Maize monoculture supported pre-Columbian urbanism in southwestern Amazonia.

ABSTRACT: The Casarabe culture (500-1400 CE), spreading over roughly 4,500 km² of the monumental mounds region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia, is one of the clearest examples of urbanism in pre-Columbian (pre-1492 CE) Amazonia. It exhibits a four-tier hierarchical settlement pattern, with hundreds of monumental mounds interconnected by canals and causeways^1,2. Despite archaeological evidence indicating that maize was cultivated by this society³, it is unknown whether it was the staple crop and which type of agricultural farming system was used to support this urban-scale society. Here, we address this issue by integration of remote sensing, field survey and microbotanical analyses, which shows that the Casarabe culture invested heavily in landscape engineering, cons

SUBMITTER: Lombardo U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11882439 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature