Chapter 4. Locating field systems in the southern Peruvian Andes

Abstract

In this paper, we review current understandings of anthropogenic field systems, focusing on trends and variations in the chronology of field construction, use, and in some cases, abandonment, as well as labor organization of agrarian production across the Lake Titicaca Basin. These trends indicate that agricultural intensification increased both during the political centralization of the Tiwanaku state and during periods of political fragmentation. In contrast to prior work on fields in the region, we argue that there was no single cultural, environmental, or historical impetus that ignited the construction of any particular field type. Additionally, we present the results of pedestrian survey of terraces carried out in 2018 in the northern Lake Titicaca Basin. While there were regional commonalities across survey areas in the masonry design of terrace risers, presence of pathways and radiating walls separating vertical tracts of terraces, and a general absence of irrigation, we found deviations from each of these trends in individual terrace complexes. While preliminary evidence indicates that more terraces were built or cultivated during the Late Intermediate period (1100–1450 CE) than in other time periods in the northern Titicaca basin, some terraces were likely built earlier. Our findings point to the multiplicity of strategies that ancient farmers employed in the varied ecological settings of the Lake Titicaca basin under diverse sociopolitical programs. This contrasts with previous research on agrarian field systems, which is mostly single-sited and tends to emphasize individual strategies over the quiver of agrarian options available to Andean farmers.