book chapter)
o Archaeological Perspectives on Ancient Landscapes of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon (1995 article)
o Sistemas agrícolas prehispánicos en los Llanos de Mojos (my first published article, a bit out of date)
o
Farming Lessions from Prehistory An short article published in
the Chronicle of Higher Education with additional images from
o
Prehispanic Earthworks of the Baures Region of the Bolivian
Amazon Some Recent Research on a relatively unknown area of
o Archaeologist helps bring old Technique to Life A short article by Esaul Sanchez published in Compass Magazine.
o
Raised Fields as a
Sustainable Agricultural System from Amazonia An
unpublished paper presented in the Symposium "Recovery of Indigenous
Technology and Resources in
o International Center for the Investigation and Development of the Llanos de Moxos
o
Centro Internacional para la Investigacion y
Desarrollo de los Llanos de Moxos
o
Fundación para la Ciencia y el
Desarrollo Sostenible del Beni (Fundación Kenneth
Lee)
o Foundation for Science and Sustainable Development of the Beni (Kenneth Lee Foundation)
o Tribute to Kenneth Lee (1927-1999)
o
Bibliografía de las Etnias del Oriente: Huge
Bibliography of Ethnic Groups in
o Tribute to Dr. William Denevan by Greg Knapp
o Bibliography of William Denevan
o Amazonian Bibliography (archaeology, ethnography, history) by Jeff Parsons
Historical Ecology, Archaeology of Landscapes
o The Archaeology of Landscapes: An Introduction A short statement on the Archaeology of Landscapes and some basic bibliography.
o
The Archaeology of
Landscapes. On-line Syllabus for a Graduate Seminar at the
o
Native Peoples
and the Environment. On-line Syllabus for a Freshmen Seminar at the
o The Pristine Myth by William Denevan (one of the classic publications in historical ecology)
o Gardenification of Wildland Nature and How to Absorb the Human Footprint by Dan Janzen
o
Conference
on Structure and Meaning in Human Settlements. U. Penn,
o The Historical Dimensions of Environment. A short essay by Carole Crumley for the National Science Foundation.
o Historical Ecology: Carole Crumley
o Dynamic landscapes and socio-political process. Essay by Christopher T. Fisher & Tina L. Thurston (Antiquity 1999)
o The Historical Ecology of Global Climate Change. Essay by Carole Crumley
The Llanos de Moxos
(Mojos), Bolivian Amazon
o Center for Amazonian Literature and Culture.
o
La Palabra.
On-line Newspaper from
Some Basic Bibliography on the Prehispanic Cultures
of the Llanos de Moxos (Llanos de Mojos)
Arnold, Dean
1989 Aboriginal Earthworks near the Mouth of the
Block, David
1994
Denevan, William
1966 The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the
Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia. Iberoamericano, University of California, Berkeley.
1980
La geografía cultural aborigen de los llanos de Mojos. Juventud, La Paz.
Dougherty, Bernardo and
Horacio Calandra
1981
Nota preliminar sobre investigaciones arqueológicas en los Llanos de Moxos, Departamento del Beni,
Republica de Bolivia. Revista del Museo de la Plata 8(Sección
Antropológica no. 53):87-106, La Plata.
1981-2
Excavaciones arqueológicas en la Loma Alta de Casarabe,
Llanos de Moxos, Departamento del Beni,
Bolivia. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología,
14(2):9-48, Buenos Aires.
1984 Prehispanic Human
Settlement in the Llanos
1985
Ambiente y arqueología en el oriente Boliviano. La Provincia Itenez del departamento del Beni.
Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, Buenos Aires.
Erickson, Clark L.
2001 Pre-Columbian Fish Farming in the Amazon. Expedition. 43(1):7-8. [view or download]
2000 An
Artificial Landscape-scale Fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 408:190-193. [view or download]
2000 Lomas de ocupacion en los Llanos de Moxos. IN Arqueologia de Tierras Bajas. Edited by Alicia Duran Coirolo and Roberto Bracco Boksar, Comision Nacional de Arqueologia, Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura, Montevideo, Uruguay, pp. 207-226. [view or download]
1995 Archaeological Perspectives on Ancient
Landscapes of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian
Amazon. In Archaeology in the American Tropics: Current Analytical Methods
and Applications. edited by Peter Stahl, Cambridge
University Press,
1980
Sistemas agrícolas prehispánicos en los Llanos de Mojos. América Indígena.
40(4):731-755. Mexico. [view or download]
Erickson, Clark L., José‚ Esteves, Wilma Winkler, and Marcos Michel
1991
Estudio preliminar de los sistemas agrícolas precolombinos en el
departamento del Beni, Bolivia. unpublished manuscript,
University of Pennsylvania and the
Instituto Nacional de Arqueología.
Erickson, Clark L, W. Winkler, J. Walker, K. Candler, D. Angelo, M. Michel 1993
Informe
preliminar sobre las investigaciones del Proyecto Agro-Arqueológico del Beni en 1992. unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania and
the Instituto Nacional de Arqueología.
1994
La arqueología de la agricultura de camellones y la infraestructura
hidráulica en el departamento del Beni en 1993:
Informe preliminar de las investigaciones arqueológicas del Proyecto
Agro-Arqueológico del Beni en 1993 unpublished manuscript,
University of Pennsylvania and the
Instituto Nacional de Arqueología.
Langstroth, Robert
1996 Forest Islands in an Amazonian
Savanna of Northeastern-Bolivia. Ph. D.
Dissertation, Department of Geography,
Lathrap, Donald W.
1970 The Upper Amazon. Praeger, London.
Lijerón Casanovas, Arnaldo
1998 Mojos-Beni:
Introducción a la historia amazónica. Editorial RB, Trinidad, Bolivia.
Metraux, Alfred
1942 The Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Western Matto Grosso Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 134, Washington D.C.
Nordenskiold, Erland
1910 Archaologische Forschungen im Bolivianischen Flachland. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 42:806-822, Berlin.
1913 Urnengraber und Mounds im Bolivianischen Flachlande. Baessler Archiv 3:205-255, Berlin y Leipzig.
1916 Die Anpassung der Indianer an die Verh„ltnisse in den Uberschwemmungsgebieten in Sudamerika. Ymer 36:138-155 (Stockholm).
1924a The Ethnography of
1924b Finds of Graves and Old Dwelling-Places on the Río Beni, Bolivia Ymer 44:229-237 (Stockholm).
Pinto
Parada, Rodolfo
1987
Pueblo de Leyenda. Tiempo del Bolivia,
Trinidad.
Plafker, George
1963 Observations on
Archaeological Remains in
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