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莫霍斯大草原的史前农业系统。该地区是亚马逊河上游流域的一部分，是世界上最大的季节性淹没草原稀树草原之一，面积约为14.5万平方公里。在4-6个月的雨季，该地区被淹没，明显的干湿季节变化以及涝渍和重质土壤对当代土地利用模式产生了重大影响。过去的土著居民开发了一个复杂的大型土方工程系统，以解决水控制和农业问题。埃里克森博士将试图重现这一过程。为实现这一目标，他将开展一系列活动。航空摄影和地面测量将用于定位范围最广和保存最完好的高地建筑群和渠堤网。还将制作精确的地形图。以此为基础，挖掘重点农业结构。长长的地层沟将垂直于凸起的田地、堤道和运河挖掘，以确定它们的原始轮廓、单个建筑阶段、沉积后的侵蚀历史以及使用和废弃的年表。就地材料将起到迄今为止的作用，并决定如何建造和使用田地。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史提供新的线索，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将有助于制定可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。这很可能是由于使用了后来丢失的适当技术。埃里克森医生会帮他们恢复。

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.