Archaeologists have long associated the development of agriculture with the rise of the state. But the archaeology of the Amazon Basin, revealing traces of agriculture but lacking evidence of statehood, confounds their assumptions. John H. Walker's innovative study of the Bolivian Amazon addresses this contradiction by examining the agricultural landscape and analyzing the earthworks from an archaeological perspective. The archaeological data is presented in ascending scale throughout the book. Scholars across archaeology and environmental anthropology will find the methodology and theoretical arguments essential for further study.