Llanos de Moxos (archaeology)
[1] This contradicts the traditional view of archaeologists, notably Betty Meggers, who asserted that the Amazon River Basin was not environmentally able to sustain a large population and that its indigenous inhabitants were hunter-gatherer bands or slash-and-burn farmers.
In the 1960s, petroleum company geologists and geographer William Denevan were among the first to publicize the existence of extensive prehistoric earthworks constructed in the Amazon, especially in the Llanos de Moxos.
Many types of earthworks have been documented in the Llanos, including monumental mounds, raised fields for agriculture, natural and constructed forest islands, canals, causeways, ring ditches, and fish weirs.
To date, there is no evidence that the inhabitants were politically united in pre-Columbian times, but rather they seem to have been organized into a large number of small, independent polities speaking a variety of different, unrelated languages.
[2] This area is characterized by flat terrain, many rivers and shallow lakes, and a tropical climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons.
[5] Historically, archaeologists and geographers held that large, complex pre-Columbian societies were unable to develop and flourish in the lowland forests of the Amazon basin because of poor soils for agriculture, protein deficiency of inhabitants, lack of domesticated animals, and limited technology.
[6] More recent lidar data has enabled assessments to develop rapidly that could have taken decades using archaeological methods to prove the inaccuracy of the misjudgment.
[8] The people of the Moxos plains domesticated their landscape by practicing raised bed agriculture and improving soils by the addition of organic matter.
[11] Agricultural fields demonstrate that farming on the Llanos de Moxos was mostly on long narrow strips of land raised by humans up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) above floodwater levels.
Region one: North of the city of Santa Ana del Yacuma and west of the Mamoré River is an area of water-logged and poor soils.
[20] Region three: West of the city of Trinidad centered on the town of San Ignacio de Moxos is an area in which soils are relatively fertile and hosting a large number of earthworks, including mounds, man-made forested islands, raised fields and causeways.
[22] Archaeologists have found indirect evidence of a human presence in the Llanos de Moxos dating to 8000 BCE in shell middens on several forest islands.
[24] The early Spaniards found six principal ethnic groups in the Llanos: the Moxo (or Mojo), Movima, Canichana, Cayuvava, Itonama, and Bauré.
Linguists believe that the Arawakan peoples originated further north in the central Amazon basin and migrated to the Llanos, bringing their cassava-based agriculture with them.
[26] Archaeologist Clark Erickson summarized the early Spanish description of Baure villages: the villages were large by Amazonian standards and were laid out in formal plans which included streets, spacious public plazas, rings of houses, and large central bebederos (communal men's houses).
According to the Jesuits, many of these villages were defended through the construction of deep circular moats and wooden palisades enclosing the settlements.
Whichever is more correct, the pre-Columbian population had declined due to the introduction of European diseases, the impact of conquest, and Spanish and Portuguese slave raids.
