[Aztlan] Pre-Columbian Society of the Penn. Museum of Archaeology February Lecture

[michael ruggeri]

Next Meeting of the Pre-Columbian Society

Saturday, February 14, 2009, 1:30 PM,  Room 345
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Clark Erickson, PhD, University of Pennsylvania: Pre-Columbian  
Monumental Earthworks of the Amazon

             Traditionally,  archaeologists have believed the vast  
Amazon region of South America to be a cultural backwater compared to  
the better-known civilizations that developed in the Americas.  
Scholars stress the limitations of tropical environments and lack of  
critical technological innovations to sustain large dense populations,  
intensive agriculture, monumental architecture, urban centers, and  
complex forms of society: the foundations of any civilization and  
complex societies. In recent years, the documentation of raised field  
agriculture, anthropogenic (human created) black earth, managed  
forests, hydraulic engineering, and dense large settlements for  
several regions of the Amazon has questioned traditional assumptions  
about lack of cultural development.
             In collaboration with a small team of Bolivian  
archaeologists during 2007 and 2008, Dr. Erickson documented over a  
hundred examples of a fascinating form of monumental earthworks called  
ring ditches or geoglyphs. The ditches and embankments encircle areas  
of several acres to nearly a square mile. Some earthworks are  
precisely constructed in geometric patterns (circles, ellipses, and  
squares) that suggest a clear concern for landscape design,  
appearance, and aesthetics. Deep ditches of up to 12 feet deep and 20  
feet wide suggest tens of thousands of cubic yards of earth moved  
during their construction. Various hypotheses are presented for the  
functions of earthworks based on forms and associations. The existence  
of monumental works of such magnitude and density throughout Western  
Amazonia requires demands a reassessment of the prehistory of the  
region and the ability of native peoples to transform their landscapes  
at a massive scale.
             Following his studies at Washington University, St.  
Louis, Missouri, Dr. Erickson received his  M.A. and  Ph.D. in  
Anthropology from the  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is  
currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, at  
the University of Pennsylvania, and an Associate Curator in the  
American Section of the University Museum of Archaeology and  
Anthropology.  He is currently directing a multi-year,  
multidisciplinary investigation of traditional agricultural systems of  
agricultural production, precolumbian land use, anthropogenic  
landscapes, human environmental impact, and the technological and  
engineering knowledge of prehispanic farmers in the Amazonian region  
of Bolivia, at  Llanos de Moxos, Department of the Beni, Bolivia. The  
fieldwork involves archaeological survey, mapping, and excavation of  
agricultural earthworks, digital analysis of remote sensing, and  
establishment of a Geographic Information System. The research also  
includes agricultural experimentation based on the now-abandoned  
technology defined from archaeological research. During the 1980s,  
Clark first investigated prehispanic raised field agriculture in the  
Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru.  Between 1990 and 1994, his group  
developed an applied archaeology program whereby indigenous  
communities participated in the raised field experiments. After 1995,  
they focused their investigations on a vast complex of precolumbian  
earthworks in the Baures, the region along the border between Bolivia  
and Brazil. Their research is funded by the National Science  
Foundation, H. John Heinz Charitable Trust, the Research Foundation,  
American Philosophical Society, and the InterAmerican Foundation.
       Dr. Erickson is widely published. Among his most recent   
publications are:
2008: Amazonia: The Historical Ecology of a Domesticated Landscape.    
The Handbook of South American Archaeology, Edited by Helaine  
Silverman and William Isbell, Springer, New York.
2006: Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the  
Neotropical Lowlands. Edited by William Balée and Clark L. Erickson,  
Columbia University Press, New York.
2006: Intensification, Political Economy, and the Farming Community;  
In Defense Of A Bottom-Up Perspective Of The Past. IN Agricultural  
Strategies. Edited by Joyce Marcus and Charles Stanish, Cotsen  
Institute.
2006: The Domesticated Landscapes of the Bolivian Amazon. IN Time and  
Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands.  
Edited by William Balée and Clark Erickson, Columbia University Press,
For any who wish to read these and other recent articles Dr. Erickson  
has published, please go to:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cerickso/articles/articles.html
recent press articles about Dr. Erickson, and his research can also be  
accessed from:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthro/people/faculty/cerickso , including:
Mann, Charles 2008: Ancient Earthmovers of the Amazon. Science  
321:1148-1152. (29 August 2008),
Hvistendah, Mara 2008:  Amazonian Harvest: Can Prehistoric Farming  
Methods lead us to a Sustainable Future? Archaeology 61(4):20-25.  
(July/August 2008).
http://www.precolumbian.org/nextmeeting.HTM


Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and  
Lectures
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/AncientAmerica/