06/07/2022
Very interesting
Archaeological remains of agrarian-based, low-density urbananism" in Casarabe culture sites (500-1400 CE) in the Llanos de Mojos region in the Amazon basin of Bolivia. Lidar reveals "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 approximately 500 km2.
"The civic-ceremonial architecture of these large settlement sites includes stepped platforms, on top of which lie U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids (which are up to 22 m tall). The large settlement sites are surrounded by ranked concentric polygonal banks and represent central nodes that are connected to lower-ranked sites by straight, raised causeways that stretch over several kilometres.
"Massive water-management infrastructure, composed of canals and reservoirs, complete the settlement system in an anthropogenically modified landscape. Our results indicate that the Casarabe-culture settlement pattern represents a type of tropical low-density urbanism that has not previously been described in Amazonia."
Shown: the Cotoca site, with platform mounds. Full paper:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04780-4.pdf
