Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy

c International Astronomical Union 2011

Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 278, 2011
Clive L. N. Ruggles, ed.
doi:10.1017/S1743921311012555

Can nature align? The enigma of Moxos

Lagoonsastronomy and landscape in
south-western Amazonia
Juan Antonio Belmonte1 and Josep Barba F.2
1

Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

email: [email protected]
2
Centre dEstudis Amaz`onics, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract. In this essay we present a tentative archaeoastronomical analysis of the Moxos

Lagoons, a controversial and huge geographical network in the landscape of the Bolivian Amazon.
In the late 1990s, a preliminary analysis of the orientation of a comprehensive and statistically
signicant number of lagoons showed that only human action could explain the peculiarities of
their geometry, and especially their orientation according to a main axis aligned to an azimuth
of 50 and its complementary angle. Since then, there has been an open debate on how these
orientations could have been determined in practice. The absence of distinctive geographical
features on the horizon strongly suggests that this peculiar pattern must have an astronomical
justication. This short report presents a rst approximation to the problem, suggesting that
the lagoons could have been deliberately orientated in accordance with certain stellar positions
which may have marked selected moments in the local climatic or economic cycle, a fact that
could be corroborated by ethnohistoric references. The implications for new ethnographical
research in the region are self-evident.
Keywords. Amazonia, Moxos Lagoons, orientations, Arcturus, Centaurus

1. Introduction
It has been a general belief that Amazonian people did not create complex societies.
The current low population density of the river basin and the apparent nonexistence of
archaeological ruins of any signicance seemed to conrm this fact. According to some
scholars, the poverty of Amazonian soils limited food production and made it impossible
to maintain urban settlements of any size. However, aerial images and remote sensing
have led to the discovery of the remains of complex constructions, which are dicult to
explain within the context of a simple hunter-gatherer society. This has been especially
important in the area of the ood plains, the pampas, within Beni province in the north
of Bolivia. Intensive agricultural practices were revealed here in the 1950s following the
discovery (by an engineer, Kenneth Lee, who was searching for geological fractures while
prospecting for oil) of extensive areas of cultivation-drained elds. These occur precisely
in the area of the lagoons and the location of the long-established culture that has given
the name to the region under discussion: Llanos de Moxos (Denevan 1966; Iskaenderian
2009). The area concerned is shown in Fig. 1.
During several years of eldwork, Lee compiled an enormous amount of information
and developed an elaborate theory arguing that other features found along Moxos
constructions both undoubtedly and possibly man-made, together with other archaeological remainsactually formed a cluster of structures built in order to colonise the
huge ood-plain of the pampas (see Fig. 2). In the 1990s, the second author met Lee
in Santa Cruz and they started work together, analysing the dierent elements of the
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J. A. Belmonte & J. Barba F.

Figure 1. Map of the Amazonian region showing the area occupied by the Llanos de Moxos
and the region of the Mamore River basin where most of the lagoons are located.

Figure 2. The ancient human landscape in Moxos in the dry (left) and ooding (right) seasons.
The upper images show hillocks and the lower images show complete networks of drained elds.
Notice how the hillocks and elds remain above the level of the water during the ooding
season. Panel (d) also illustrates that drained elds do not seem to follow any clear pattern of
orientation. Images courtesy of CEAM.

Can nature align? The enigma of Moxos Lagoons

137

cluster of structureslagoons, channels, embankments or terraplenes, dams, hillocks

or lomas, etc.and studying their abundance and spatial distribution. (A preliminary
analysis of the settlement patterns in the region showed that they did not follow any
particular trends.) Another objective was to study the environment of Llanos de Moxos
throughout history, and to rescue any sustainable productive technologies that might
remain applicable today. In 1994 the Centre d Estudis Amaz`
onics (CEAM) was created
in Barcelona with the purpose of supporting this work (Barba 2003; Barba & Mir
o 2003),
including the creation of the Estaci
on Pisccola Mausa.
The most important case study was indeed that of the lagoons (see Fig. 3), whose
geometry strongly suggested a possible anthropogenic origin. This was despite the work
of George Plafker (1964) and other geologists who considered the lagoons to be natural.
In 1995, an agreement between CEAM and the Institut Cartogr`
ac de Catalunya (ICC)
permitted, for the rst time, a complete cartographic study of the area though satellite
images (see Fig. 4), an inventory of the lagoons, and a structural and design analysis.
The rst results were presented in the late 1990s (see, e.g., Fig. 5), the main conclusion
being that only human action could explain the peculiarities of their geometry and particularly their orientation, with the main axes being aligned at an azimuth of 50 and its
complementary angle (Barba et al. 1998; Barba & Vi
nas 2000). The absence of distinctive
topographic features on the horizon suggested a possible astronomical justication for
such a peculiar pattern. Since then, there has been an open debate.

Figure 3. Dierent aerial images of Moxos lagoons. (a) The aligned Montevideo twin lagoons,
strongly suggesting human origin. (b) A lagoon keeping its form and size during the ooding
season. (c) Four lagoons in close proximity in dierent states of preservation. The leftmost and
rightmost have resulted from the fusion of lagoons. (d) A sh-station (estacion pisccola) close to
Laguna Mausa where new sh-farming techniques with autochthonous species have recently been
implemented. This demonstrates the capability of the lagoons for modern economic activities.
Images courtesy of CEAM.

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J. A. Belmonte & J. Barba F.

Figure 4. Upper: Satellite image of an area rich in lagoons on the left bank of the Mamore
River. Lower: Schematic plan of the same area, with dierent tones marking still extant and
dry lagoons. The grey arrows indicate the two dominant axes of the lagoons. Images courtesy
of ICC and CEAM.

2. Discussion
According to the hypotheses discussed above, Moxos Lagoons would certainly be the
largest archaeological features remaining in Amazonia, possibly even in pre-Columbian
America. The region studied covered an area of more than 80,000 km2 (1170 km2 occupied
by the lagoons only), and would have represented a huge eort to colonise a ood-plain
comparable to that of the Egyptian civilization in the lower valley of the Nile, a place
where astronomy played a key role in the process (Belmonte 2009). We know little about
the society that created the lagoons, presumably to be used as huge sh-farms, and all
the related structures; nor do we know the time or the cause of the collapse of a system

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139

Figure 5. The original histogram of orientations showing the non-random orientation of the
lagoons that forms the basis of the current investigation (from Barba and Vi
nas 2000).

that had long disappeared by the time the Spanish Jesuits arrived in the 17th century.
However, ceramics found in test excavations of certain lomas (Dougherty & Calanda
1984) suggest a date as early as c. 800 B.C. Amazonia may indeed have a long and
fascinating history, hitherto ignored.
The present work provides a new archaeoastronomical insight into the construction of
the lagoons. Some 370 lagoon axes, and the directions perpendicular to them, have been
analysed in an attempt to shed some light on the problem through a multidisciplinary
approach. The declination histograms (see Fig. 6) show that neither the orientation of
the major or minor axes of the lagoons can be explained by solar or lunar observations.
However, the diagrams demonstrate that the lagoons could have been deliberately orientated in accordance with certain stellar positions. It is possible that these marked
selected times in the local climatic cycle, given that the rainy season, following several
months of severe drought, starts during the month of October. This fact might conrm
ethnohistoric records from the late 18th century (see e.g., Eder 1985; Barba 2009). Two
alternatives can be analyzed.
If we focus on the major axes of the lagoons, then the main peaks of the histogram
could be related to the rising of Arcturus (see Fig. 7). During the rst quarter of the
rst millennium B.C., this star heliacally rose at the end of October. At the present
time, we lack information relating this star to any aspect of the culture across Llanos de
Moxos. However, the Kobeua tribe of the Brazilian Amazon identify the area of B
ootes
as a celestial piranha with Arcturus at its tail (Staal 1988). We can speculate, therefore,
that the builders of the lagoons might have seen a sh-constellationperhaps a pacu
instead of a piranhain the same area of the sky. This could well have related to the
shing practices carried out at the lagoons, the heliacal rising of this constellation being
seen as a propitiatory phenomenon related to the economic cycle of the region.

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J. A. Belmonte & J. Barba F.

Figure 6. Declination histogram of the orientations of 370 lagoons in Llanos de Moxos: (a)
orientation of the major axis, (b) minor (or dam) axis. There are no signicant peaks in the
luni-solar range (dashed vertical lines mark the solar solstices and equinoxes; dotted ones mark
the lunar extremes). This strongly suggests a stellar explanation for the most signicant peaks,
i.e. that observations of particular stars were used to orientate the lagoons. The stars of Crux
together with Arcturus, Rigil Kent and Hadar are considered the only reasonable candidates.
See the text for further discussion.

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141

Figure 7. The heliacal rising of Arcturus around October 28, 1000 B.C., following the dominant azimuth of the main axes of Moxos lagoons. Arcturus may have belonged to a sh-like
constellation that rose heliacally at the time when the wet season arrived and the oods started.

If, on the other hand, we consider the minor axes (or actually, the orientation of
the dams constraining the lagoons), then the histogram shows that the highest peaks
could easily be explained by alignment upon the bright stars of Centaurus and Crux.
This grouping of bright stars, especially and Centuari, may well have had great
symbolic signicance in the cosmovision of the ancient Moxe
no culture. They were amply
recognized by other neighbouring (although not necessarily contemporary) cultures such
as the Inca of the highlands (Bauer & Dearborn 1998) and, especially, the Tupi-Guarani
of the upper Chaco (Pereira Quiroga 2004), who see the image of a giant n
andu or piyu
(the American ostrich) in the same region of the sky (see Fig. 8). Added to this, in the
rst millennium B.C. and Centauri helically roseand, incidentally, heliacally set as
wellat the end of September; this means that these stars could have acted as heralds
of the forthcoming rains and ooding.
At the present state of knowledge, we are unable to choose clearly between these two
alignment options: Arcturus with B
ootes or the bright stars of Centaurus plus Crux. Both
oer an interesting and appealing possibility for the astronomical orientation of the very
likely man-made lagoons. Indeed, the implications are self-evident for new and extensive
ethnoastronomical research in the region, focusing on further investigating local sky-lore
and its possible relationship with the lagoons.
Acknowledgements
This work is partially nanced under the framework of the projects P310793 Arqueoastronoma of the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias and AYA200760213 Orientatio ad
Sidera II of the Spanish MICINN.

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J. A. Belmonte & J. Barba F.

Figure 8. A piyu (a) and its local rock-art (b) and celestial (c) counterparts. The head and
neck of this huge constellation might also have been the reference point for the orientation of the
lagoons, but its importance has yet be proved for the ancient Moxe
no culture. Images courtesy
of CEAM (a, b) and Gonzalo Pereira (c).

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