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
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
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
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
o Center for Amazonian Literature and Culture.
o
La Palabra.
On-line Newspaper from
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,
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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]
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La arqueología de la agricultura de camellones y la infraestructura
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Informe preliminar de las investigaciones arqueológicas del Proyecto
Agro-Arqueológico del Beni en 1993 unpublished manuscript,
University of Pennsylvania and the
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1913 Urnengraber und Mounds im Bolivianischen Flachlande. Baessler Archiv 3:205-255, Berlin y Leipzig.
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1924a The Ethnography of
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