An insight into pre-Columbian raised fields : The case of San Borja, Bolivian lowlands
Rodrigues, Leonor (University of Bern. Institute of Geography)
Lombardo, Umberto (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Trauerstein, Mareike (University of Bern. Institute of Geography)
Huber, Perrine
Mohr, Sandra
Veit, Heinz (University of Berne. Institute of Geography)

Data:	2016
Resum:	Pre-Columbian raised field agriculture in the tropical lowlands of South America has received increasing attention and been the focus of heated debates regarding its function, productivity, and role in the development of pre-Columbian societies. Even though raised fields are all associated to permanent or semi-permanent high water levels, they occur in different environmental contexts. Very few field-based studies on raised fields have been carried out in the tropical lowlands and little is known about their use and past management. Based on topographic surveying and mapping, soil physical and chemical analysis and OSL and radiocarbon dating, this paper provides insight into the morphology, functioning and time frame of the use of raised fields in the south-western Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon. We have studied raised fields of different sizes that were built in an area near the town of San Borja, with a complex fluvial history. The results show that differences in field size and height are the result of an adaptation to a site where soil properties vary significantly on a scale of tens to hundreds of metres. The analysis and dating of the raised fields sediments point towards an extensive and rather brief use of the raised fields, for about 100-200 years at the beginning of the 2nd millennium.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Publicat a:	SOIL, Vol. 2, Issue 3 (July 2016) , p. 367-389, ISSN 2199-398X

DOI: 10.5194/soil-2-367-2016

23 p, 15.3 MB

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