Low-density urbanism in Amazonia
The final seminar in the UCL Institute of Archaeology Thematic Research Seminar series for Term I, 2024-25, will be given by Carla Jaimes Betancourt (Bonn University) on 4 December.
Abstract
What lies beneath the vast savannahs and forests of the Llanos de Moxos, in the lowland Bolivian Amazon? Join us for an exploration of the Casarabe culture (500-1400 AD), whose monumental settlements redefined what we know about pre-Columbian Amazonian societies. Using cutting-edge lidar technology, a vast engineered landscape of stepped platforms, U-shaped structures, and towering pyramids - hallmarks of low-density urbanism - has been revealed under the rainforest canopy by recent research. This sophisticated settlement system, occupying more than 4,500 km², includes multi-tiered urban centres connected by raised causeways and intricate water management infrastructures, suggesting a once thriving, sustainable relationship with the environment. These findings challenge long-held assumptions about tropical urbanism and reveal the Amazon as a hotspot of past cultural innovation.
UCL Institute of Archaeology Thematic Research Seminars Programme | Term I, 2024-25
The Term I seminar series will highlight thematic research looking at ‘Life Histories’ and ‘Human Planetary Transformations’. These are scheduled to be in-person events.
Seminars on ‘Life Histories’ will explore research related to areas including transition from hunting to herding; demographic instabilities in early farming societies; diet; health and variation in past populations; death and burial.
Those seminars on ‘Human Planetary Transformations’ will highlight research related to environmental transformations and sustainability; early human archaeology and evolution; domestication of animals and plants, human demography and migration.
Wednesdays, doors open 4pm for a 4.10pm start
- 9 October: Reassessing Kura-Araxes pastoral practices and mobility in the Caucasus & Levant using zooarchaeology, ZooMS and stable isotope analysis - Gwen Maurer (Cardiff University)
- 16 October: Combining Bioarchaeology and Immunology to explore the disease burden of past populations - Katie Hemer & Thomas McDonnell (UCL)
- 23 October: Death and burial in ancient Egypt: the role of black goo - Kate Fulcher (UCL)
- 30 October: What’s theoretical/ ethical/ political about writing people’s life stories archaeologically? - John Robb (University of Cambridge)
[6 November: Reading Week - no seminar]
- 13 November: Who’s transforming who? Nomads and metals at the dawn of the Silk Roads trade - Miljana Radivojevic (UCL)
- 20 November: Monumentality and Landscape: Case Studies in the Creation of Lineage and Genealogy from Early Medieval England - Andrew Reynolds (UCL)
- 27 November: The Archaeosphere - Matt Edgeworth (University of Leicester)
- 4 December: Revealing ancient cities: low-density urbanism in Amazonia - Carla Jaimes Betancourt (Bonn University)
Further information
Ticketing
Open
Cost
Free
Open to
UCL staff
Availability
Yes