Amazonian Wetland Domestication: a spatial analysis of Pre-Columbian zigzag features in Lowland Bolivia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent archaeological studies show that pre-Columbian communities began modifying Southwestern Amazonia approximately 3,500 years ago. Previous research within lowland Bolivia has primarily focused on the fields and forest islands that populations built to elevate themselves and their crops from seasonal flooding. However, a series of zigzag earthworks found in the 1990s to the east indicate that ancient communities may have harnessed floodwaters to catch fish. This study collects and analyzes spatial data from other recently identified zigzag features in the West Central Llanos de Mojos (WCM), demonstrating that these earthworks form potential wetlands with the capacity to affect water flow and accumulation for over 600 m2 of land. Results indicate that potential wetlands are distinguished by two unique patterns of zigzag features, which differ in size and relationships to major bodies of water and nearby anthropogenic features. Large-scale environmental transformations of this kind would increase the duration and scale of wetlands, including riparian habitats and resources that ancient communities could have exploited. This suggests that anthropogenic landscapes within WCM are more complex than previously thought and that inhabitants may have intentionally manipulated water to bring wetlands under their control.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40321.0