Precolumbian Low-Density Urbanism in the Llanos de Moxos

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation summarizes archaeological and lidar data from the Casarabe culture (~500-1400 CE) in the Llanos de Mojos savannah and forest mosaic in southwest Amazonia. Lidar revealed a four-tiered settlement system that spread over 4,500 km2 with large extensive sites reaching up to 315 ha and whose civic-ceremonial architecture exhibits stepped platforms, on top of which lie U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids. These large, central sites, surrounded by concentric polygonal banks, connect to different ranked sites with raised causeways stretching over several kilometers. Massive water-management infrastructure, composed of canals and reservoirs, completes the settlement system of this engineered landscape. The Casarabe-culture settlement pattern represents a particular type of tropical low-density urbanism and land use not previously described in Amazonia that adds to the growing number of urban societies in tropical South America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38496.0