Clear evidence that sedentary farmers cultivated both maize and manioc in the Colombian Amazon Basin by 2700 B.C. During the first few centuries A.D. a larger population actively managed organic garbage and eventually transported large quantities of silt from the river banks to improve the agricultural yields of the plateau they farmed. Complete text in English and Spanish.

This pioneering and comprehensive survey is the first overview of current themes in Latin American archaeology written solely by academics native to the region, and it makes their collected expertise available to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The contributors cover the most significant issues in the archaeology of Latin America, such as the domestication of camelids, the emergence of urban society in Mesoamerica, the frontier of the Inca empire, and the relatively little known archaeology of the Amazon basin. This book draws together key areas of research in Latin American archaeological thought into a coherent whole; no other volume on this area has ever dealt with such a diverse range of subjects, and some of the countries examined have never before been the subject of a regional study.

Includes index.