Indigenous Communities Thrived over 1,000 Years in the Bolivian Amazon
Fieldwork in the Bolivian Amazon reveals that Indigenous communities shaped and maintained complex, productive wetland landscapes for more than a millennium. A recent study focuses on the Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltación in the Beni department, where researchers found monumental earthworks, raised fields, and intricate canal systems beneath grasslands and shallow waters surrounding Lakes Rogaguado and Ginebra.
Evidence of Long-Term Human Adaptation
The study, published this year in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, documents repeated human occupation and landscape engineering between approximately 600 and 1,400 CE. The lakes and adjacent plains serve as a "living archive of long-term human adaptation," according to the report’s authors.
“The lakes and surrounding plains are a living archive of long-term human adaptation.”
Methods and Collaboration
The research team utilized surveys, excavation, and LiDAR mapping to uncover sites concealed under modern vegetation and seasonal floodwaters. The September 2021 expedition was organized by the Grupo de Trabajo para los Llanos de Moxos and included scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Bolivia’s Institute of Ecology, and the University of Bonn’s Department of Anthropology of the Americas.
Radiocarbon Dating and Occupation Sites
- Radiocarbon dates from four sites—Paquío, Coquinal, Isla del Tesoro, and Jasschaja—demonstrate a sequence of occupations over time.
This research underscores Indigenous engineering achievements and environmental management in the Amazon, challenging assumptions about the region’s historic human impact.
Author’s summary: Indigenous peoples engineered complex wetland systems in the Bolivian Amazon for over 800 years, revealing advanced landscape management and sustained human presence.