Archeology in the Bolivian Amazon
John H. Walker’s book-length study of the central-western Llanos de Mojos, a region of the Bolivian Amazon covering some 10,000 square kilometers, is a welcome expansion and extension of his previously published archaeological research. The book reveals an anthropogenic landscape of forest islands, raised fields, ring ditches, and communities arrayed along and between the Iruyañez, Omi, Yacuma, and Rapulo Rivers. Walker summarizes the results of his excavations of five forest islands, including the impressive 100-hectare site of El Cerro, and integrates these results with those from his analyses of a corpus of aerial and satellite imagery. The results are interpreted on multiple scales, and contribute to a nuanced understanding of large-scale, complex agricultural systems in the marked absence of a prehistoric state.