Forest islands and raised fields in the 2nd millennium BCE Amazon

Summary

Pre-Columbian earthworks in the Llanos de Mojos show discrete spatial patterns, at different scales. For example, large mounds and causeways are found in the southeast, causeways and raised fields in the south, and large raised fields in the center and to the north. Recent excavations in forest islands associated with raised fields in Central Mojos identify occupations dating to the second millennium BCE. This raises the question of how to integrate different elements into histories of landscapes. Flood regime and climate can be shown to vary considerably over time, and on the flat landscapes of Mojos, such changes are reflected across many thousands of square kilometers. Spatial patterns are the result, not of stable feedback cycles of rainfall, vegetation and soils, but of flexible and sustained ways of life, organized at the scale of the community. Differences between forest islands and raised fields within the large raised field area suggest that decision making about the landscape was organized at several scales, but that the scale of the community, represented by individual forest islands and ring ditches was more important over the long term than any smaller or larger scale.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Advances in Wetland Archaeology in the Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage