Trinidad 2013?

The Llanos de Moxos, in the Bolivian Amazon, are a fascinating site. Full of archaeological remains, striking and diverse tropical fauna and flora and many indigenous cultures. The Llanos covers about 150.000 km² of seasonally flooded savannah. For many years it has been largely neglected by the scientific community, only a handful of researchers have worked in the area. Fortunately, things are now beginning to change. In the last half a decade several new researchers (including myself) have decided to study this fascinating region. As far as I know, there are now several ongoing research projects in the LM. I list here those that come to mind:

Us, thePaleoGeoEcology group from University of Bern.

John Walker, who has recently set up a very interesting blog about the BolivianAmazon.

Heiko Prümers’ group, who have been doing  archaeological research and excavations in theregion for over a decade

Clark Erickson, who has been working in the LM since the seventies.

Francis Mayle’s group, who are producing the first pollen archives from the LM’s lakes

José Iriarte’s group, who are using phytoliths to study pre-Columbian agriculture.

The ORE-HYBAMproject of the IRD, who have published several papers on the Hydrology of theLM.

Rolf Aalto,who studies the sedimentation processes along the Beni and Mamoré rivers

Victoria Reyes-García’s group of anthropologists working with the Chimanes

Eduardo Machicado, who is doing his PhD at Cambridge, focusing on the area of SanIgnacio de Moxos

A few weeks ago, whilst reading a post on John Walker’s blog, I thought it would be great if we could all meet next summer in Trinidad,Beni. Actually, Last year I already talked about organising some kind of meeting among the ‘Moxos researchers’ with Marcos Michel, currently Director of la Direccion General de Patrimonio Cultural of the Bolivian Government, and with other people from the Governación del Beni, and all seemed very keen with the idea. It would be great to share some of our work and experiences among ourselves, but also among local researchers and interested parties. There are plenty of Benianos who are passionate about the  past of the LM and some areperforming their own research (such as Ricardo Bottega in Trinidad or Jaime Bocchetti in Santa Ana de Yacuma). It could be really interesting to engage in an exchange of ideas and experiences between “cientificos gringos” and Bolivianos!

If you like the idea and want to get involved you could do 2 things: 1) if you know of other ongoing projects in the Llanos de Moxos you could send the link of this page to those involved and send me their names (so that I can add them to the list). 2) Let me know when would be the best time for you to have the meeting in Trinidad, considering that it would have to be during the dry season (June-October). Keep in mind that there is a conference on Amazonian archaeology in Ecuador from the 7 to 14 of September, so we should avoid overlapping. Although I am not entirely sure if the conference has been confirmed.

Cheers, and I hope to see you in Trinidad next summer!

Umberto