Altiplano

The well-known societies of the altiplano and southern Andes were close to Mojos in both space and time. Tiwanaku is less than 300 km from western sites associated with agricultural earthworks, and several Mojeno contexts date to Tiwanaku times and earlier (Walker 2004). The ceramics recovered in Nordenskiold’s excavations made it possible to speculate

On links to the Andes. Although some ceramic similarities exist, possibly indicating that the southeastern mound cultures were derivative from the highlands, strong arguments have been advanced that these ceramics have more in common with Amazonian examples from further downstream and with other upper Amazonian ceramics (Bennett 1936; Howard 1948; Lathrap 1970).

Raised field agriculture is well documented in Tiwanaku (see, e. g., Kolata 1993). As the scale and antiquity of raised field use in Mojos becomes clearer, this becomes relevant to the question of the relationship between Tiwanaku and Mojos (Hornborg 2005). Such systems represent the accumulation of labor over centuries, and it is unlikely that the technology diffused rapidly either from Mojos to the altiplano, or vice-versa. The slow process of creating agrodiversity through building agricultural landscapes suggests that there was no single moment of innovation in the development of raised field agriculture. There are many differences in form and function between raised fields, associated with different agricultural problems and different social and political organizations.

A Finnish-Bolivian project has recovered evidence of an Inca presence, well dated to the Late Horizon, at a site along the Beni River in far northern Mojos (Siiriainen and Korpisaari 2002, 2003). Both the ceramic evidence and radiocarbon dating are convincing.

The nature of the occupation is unclear, although it seems that material evidence of the Incas is not widespread, and that highlanders were interested in lowland resources. The location along the Beni, a major river that reaches into the highlands is unsurprising. Being near its confluence with the Madre de Dios River would have furthered trade and contact with large areas of the lowlands, both in Mojos and further downstream.

Intensive agriculture was widespread in Mojos, and estimates of its extent continue to expand, while those of its antiquity continue to deepen. Improved remote sensing resources in combination with survey will allow a more accurate estimate in the future, but new earthworks continue to be discovered, and it is likely that agricultural earthworks in Mojos were of the same order of magnitude as those in the altiplano. Mojos represents both a comparative case of the development and abandonment of raised field farming and possibly a shared history with the altiplano.

Eastern Slopes

Between Mojos and the altiplano lie the eastern slopes of the Andes, a region sometimes characterized as a frontier, but which clearly has its own identity. An increasing amount of research is being conducted in the humid valleys of the eastern slopes. Stone axes, which are rare but widespread in Mojos, may indicate contact with the eastern slopes. Material for ground stone tools does not appear naturally in Mojos, and the best sources are in the Andes (although the Brazilian shield is another possibility). Such axes could have had symbolic value, but because they do not occur in large numbers, it is unlikely that they played a pivotal role in agriculture. Stone axes would have been less effective than the use of fire for clearing vegetation. Slash-and-burn agriculture probably was not widespread before the arrival of the Spanish, and there are good reasons to believe that this form of agriculture developed after the advent of metal tools (Denevan 2001).

There are similarities between Mojos ceramics and some of the ceramic industries present in the altiplano and the Bolivian eastern slopes before Tiwanaku (Lathrap 1970). These similarities point to the ease with which cultural traits, and ceramic attributes in particular, may have passed between the lowlands and highlands. Environmental differences seem to make strong boundaries, but they were crossed repeatedly in the past, as they are

Being crossed today. It may be more accurate to think of these regions as all being part of a single area with regard to many characteristics.