In
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, a raised field is a large, cultivated elevation, typically bounded by water-filled ditches, that is used to allow cultivators to control environmental factors such as moisture levels, frost damage, and
flooding. Examples of raised field agriculture can be found among some Pre-Hispanic cultures of
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, such as those from tropical lowlands and the
Budi Lake
Budi Lake ( es, Lago Budi, ) from the Mapudungun word ''Füzi'' which means salt, is a tidal brackish water lake located near the coast of La Araucanía Region, southern Chile. The lake is part of the boundaries between Saavedra and Teodoro Sc ...
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...
.
[ Dillehay, Tom D.; Pino Quivira, Mario; Bonzani, Renée; Silva, Claudia; Wallner, Johannes; Le Quesne, Carlos (2007]
Cultivated wetlands and emerging complexity in south-central Chile and long distance '' 81 (2007): 949–960
Pre-Hispanic raised fields are known from the region near Santa Cruz de Mompox in northern Colombia and in the Llanos de Moxos region of lowland Bolivia. In highland Bolivia, where this was utilized by the Tiwanaku culture near Lake Titicaca, this technique is known as ''
waru waru'' or ''camellones''. Ancient raised-field agriculture has also been documented in
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
at
Pulltrouser Swamp
Pulltrouser Swamp is a wetland area located in northern Belize, between the New River (Belize) and Hondo River (Belize). This area contains numerous archaeological sites belonging to the Maya civilization, the most studied features of which are ...
in
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
, where it was practiced by the
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...
.
Toltec and
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
people also practiced raised-field agriculture on the shore of
Lake Texcoco, where these fields were known as ''
chinampa
Chinampa ( nah, chināmitl ) is a technique used in Mesoamerican agriculture which relies on small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico. They are built up on wetlands of a lake o ...
s''.
References
History of agriculture
Landscape history
{{Agri-stub