Ancient earthworks covering hundreds of square kilometres have been discovered in the Bolivian Amazon by a team led by Dr Clark Erickson, a curator from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
The scientists are convinced the earthworks, zigzag structures covering some 500 square kilometres of flooded savanna close to Bolivia’s border with Brazil.
It is believed the weirs were used to trap and store fish for the time when the water subsided. The fish weirs have small funnel-like openings where the structures change direction.
“We flew over the area in a small plane and I got a better sense of how big this whole network of these fish weirs (was), some of them interconnected, going from forest island to forest island, over this huge landscape,” Dr Erickson said.
The fish weirs have small funnel-like openings where the structures change direction.
Dr Erickson believes the openings were used to channel fish into traps. And ponds found nearby were probably used by native peoples as a fish store to provide valuable protein during the dry season, he said.
“In this case, they have solved this protein problem by managing the natural resources not just fish but snails and palms that also produce a vegetable protein,” said Dr Erickson.
According to BBC News on Line
