CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 124

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

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

Prümers, Heiko, Betancourt, Carla Jaimes, Iriarte, José, Robinson, Mark, Schaich, Martin·2022·Nature
DOI 10.1038/s41586-022-04780-4PMC PMC9177426
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

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 km 2 , with one of the large settlement sites controlling an area of approximately 500 km 2 . 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.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41586-022-04780-4

Cites

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • This case study contributes to the growing global body of work demonstrating the value of cost- and time-effective remote sensing methods for the documentation, preservation, and management of cultural heritage.

    “Moreover, this case study contributes to the growing global body of work demonstrating the value of cost- and time-effective remote sensing methods for the documentation, preservation, and management of cultural heritage6–8.”

    From Multiscale anthropogenic feature detection in the argentinian andes: satellite machine learning, UAV, and pedestrian survey (2026) · cites this paper as [6]

  • The discrepancy between this study and studies supporting spatially extensive legacies may be explained by differences in the density of past populations and settlements, and with that their activities, transient nature and impact on the forests.

    “This discrepancy may be explained by differences in the density of past populations and settlements, and with that their activities, transient nature and impact on the forests”

    From Pre‐contact and post‐colonial ecological legacies shape Surinamese rainforests (2024) · cites this paper as Prümers et al., 2022

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 39

  1. Fletcher, R. Low-Density, Agrarian-Based Urbanism: A Comparative View Vol. 2 (Institute of Advanced Study, Durham Univ., 2009).
  2. Fletcher, R. in The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies (ed. Smith, M. E.) 285–320 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012). · DOI
  3. Lucero, L. J., Fletcher, R. & Coningham, R. From ‘collapse’to urban diaspora: the transformation of low-density, dispersed agrarian urbanism. Antiquity 89, 1139–1154 (2015). · DOI
  4. Evans, D. H. et al. Uncovering archaeological landscapes at Angkor using lidar. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 12595–12600 (2013). · DOI
  5. Canuto, M. A. et al. Ancient lowland Maya complexity as revealed by airborne laser scanning of northern Guatemala. Science 361, eaau0137 (2018). · DOI
  6. Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z., Fisher, C. T., Leisz, S. J. & Weishampel, J. F. Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 12916–12921 (2012). · DOI
  7. Heckenberger, M. J. et al. Pre-Columbian urbanism, anthropogenic landscapes, and the future of the Amazon. Science 321, 1214–1217 (2008). · DOI · Paper page
  8. Iriarte, J. et al. Geometry by design: contribution of lidar to the understanding of settlement patterns of the mound cillages in SW Amazonia. J. Comput. Appl. Archaeol. 3, 151–169 (2020).
  9. Prümers, H. & Jaimes Betancourt, C. 100 años de investigación arqueológica en los Llanos de Mojos. Arqueoantropológicas 4, 11–53 (2014).
  10. Prümers, H. (ed.) Loma Mendoza. Las Excavaciones del Instituto Alemán de Arqueología y de la Dirección Nacional de Arqueología en los años 1999–2002 (Plural, 2015).
  11. Erickson, C. L. An artificial landscape-scale fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 408, 190–193 (2000). · DOI · Paper page
  12. Erickson, C. L. & Balée, W. (eds) in Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands 187–233 (Columbia Univ. Press, 2006). · DOI
  13. Erickson, C. L. in The Handbook of South American Archaeology (eds Silverman, S. & Isbell, W.) 157–183 (Springer, 2008). · DOI · Paper page
  14. Walker, J. H. Island, River, and Field. Landscape Archaeology in the Llanos de Mojos (Univ. New Mexico Press, 2018). · DOI
  15. Lombardo, U., May, J.-H. & Veit, H. Mid-to late-Holocene fluvial activity behind pre-Columbian social complexity in the southwestern Amazon basin. Holocene 22, 1035–1045 (2012). · DOI
  16. Lombardo, U. & Prümers, H. Pre-Columbian human occupation patterns in the eastern plains of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazonia. J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 1875–1885 (2010). · DOI · Paper page
  17. Dickau, R. et al. Diversity of cultivars and other plant resources used at habitation sites in the Llanos de Mojos, Beni, Bolivia: evidence from macrobotanical remains, starch grains, and phytoliths. J. Archaeol. Sci. 39, 357–370 (2012). · DOI
  18. Whitney, B. S., Dickau, R., Mayle, F. E., Soto, J. D. & Iriarte, J. Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos, lowland Bolivia. Quat. Res. 80, 207–217 (2013). · DOI
  19. von den Driesch, A. & Hutterer, R. Mazamas, Patos criollos y anguilas de lodo. Restos de subsistencia del asentamiento precolombino “Loma Salvatierra”, Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia. Z. Archäol. Außereuropäischer Kulturen 4, 341–367 (2011).
  20. Prestes-Carneiro, G., Béarez, P., Shock, M. P., Prümers, H. & Jaimes Betancourt, C. Pre-Hispanic fishing practices in interfluvial Amazonia: zooarchaeological evidence from managed landscapes on the Llanos de Mojos savanna. PLoS ONE 14, e0214638 (2019). · DOI
  21. Gaydarska, B. Early Urbanism in Europe. The Trypilla Megasites of the Ukrainian Forest-Steppe (De Gruyter, 2020). · DOI
  22. Gaydarska, B. The city is dead! Long live the city! Norw. Archaeol. Rev. 49, 40–57 (2016). · DOI
  23. Fletcher, R. Trajectories to low-density settlements past and present: paradox and outcomes. Front. Digit. Humanit. 6, 14 (2019). · DOI
  24. McMichael, C. H. et al. Sparse pre-Columbian human habitation in western Amazonia. Science 336, 1429–1431 (2012). · DOI · Paper page
  25. Creekmore A. T. III & Fisher, K. D. Making Ancient Cities. Space and Place in Early Urban Societies (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014). · DOI
  26. Yoffee, N. (ed.) Early Cities in Comparative Perspective, 4000 BCE–1200 CE. The Cambridge World History 3 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015). · DOI
  27. Roberts, P. Tropical Forests in Prehistory, History and Modernity(Oxford Univ. Press, 2019). · DOI
  28. Devereux, B. J., Amable, G. S., Crow, P. & Cliff, A. D. The potential of airborne lidar for detection of archaeological features under woodland canopies. Antiquity 79, 648–660 (2005). · DOI
  29. Inomata, T. et al. Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization. Nature 582, 530–533 (2020). · DOI
  30. Chevance, J.-B., Evans, D., Hofer, N., Sakhoeun, S. & Chhean, R. Mahendraparvata: an early Angkor-period capital defined through airborne laser scanning at Phnom Kulen. Antiquity 93, 1303–1321 (2019). · DOI
  31. Evans, D. & Fletcher, R. The landscape of Angkor Wat redefined. Antiquity 89, 1402–1419 (2015). · DOI
  32. Fisher, C. T., Cohen, A. S., Fernández-Diaz, J. C. & Leisz, S. J. The application of airborne mapping LiDAR for the documentation of ancient cities and regions in tropical regions. Quat. Int. 448, 129–138 (2017). · DOI
  33. VanValkenburgh, P. et al. Lasers without lost cities: using drone lidar to capture architectural complexity at Kuelap, Amazonas, Peru. J. Field Archaeol. 45, S75–S88 (2020). · DOI
  34. Kokalj, Ž. & Somrak, M. Why not a single image? Combining visualisations to facilitate fieldwork and on-screen mapping. Remote Sens. 11, 747 (2019). · DOI
  35. Zakšek, K., Oštir, K. & Kokalj, Ž. Sky-view factor as a relief visualization technique. Remote Sens. 3, 398–415 (2011). · DOI · Paper page
  36. Kokalj, Ž. & Hesse, R. Airborne Laser Scanning Raster Data Visualisation: A Guide to Good Practice (Založba ZRC, 2017). · DOI
  37. Dougherty, B. & Calandra, H.A. in Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula Vol. 2 (ed. Rabassa, J.) 163–199 (Routledge, 1984).
  38. Dougherty, B., Calandra, H. A. & Faldín Arancibia, J. Excavaciones arqueológicas en la Loma Alta de Casarabe, Llanos de Moxos, Departamento del Beni, Bolivia. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología 14, 9–48 (1982).
  39. Prümers, H. Die Untersuchungen der Jahre 2007–2008 zur vorspanischen Siedlungsgeschichte in den Llanos de Mojos (Bolivien). Z. Archäol. Außereuropäischer Kulturen 3, 233–244 (2010).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Prümers, H., Betancourt, C. J., Iriarte, J., Robinson, M., & Schaich, M.
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-05-25
Volume
606
Issue
7913
Pages
325-328
ISSN
  • 0028-0836
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/s41586-022-04780-4
PMC
PMC9177426
Cited by
124
References
0
Language
en
Licence

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review