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Science 4 February 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5454, pp. 786 - 789
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5454.786
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News Focus

ARCHAEOLOGY:
Earthmovers of the Amazon

Charles C. Mann

TRINIDAD, BOLIVIA--For more than 30 years, archaeologists have clashed over whether the vast Bolivian river basin called the Beni could provide the resources for indigenous cultures to grow beyond small, autonomous villages. Now a small but growing number of researchers believe that the region was once home to cultures fully as sophisticated as the better known, though radically different, cultures of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas. Although these still unnamed peoples abandoned their earthworks between 1400 and 1700 C.E., researchers say, they permanently transformed regional ecosystems--a notion with dramatic implications for conservation.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Holocene fire and occupation in Amazonia: records from two lake districts.
M. B Bush, M. R Silman, M. B de Toledo, C. Listopad, W. D Gosling, C. Williams, P. E de Oliveira, and C. Krisel (2007)
Phil Trans R Soc B 362, 209-218
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Long-term forest-savannah dynamics in the Bolivian Amazon: implications for conservation.
F. E Mayle, R. P Langstroth, R. A Fisher, and P. Meir (2007)
Phil Trans R Soc B 362, 291-307
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?.
M. J. Heckenberger, A. Kuikuro, U. T. Kuikuro, J. C. Russell, M. Schmidt, C. Fausto, and B. Franchetto (2003)
Science 301, 1710-1714
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)