REVERSEACTION July 2024 Update
In June, REVERSEACTION welcomed two visiting scholars to Cambridge, Fernando Montejo Gaitán (Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia) and Miguel Carrero Pazos (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela). Fernando, Miguel, and Jasmine spent several fruitful weeks designing and executing a collaborative research plan for the mapping and spatial analysis of the pre-Hispanic hydraulic systems found in the Mojana region of the Colombian Caribbean, building upon Fernando’s previous research in the Depresión Momposina. The objective will be to improve our understanding of the construction and spatial organisation of these channel and ridge formations, as well as of their relationships with either domestic and shared spaces. To answer these questions, the the group, along with our Research Assistant, Rosie, vectorised evidence of water control and field systems, agriculture, and housing platforms from satellite images, designed analyses for their grouping into different classes, modelled the impact of the anthropogenic alterations on water movement throughout the region, as well as calculated the labour input required for their construction, using volumes of moved earth as a proxy. In turn, the results of these analyses will help to address broader social questions of labour organisation and the nature of the social units that managed these hydraulic systems in pre-Hispanic times.