Throughout Amazonia, earthworks are found in areas of diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. The distribution of these earthworks within various linguistic and ethnic areas suggests a multiethnic or multilinguistic network, in which interaction between these diverse groups occurred, creating diverse communities. Movement and communication within Amazonia along river networks allowed for this interaction. Interaction between groups in Amazonia may have also influenced the different methods of landscape modification. This thesis presents a GIS-based spatial analysis of raised fields, a type of agricultural earthwork found throughout the Llanos de Mojos (Mojos), located in the Beni Department of Bolivia. The distribution of fields, forest islands, and rivers was analyzed to distinguish the relationship between these features in the study area. The spatial analysis distinguished patterns between raised fields found along two sets of rivers, the Iruyañez and Omi Rivers, and the Yacuma and Rapulo Rivers. Spatial patterns found within these distributions were also compared to the distribution of linguistic groups in the area. Among these patterns, it is seen that one kind of agricultural earthwork is found in areas associated with different linguistic groups. The spatial patterns found among the raised fields and forest islands in relation to the linguistic groups in the area demonstrate the fluidity between groups in the region. Insight to movement and communication in Mojos can be understood through the interaction between linguistic groups and the distribution of archaeological features in the region.

Modern agricultural systems have been criticized for their detrimental effects on the environment and a general emphasis on crop yield rather than long-term sustainability. Traditional forms of agriculture may provide case-specific examples of sustainable alternatives for contemporary societies. In the seasonally inundated savannas of the Llanos de Mojos, pre-Columbian Indians piled earth into ‘large raised field platforms’ elevated high enough above the floodplain to allow crops to grow. Archaeological evidence indicates that raised field agriculture supported much larger populations than those found in the Beni today. The examination of satellite imagery has revealed more than 40,000 individual fields spread across an area of approximately 7,500 square kilometers. This study created a digitized map of large raised fields to search for spatial patterns in their distribution. A GIS analysis was conducted in which fields were distributed into organizational groups based on characteristics such as proximity and orientation to cardinal direction. These groups represent potential ‘social units’ involved in the organization of labor required to construct raised fields. This study demonstrated the consistent presence of these units throughout the entirety of the agricultural system. Patterns in the distribution of these groups allowed the study area to be divided into two distinct regions representing a larger scale of organization within a seemingly uniform system. A transitional zone between these two regions was identified on the river Omi, providing a clear area of interest to target in future archaeological excavations. Further archaeological investigations of raised field agriculture have the potential of demonstrating the overall productivity of the system as well as how it was incorporated into the social systems of those who managed it.

O Sistema Hidráulico de Campos Elevados de Cultivo, Camellones, construído ao longo de 2500 anos pelos grupos pré-hispânicos da Sabana de Bogotá, Colômbia, é o tema central da presente tese. O nosso trabalho focou na relação estabelecida entre estes grupos e a água, para determinar de que maneira a interação entre ambos levou a uma forma particular de exploração dos recursos e de ocupação do território. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi entender como foi organizada a espacialidade e as atividades cotidianas, especificamente durante o período Muisca Tardio (1000 - 1550 DC), em torno do sistema hidráulico, isto é, como se construiu uma paisagem agrícola em um ecossistema de águas abertas, e como mudou essa paisagem com a colonização espanhola durante a segunda metade do século XVI. Apoiados nos conceitos e elementos teóricos da Arqueologia da Paisagem e da Ecologia Histórica, e nos dados arqueológicos, paleo-ambientais, documentais e na fotointerpretação, desenvolvemos uma análise que permitiu estabelecer que o sistema de camellones foi o resultado da inter-relação homem-meio em que os homens criaram uma forma de viver em um meio alagadiço e com grandes áreas de pântano permanente, construindo longos canais para controlar a água, criando áreas de mitigação das enchentes, obstruindo a confluência de alguns rios e elevando os campos para cultivo. A água, longe de ser um problema, se transformou no eixo de um sistema que não só provia alimentos mas também recursos derivados da pesca e da caça. Esta paisagem mudou drasticamente com a colonização espanhola, já que ela transformou o sistema social e produtivo dos Muiscas, o qual sustentava o sistema hidráulico. A mudança na forma de posse da terra, no tipo de plantas cultivadas, na introdução de elementos completamente alheios como o gado, somado à queda populacional, ao rompimento dos laços comunitários tradicionais, enfim, o desabamento do mundo que até então tinham conhecido, dificultou a reprodução social das estruturas necessárias para que o sistema hidráulico sobrevivesse. / The Hydraulic System of Raised Fields Cultivation, Camellones, built throughout 2500 years by pre-Hispanic groups from the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, is the central theme of this thesis. Our work focused the relationship between these groups and the water, to determine how the interaction between them led to a particular form of exploitation of resources and occupation of the territory. The overall objective of the research was to understand how it was organized the spatiality and quotidian activities, specifically during the Late Muisca period (1000 - 1550 AD), around the hydraulic system, that is, how it was built an agricultural landscape in an ecosystem of open water, and how this landscape changed with the Spanish colonization during the second half of the sixteenth century. Building on the concepts and theoretical elements of Landscape Archaeology and Historical Ecology, as well as archaeological, paleo-environmental, documentary data and photointerpretation, we developed an analysis that determined that the system of camellones was the result of the inter-relationship man-environment in which men have created a way to live in a wetland environment and with large areas of permanent swamp, building long channels to control the water, creating areas of mitigation of floods, blocking the confluence of some rivers and raising the fields for cultivation. The water, far from being a problem, has become the axis of a system that not only provided food but also the proceeds of fishing and hunting. This landscape has changed dramatically with the Spanish colonization, as it transformed the social and productive system of Muiscas, which supported the hydraulic system. The change in the form of land tenure, the type of crops, the introduction of completely unrelated elements such as cattle, added to the population decline, the breakdown of traditional community ties, ultimately, the collapse of the world that they had hitherto known, difficult the social reproduction of the structures necessary for the hydraulic system to survive.

O Sistema Hidráulico de Campos Elevados de Cultivo, Camellones, construído ao longo de 2500 anos pelos grupos pré-hispânicos da Sabana de Bogotá, Colômbia, é o tema central da presente tese. O nosso trabalho focou na relação estabelecida entre estes grupos e a água, para determinar de que maneira a interação entre ambos levou a uma forma particular de exploração dos recursos e de ocupação do território. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi entender como foi organizada a espacialidade e as atividades cotidianas, especificamente durante o período Muisca Tardio (1000 - 1550 DC), em torno do sistema hidráulico, isto é, como se construiu uma paisagem agrícola em um ecossistema de águas abertas, e como mudou essa paisagem com a colonização espanhola durante a segunda metade do século XVI. Apoiados nos conceitos e elementos teóricos da Arqueologia da Paisagem e da Ecologia Histórica, e nos dados arqueológicos, paleo-ambientais, documentais e na fotointerpretação, desenvolvemos uma análise que permitiu estabelecer que o sistema de camellones foi o resultado da inter-relação homem-meio em que os homens criaram uma forma de viver em um meio alagadiço e com grandes áreas de pântano permanente, construindo longos canais para controlar a água, criando áreas de mitigação das enchentes, obstruindo a confluência de alguns rios e elevando os campos para cultivo. A água, longe de ser um problema, se transformou no eixo de um sistema que não só provia alimentos mas também recursos derivados da pesca e da caça. Esta paisagem mudou drasticamente com a colonização espanhola, já que ela transformou o sistema social e produtivo dos Muiscas, o qual sustentava o sistema hidráulico. A mudança na forma de posse da terra, no tipo de plantas cultivadas, na introdução de elementos completamente alheios como o gado, somado à queda populacional, ao rompimento dos laços comunitários tradicionais, enfim, o desabamento do mundo que até então tinham conhecido, dificultou a reprodução social das estruturas necessárias para que o sistema hidráulico sobrevivesse. / The Hydraulic System of Raised Fields Cultivation, Camellones, built throughout 2500 years by pre-Hispanic groups from the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, is the central theme of this thesis. Our work focused the relationship between these groups and the water, to determine how the interaction between them led to a particular form of exploitation of resources and occupation of the territory. The overall objective of the research was to understand how it was organized the spatiality and quotidian activities, specifically during the Late Muisca period (1000 - 1550 AD), around the hydraulic system, that is, how it was built an agricultural landscape in an ecosystem of open water, and how this landscape changed with the Spanish colonization during the second half of the sixteenth century. Building on the concepts and theoretical elements of Landscape Archaeology and Historical Ecology, as well as archaeological, paleo-environmental, documentary data and photointerpretation, we developed an analysis that determined that the system of camellones was the result of the inter-relationship man-environment in which men have created a way to live in a wetland environment and with large areas of permanent swamp, building long channels to control the water, creating areas of mitigation of floods, blocking the confluence of some rivers and raising the fields for cultivation. The water, far from being a problem, has become the axis of a system that not only provided food but also the proceeds of fishing and hunting. This landscape has changed dramatically with the Spanish colonization, as it transformed the social and productive system of Muiscas, which supported the hydraulic system. The change in the form of land tenure, the type of crops, the introduction of completely unrelated elements such as cattle, added to the population decline, the breakdown of traditional community ties, ultimately, the collapse of the world that they had hitherto known, difficult the social reproduction of the structures necessary for the hydraulic system to survive.