Umberto Lombardo

University of Bern | UniBe

The Casarabe culture (500–1400 ce), spreading over roughly 4,500 km² of the monumental mounds region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia, is one of the clearest examples of urbanism in pre-Columbian (pre-1492 ce) Amazonia. It exhibits a four-tier hierarchical settlement pattern, with hundreds of monumental mounds interconnected by canals and causeways1...

Understanding the formation of tropical yellow to red earth (TYRE) is essential for preserving soil multifunctionality in well-drained tropical landscapes. Weathering and bioturbation mutually interact in TYRE evolution, whereas allochthonous materials appear restricted to distinct (paleo)landscapes. A layered appearance of TYRE can result from qua...

Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Mo...

Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecolog...

The Bolivian Amazon foreland basin is controlled by i) the sediment input from the Andes and the topographic load; ii) the basinal uplift in the forebulge; and iii) the uplifting Fitzcarrald Arch in the north. These boundary conditions should lead to bending and active faulting of the crust. However, although the presence of active faults has been...

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in e...

First described over 120 years ago in Brazil, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are expanses of dark soil that are exceptionally fertile and contain large quantities of archaeological artefacts. The elevated fertility of the dark and often deep A horizon of ADEs is widely regarded as an outcome of pre-Columbian human influence. Controversially, in their...

Archaeological research provides clear evidence that the widespread formation of Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) in tropical lowland South America was concentrated in the Late Holocene, an outcome of sharp demographic growth that peaked towards 1000 BP. In their recent paper, however, Silva et al. propose that the high fertility of ADE is not of anthr...

The onset of plant cultivation is one of the most important cultural transitions in human history1–4. Southwestern Amazonia has previously been proposed as an early centre of plant domestication, on the basis of molecular markers that show genetic similarities between domesticated plants and wild relatives4–6. However, the nature of the early human...

Amazonia is the world’s largest tropical forest and is globally important in terms of its ecosystem services and extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity. The origin of this biodiversity has long been attributed to purely natural drivers, with little consideration given to the legacy of millennia of human land use. Here, the potential contributi...

Our study is located in northern Beni and aims to improve knowledge on regional landscape changes from the last 8600 years, based on pollen and charcoal analyses from a lacustrine sediment core from Lake Ginebra. Our results showed that gallery forest and lacustrine sediment were observed from 8645 until 3360 cal yr BP. After a change from a lacust...

The long-term response of ancient societies to climate change has been a matter of global debate. Until recently, the lack of integrative studies using archaeological, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatological data prevented an evaluation of the relationship between climate change, distinct subsistence strategies and cultural transformations across...

The Amazon witnessed the emergence of complex societies after 2500 years ago that altered tropical landscapes through intensive agriculture and managed aquatic systems. However, very little is known about the context and conditions that preceded these social and environmental transformations. Here, we demonstrate that forest islands in the Llanos d...

This study provides new data on the evolution of the landscape in south-western Amazonia during the Holocene and the impact of climate change and fluvial dynamics on the region's ecosystems. South-western Amazonia is covered by an extensive seasonally flooded savannah, known as the Llanos de Moxos. Severe drought during the southern hemisphere wint...

Archaeology provides few examples of large-scale fisheries at the frontier between catching and farming of fish. We analysed the spatial organization of earthen embankments to infer the functioning of a landscape-level pre-Columbian Amazonian fishery that was based on capture of out-migrating fish after reproduction in seasonal floodplains. Long ea...

This study is concerned with raised fields – impressive pre-Columbian agricultural earthworks found throughout southwestern Amazonia – in the Llanos de Moxos (LM), in the Bolivian Lowlands. We explore the complexity of coupled human–environment interactions and propose hypotheses to explain the variation observed in the design of raised fields. We...

The present study reconstructs Holocene fluvial dynamics in the southern Amazonian foreland basin through the analysis of 36 stratigraphic profiles taken along a 300 km long transect across the Llanos de Moxos (LM), in the Bolivian Amazon. Based on 50 radiocarbon ages from paleosols intercalated with fluvial sediments, the most important changes in...

In pre-Columbian times human have been transforming Amazonian landscapes and adapting to different environmental conditions in different ways. One impressive example are the raised fields- a pre-Columbian agricultural system found in south-eastern Amazonia – in the Llanos de Moxos, in the Bolivian Lowlands. Pre-Columbian raised fields bear evidence...

This paper investigates the dynamics of logjam-induced floods and alluvial deposition in the Bolivian Amazon and the effects these have on forest disturbance and recovery cycles. It expands on previous work by Gullison et al. (1996) who reported a case of catastrophic floods triggered by logjams in the Chimane Forest in the Bolivian Amazon. No furt...

This paper investigates the dynamics of logjam-induced floods and alluvium deposition in the Bolivian Amazon and the effects these have on forest disturbance/recovery cycles. It expands on previous work by Gullison et al (1996) who reported a case of catastrophic floods triggered by logjams in the Chimane Forest on the Bolivian Amazon. No further s...

Phytolith analysis is increasingly used in archaeological and paleoecological research, yet the methods used to extract phytoliths from some types of sediments are still not completely satisfactory. This paper reports on the effect of adding sonication to protocols frequently used for phytolith extraction. We compare two common methods of phytolith...

Pre-Columbian raised field agriculture in the tropical lowlands of South America has received increasing attention and been the focus of heated debates regarding its function, productivity, and role in the development of pre-Columbian societies. Even though raised fields are all associated to permanent or semi-permanent high water levels, they occu...

Alluvial plains are formed with sediments that rivers deposit on the adjacent flood-basin, mainly through crevasse splays and avulsions. These result from a combination of processes, some of which push the river towards the crevasse threshold, while others act as triggers. Based on the floodplain sedimentation patterns of large rivers in the southe...

Pre-Columbian raised field agriculture in the tropical lowlands of South America has received increasing attention and been the focus of heated debates regarding its function, productivity, and role in the development of pre-Columbian societies. Even though raised fields are all associated to permanent or semi-permanent high water levels, they occu...

This paper aims to further our understanding of pre-Columbian agricultural systems in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia. Three different types of raised fields co-existing in the same site near the community of Exaltación, in north-western Beni, were studied. The morphology, texture and geochemistry of the soils of these fields and the surrounding area...

Alluvial plains are formed with sediments that rivers deposit on the adjacent floodbasin, mainly through crevasse splays and avulsions. These result from a combination of processes, some of which push the river towards the crevasse threshold, while 5 others act as triggers. Based on the floodplain sedimentation patterns of large rivers in the south...

In the present paper we explore to what degree soil properties might have influenced pre-Columbian settlement patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) of the Llanos de Moxos (LM), Bolivian Amazon. Monumental mounds are pre-Hispanic earth buildings and were preferentially built on mid- to late Holocene palaeolevees of the Grande River (here de...

The paper examines the role of neotectonic activity in the evolution of the landscape in southern Amazonia during the Holocene. It uses both new and published data based on the analysis of remote sensing imagery and extensive field work in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon. The study of the region’s modern and palaeorivers, ria lakes, palaeosols...

Recent archaeological research suggests that some parts of the Amazon Basin were significantly modified by pre-Columbian populations. One of the most impressive examples of such transformations is the raised fields of south-western Amazonia, in the Llanos de Moxos in the Bolivian Lowlands. Despite a growing interest in raised field agriculture, due...

In the present paper we explore to what degree soil properties might have influenced pre-Columbian settlement patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) of the Llanos de Moxos (LM), Bolivian Amazon. Monumental mounds are pre-Hispanic earth buildings and were preferentially built on mid to late Holocene paleo levees of the Grande River (here den...

Quantitative measures of polygon shapes and orientation are important elements of geospatial analysis. These kinds of measures are particularly valuable in the case of lakes, where shape and orientation patterns can help identifying the geomorphological agents behind lake formation and evolution. However, the lack of built-in tools in commercial ge...

The presence of hundreds of rectangular and oriented lakes is one of the most striking characteristics of the Llanos de Moxos (LM) landscape in the Bolivian Amazon. Oriented lakes also occur in the Arctic coastal plains of Russia, Alaska and Canada and along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from northeast Florida to southeast New Jersey and along the coa...

The reconstruction of past environmental and historical events is much needed in Amazonia, a region at the centre of heated debates about the extent of pre-Columbian human disturbance of the natural ecosystems. Important aspects of this debate are to establish to what extent the rise of social complexity was influenced by the local geo-ecology; and...

We report on previously unknown early archaeological sites in the Bolivian lowlands, demonstrating for the first time early and middle Holocene human presence in western Amazonia. Multidisciplinary research in forest islands situated in seasonally-inundated savannahs has revealed stratified shell middens produced by human foragers as early as 10,00...

Trivial names and IUPASC names of analysed steroids and external standards used. (DOCX)

Faunal remains and burnt earth from SM1. (DOCX)

Methods of soil steroid and benzene-polycarboxylic acids detection. (DOCX)

Chromatograms of masses 129 and 215 of a shell midden sample taken at 75 cm depth. Soil matrix was dominated by shell debris. TLE is low at 0.06 mg g−1. (TIF)

Location of the paleosol samples reported in table 1 and table 2. Numbers indicate the code of the cores. (TIF)

Total lipid extract (TLE) and steroid composition in shell midden SM1 and in soil samples from the surrounding savannah. (DOCX)

Since the beginning of the 1960s, research in the Amazon has revealed that in Pre-Columbian times, landscapes that were viewed as challenging living environments were nevertheless altered in several ways. Raised fields agriculture is one of the most impressive phenomena that can be found in South-eastern Amazonia. Pre-Columbian raised fields are ea...

The Llanos de Moxos (LM), in the Bolivian lowlands, is a seasonally flooded savannah which has been inhabited since the beginning of the Holocene. Early Holocene archaeological sites, mostly shell middens, are nowadays hidden under forest islands: patches of forest surrounded by savannah. Despite their similar aspect, these archaeological sites are...

The presence of hundreds of rectangular and oriented lakes is one of the most striking characteristics of the Llanos de Moxos (LM) landscape, a seasonally flooded savannah which constitutes the Central Andean foreland basin. Besides being rectangular and oriented at about 45 degrees north, these lakes are characterized by being very shallow and hav...

The scale, spatial variability and implications of pre-Columbian human-induced changes in the Amazon basin are controversial. While some scholars believe that large settlements and complex societies were limited to areas with favourable environmental conditions and human disturbance was localized, others propose that social complexity developed reg...

The Río Grande (Guapay) catchment in the Central Andes of Eastern Bolivia constitutes the southernmost extension of the Amazonian drainage system and feeds one of the largest megafans in South America. Today, the Río Grande flows into the Río Mamoré, marking the transition from a distributive to tributive channel network. A rich record of preserved...

The Llanos de Moxos (LM), Beni, Bolivia, with its impressive number of pre-Columbian earthworks, is an ideal region for studying past human–environment interactions in the Amazonia. Agricultural raised fields are among the most striking of those earthworks. They can offer us valuable information about the region’s agricultural carrying capacity and...

Pre-Columbian raised fields are elevated earth platforms which are found in several regions of Central and South America. The Llanos de Moxos, in lowland Bolivia, is one of the areas with the highest concentration of these earthworks. Existing studies seem to indicate that they represent a form of agricultural intensification, but the dimension of...

An algorithm is presented to calculate the point on the surface of a sphere maximising the great-circle distance to a given spherical polygon. This is used to calculate the spots furthest from the sea in major land masses, also known as Poles of Inaccessibility (PIA), a concept that has raised the interest of explorers. For the Eurasian pole of ina...