The Lake Titicaca basin in the south central Andes of present-day Peru and Bolivia is one of the most impressive engineered landscapes in the world (Erickson 2000). Much of the pre-Columbian agricultural infrastructure is still in use, although poorly maintained. Abandoned raised fields, sunken gardens, and various hydraulic earthworks are found throughout lake and river plains. The mountainous slopes are covered with stone-lined terraces, boundary
walls, and canals. In the early 1980s I began a study of one abandoned farming system, raised field agriculture. The goal of the investigation was to describe; map; date origins, use, and abandonment; and determine the functions,
carrying capacity, and sustainability of raised field agriculture. Raised fields (Spanish: camellones; Quechua: waru waru; Aymara: suka kollus) are elevated planting platforms of earth (1 to 20 meters wide, 10 to hundreds of meters long, and 0.5 to 1 meter high). Adjacent to each platform are canals that provided the earth for construction. My Peruvian colleagues and I estimate that raised fields cover more than 120,000 hectares of the Lake Titicaca basin, most of which now lie abandoned (Fig. 3). Archaeological excavations of raised fields demonstrated that farmers began constructing them by 1000 B.C. The production from raised fields and other intensive forms of agriculture underwrote the complex societies that developed within the basin.
The Lake Titicaca basin in the south central Andes of present-day Peru and Bolivia is one of the most impressive engineered landscapes in the world (Erickson 2000). Much of the pre-Columbian agricultural infrastructure is still in use, although poorly maintained. Abandoned raised fields, sunken gardens, and various hydraulic earthworks are found throughout lake and river plains. The mountainous slopes are covered with stone-lined terraces, boundarywalls, and canals. In the early 1980s I began a study of one abandoned farming system, raised field agriculture. The goal of the investigation was to describe; map; date origins, use, and abandonment; and determine the functions,carrying capacity, and sustainability of raised field agriculture. Raised fields (Spanish: camellones; Quechua: waru waru; Aymara: suka kollus) are elevated planting platforms of earth (1 to 20 meters wide, 10 to hundreds of meters long, and 0.5 to 1 meter high). Adjacent to each platform are canals that provided the earth for construction. My Peruvian colleagues and I estimate that raised fields cover more than 120,000 hectares of the Lake Titicaca basin, most of which now lie abandoned (Fig. 3). Archaeological excavations of raised fields demonstrated that farmers began constructing them by 1000 B.C. The production from raised fields and other intensive forms of agriculture underwrote the complex societies that developed within the basin.
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