Credit: Sergio Quezada
The Casarabe society of pre-Columbian Amazonia engineered an advanced water management system, enabling year-round maize cultivation. Their sustainable approach challenges previous beliefs about Amazonian agriculture and offers insights into ancient innovation and modern farming sustainability.
The study, published in Nature, examines how the pre-Hispanic Casarabe society of the Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia designed and implemented an innovative landscape engineering system. This system included extensive drainage canals and farm ponds, enabling efficient water management for continuous crop production.
The research was conducted by experts from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), along with collaborators from the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, and Southampton (UK), the University of São Paulo (Brazil), and Bolivian institutions.
The Casarabe society of pre-Columbian Amazonia engineered an advanced water management system, enabling year-round maize cultivation. Their sustainable approach challenges previous beliefs about Amazonian agriculture and offers insights into ancient innovation and modern farming sustainability.
The study, published in Nature, examines how the pre-Hispanic Casarabe society of the Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia designed and implemented an innovative landscape engineering system. This system included extensive drainage canals and farm ponds, enabling efficient water management for continuous crop production.
The research was conducted by experts from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), along with collaborators from the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, and Southampton (UK), the University of São Paulo (Brazil), and Bolivian institutions.
Ponds in the studied area. Credit: Umberto Lombardo ICTA-UAB
A Dual Water Management System for Continuous Harvests
This region, inhabited by the Casarabe people between 500 and 1400 A.D., is a tropical lowland savannah marked by intense rainy seasons and flooding, as well as very dry seasons. The discovery, led by Umberto Lombardo, an environmental archaeologist at the UAB, has identified a unique agricultural infrastructure previously undocumented anywhere else in the world. This system enabled them to drain excess water from flooded fields during the rainy season, facilitating agricultural productivity.
In addition to the drainage canals, the Casarabe people constructed clusters of farm ponds that served as water reservoirs. These ponds enabled pot-irrigation, allowing maize cultivation to continue throughout the dry season.
Credit: Julian Puig Guevara
This dual water management system enabled at least two harvests of maize per year, ensuring a stable food supply year-round, which was essential for sustaining a relatively large population. “This intensive agricultural strategy indicates that maize was not only cultivated but was likely the staple crop of the Casarabe culture,” explains Lombardo.
This dual water management system enabled at least two harvests of maize per year, ensuring a stable food supply year-round, which was essential for sustaining a relatively large population. “This intensive agricultural strategy indicates that maize was not only cultivated but was likely the staple crop of the Casarabe culture,” explains Lombardo.
A Sustainable Alternative to Slash-and-Burn Agriculture
This agricultural model did not rely on traditional slash-and-burn techniques used to create fertile fields. Instead, the Casarabe people preserved nearby forests for other purposes, such as obtaining firewood and medicinal plants, while implementing practices that maximized the efficient use of water and soil in the seasonally flooded savannas.
Photo of ponds from airplane. Credit: Umberto Lombardo
These conclusions were made possible through meticulous fieldwork combining techniques such as microbotanical analysis, remote sensing, and environmental archaeology. The analysis of 178 phytoliths (plant microfossils) and pollen samples from a farm pond confirmed the presence of maize in the fields and the crucial role of maize monoculture in the diet of this pre-Columbian society. “The data shows the absence of other types of crops,” Lombardo adds.
“We can document that this is the first grain-based agrarian economy in the Amazon, where until now it was believed that agriculture was based on agroforestry polyculture and not on large-scale monocultures. Now we know that this was not the case in Llanos de Moxos,” says Lombardo, who asserts that this innovative piece of engineering allowed for the transformation of a challenging environment into a productive system that ensured food stability and supported the development of a growing population.
The research not only sheds light on the technological capabilities of pre-Columbian civilizations but also offers valuable lessons for modern agricultural sustainability. This discovery is a testament to the ingenuity and adaptability of the Casarabe people, who thrived due to their ability to design long-term sustainable agricultural solutions in an adverse environment.
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