Prehispanic Intensive Agricultural Systems in the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia

在国家科学基金会的支持下，克拉克·埃里克森博士将研究玻利维亚东北部大草原的史前农业系统。该地区是巨大的亚马逊上游流域的一部分，是世界上最大的季节性淹没草原稀树草原地区之一，占地约14.5万平方公里。在4-6个月的雨季期间，该地区被洪水淹没，明显的雨季和旱季以及湿润和重土壤的变化对当代土地利用格局产生了重大影响。过去的土著居民发展了一个复杂的大规模土方工程系统，以解决水控制和农业问题。埃里克森博士将尝试重建这一过程。为了实现这一目标，他将开展一系列活动。将使用航空照片和地面测量来确定最广泛和保存最完好的凸起田野综合体和运河-堤道网络。还将绘制准确的地形图。在此基础上，将挖掘关键的农业结构。将垂直于凸起的田地堤道和运河挖掘长长的地层战壕，以确定它们的原始剖面、个别建造阶段、沉积后侵蚀历史以及使用和废弃的年表。现场材料将用于更新和确定油田是如何建造和使用的。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为世界上一个鲜为人知的地区的史前提供新的线索，并产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它还将有助于制定将在许多区域直接使用的生存战略。在一些热带地区，史前人口超过了现代人口。这很可能是因为使用了自那以后丢失的适当技术。埃里克森医生将帮助找回它们。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Clark Erickson will study prehistoric agricultural systems of the Llanos de Mojos of northeastern Bolivia. This region, part of the vast upper Amazon drainage basin, is one of the largest areas of seasonally inundated grassland savanna in the world, covering some 145,000 square kilometers. During the rainy season of 4-6 months the area is inundated and the alteration of marked wet and dry seasons and the waterlogged and heavy soils have a significant impact on contemporary land use patterns. Past indigenous populations developed a complex system of massive earthworks to solve the problems of water control and agriculture. Dr. Erickson will attempt to reconstruct how this worked. To accomplish this he will conduct a number of activities. Aerial photographs and ground survey will be employed to locate the most extensive and best preserved raised field complexes and canal-causeway networks. Accurate topographic maps will also be made. With this as a basis key agricultural structures will be excavated. Long stratigraphic trenches will be dug perpendicular to raised fields causeways and canals to determine their original profiles, individual building stages, post-depositional erosional history, and chronology of use and abandonment. In situ materials will serve both to date and determine how fields were constructed and used. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the prehistory of a little known area of the world and produce data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also help to devise subsistence strategies which will be of direct use in many regions. In some tropical areas prehistoric population exceeded its modern counterpart. This most likely is due to the use of appropriate technologies which have since been lost. Dr. Erickson will help to recover them.