Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon.

ABSTRACT: Archaeological remains of agrarian-based, low-density urbananism^1-3 have been reported to exist beneath the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and Central America^4-6. However, beyond some large interconnected settlements in southern Amazonia^7-9, there has been no such evidence for pre-Hispanic Amazonia. Here we present lidar data of sites belonging to the Casarabe culture (around AD 500 to AD 1400)^10-13 in the Llanos de Mojos savannah-forest mosaic, southwest Amazonia, revealing the presence of two remarkably large sites (147 ha and 315 ha) in a dense four-tiered settlement system. The Casarabe culture area, as far as known today, spans approximately 4,500 km², with one of the large settlement sites controlling an area of ap

SUBMITTER: Prumers H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9177426 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature