The culture of the largest earthwork systems in French Guiana is the

Incised and Punctate ceramic Arauquinoid horizon original INCB024360 cost to the Venezuelan Orinoco, where there are some areas with raised fields (Roosevelt, 1980, Roosevelt, 1997 and Walker, 2012). The horizon is thought to represent a series of regional agricultural chiefdoms, but their organization has not been analyzed. The Bolivian systems have more varied pottery complexes. They also are considered to have been complex societies. The Amazonian earthworks of the riverine wetlands are large scale. The area of the Bolivian Amazon that contains earthworks covers more than 150,000 km2 and are estimated to have had as much as 100 times denser prehistoric human populations than today (Walker, 2012), for example. Most field systems have not been mapped in detail, so their extent may be an underestimate. Many have become covered with sediment, due to deforestation for cultivation and ranching, the predominant current land uses. The ancient agricultural systems include fields raised to improve drainage and soil quality, channels

to drain land for cultivation, and mounding to add muck to field surfaces. Although the field systems occur in quite distinct habitats, all are emplaced on hydromorphic sediments of the seasonally flooded alluvial land of the Amazon tributaries and its estuary. The residential mounds, many topped with anthropic dark earths and structural features, and the field works are connected with channels and causeways. signaling pathway These may have been transportation ways but also could have been hydrologic adjuncts to the field systems, to block or direct water flow. Amazonian peasants elsewhere sometimes dig canals in wetlands for transport and drainage (Raffles, 1999; Raffles, 2002:5–7, 12–23, 38–43, 62–67). The ancient channels and ditches may have been used for fishing or fish farming (Erickson, IKBKE 2008), but none have been investigated for fish remains. Although there has been no exploration for ancient fish fences and traps, they are commonly used by Amazonian

Indians today (e.g., Politis, 2007). A tremendous amount of human labor was invested in the earthen constructions and their use, and the cultivation that they supported was very intensive in work expended per unit space and time. Cultivation could have been continuous, rather than episodic, for the expanding lattice-clay rich sediment of the wetlands has comparatively high organic matter and nutrient-exchange activity. Burning of stubble, mulching, and green manuring could have been used to maintain fertility. The evidence for crop choice suggests a focus on productive open-field staples such as maize and manioc. As in Arauquinoid sites in the Orinoco (Roosevelt, 1980:188–190, 233–249), the Guianas fields give archaeobotanical evidence of a focus on maize, with all fields yielding abundant maize phytoliths (Iriarte et al.