Experimental archaeology is a study in which archaeologists attempt to understand the events in the past by recreating the events themselves. There are all kinds of experimental archaeology, such as flint knapping to make stone tools, or attempts to build a house using ancient techniques. In its most extreme form, experimental archaeology becomes applied, in that the researchers hope to teach old methods to the descendants of people who have abandoned them.
In the 1980s, a group of researchers went to the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia and Peru to attempt to recreate the ancient agricultural methods that had been the economic basis of the
Tiwanaku empire of the 6th-10th centuries AD. How did raised field agriculture work, how fertile were the fields, and, most importantly, why did the method fall out of favor? In this email interview, researcher Clark Erickson talks about the project, what he learned from it, what unforeseen problems developed, and what the future holds for raised field agriculture, and applied archaeology.
A Lesson in Applied Archaeology
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