Dra. Carla Jaimes Betancourt

Department of Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn, Germany

Archeology of the Llanos de Moxos: wealth is in diversity

For a long time, the Amazon region occupied a marginal position in the pre-Columbian cultural history of the Americas. However, over the past decades, archaeological research carried out within the framework of numerous projects has revealed a surprising complexity and diversity of cultural processes in the region. Based on the case of the Llanos de Mojos in Bolivia, this presentation summarizes the current debates and the different positions on the domestication of plants, the origin of ceramics, landscape transformations, anthropic forests and complex cultural developments in the pre-Columbian era in the southwest of the Amazon.

The plains of Mojos, in what is now Beni in Bolivia, are characterized by an almost entirely anthropized landscape, the result of several millennia of intense human occupation. From 300 AD, hundreds of monumental sites developed there which, thanks to pre-Hispanic techniques adapted to the management of natural resources, left strong imprints on the landscape. Mojos is an excellent illustration of how diversity can be the best driver of cultural development over time. This conference presents an overview of archaeological research in Mojos and case studies in specific fields.