1. Dobyns, H. F. An appraisal of techniques with a new hemispheric estimate. Curr. Anthropol. 7, 395–416 (1966).

2. Koch, A., Brierley, C., Maslin, M. M. & Lewis, S. L. Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492. Quat. Sci. Rev. 207, 13–36 (2019).

3. Clement, C. R. et al. The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 282, 20150813 (2015).

4. Denevan, W. M. Estimating Amazonian Indian Numbers in 1492. J. Lat. Am. Geogr. 13, 207–221 (2014).

5. Polyak, V. J. & Asmerom, Y. Late Holocene climate and cultural changes in the southwestern United States. Science 294, 148–151 (2001).

6. Kennett, D. J. et al. Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to climate change. Science 338, 788–791 (2012).

7. Douglas, P. M. J., Demarest, A. A., Brenner, M. & Canuto, M. A. Impacts of climate change on the collapse of lowland Maya civilization. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 44, 613–645 (2016).

8. Ortloff, C. R. & Kolata, A. L. Climate and collapse: agro-ecological perspectives on the decline of the Tiwanaku state. J. Archaeol. Sci. 20, 195–221 (1993).

9. Binford, M. W. et al. Climate variation and the rise and fall of an Andean civilization. Quat. Res. 47, 235–248 (1997).

10. Kirch, P. V. Microcosmic histories: island perspectives on “global” change. Am. Anthropol. 99, 30–42 (1997).

11. Allen, M. S. Bet-hedging strategies, agricultural change, and unpredictable environments: historical development of dryland agriculture in Kona, Hawaii. J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 23, 196–224 (2004).

12. Gunderson, L. H. & Holling, C. S. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems (Island Press, 2002).

13. Holling, C.S. in Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (eds Clark, W. C. & Munn, R. E.) 292–317 (Cambridge University Press, 1986).

14. Holling, C. S. Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosyst. (N. Y.) 4, 390–405 (2001).

15. Rostain, S. Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian Amazonia (Left Coast, 2013).

16. Versteeg, A.H. in Handbook of South American Archaeology (eds. Silverman, H. & Isbell, W. H.) 303–318 (Springer, 2008).

17. Iriarte, J. et al. Late Holocene Neotropical agricultural landscapes: phytolith and stable carbon isotope analysis of raised fields from French Guianan coastal savannahs. J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 2984–2994 (2010).

18. McKey, D. et al. Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 7823–7828 (2010).

19. Van den Bel, M. in Arqueologia Amazônica (eds E. Pereira & V. Guapindaia) 61–93 (Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, 2010).

20. Roosevelt, A.C. Moundbuilders of the Amazon: Geophysical Archaeology on Marajo Island, Brazil (Academic Press, 1991).

21. Schaan, D.P. The Camutins Chiefdom: Rise and Development of Social Complexity on Marajó Island, Brazilian Amazon (University of Pittsburgh, 2004).

22. Schaan, D.P. Sacred Geographies of Ancient Amazonia: Historical Ecology of Social Complexity (Left Coast Press, 2011).

23. Roosevelt, A.C. in Complex Polities in the Ancient Tropical World (eds Elisabeth A. Bacus & Lisa J. Lucero) 13–33 (Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 1999).

24. Nimuendajú, C. Os Tapajó. Bol. Mus. Para. Emilio Goeldi 10, 93–106 (1948).

25. Gomes, D. M. C. The diversity of social forms in pre-colonial Amazonia. Revista de Arqueología Americana 25, 189–225 (2007).

26. Schaan, D.P. in Beyond Waters: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Amazonian Inland (ed. Stenborg, P. D.) 23–36 (University of Gothenburg, 2016).

27. Gomes, D. M. C. Politics and ritual in large villages in Santarém, lower Amazon, Brazil. Camb. Archaeol. J. 27, 275–293 (2016).

28. Maezumi, S. Y. et al. The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture agroforestry in the eastern Amazon. Nat. Plants 4, 540–547 (2018).

29. Neves, E.G. in Human–Environment Interactions: Current and Future Directions (eds Brondízio, E. S. & Moran, E. F.) 371–388 (Springer Netherlands, 2013).

30. Neves, E.G. & Petersen, J.B. in Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands (eds Balée, W. & Erickson, C. L.) 279–310 (Columbia University Press, 2006).

31. Heckenberger, M. J., Petersen, J. B. & Neves, E. G. Village size and permanence in Amazonia: two archaeological examples from Brazil. Lat. Am. Antiq. 10, 353–376 (1999).

32. Bozarth, S.R., Price, K., Woods, W.I., Neves, E.G. & Rebellato, R. in Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek’s Vision (eds Woods, W. I. et al.) 85–98 (Springer Netherlands, 2009).

33. Neves, E. in Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia: Reconstructing Past Identities from Archaeology, Linguistics, and Ethnohistory (eds Hornborg, A. & Hill, J. D.) 31–56 (University of Colorado Press, 2011).

34. Moraes, C. P. & Neves, E. G. O ano 1000: adensamento populacional, interação e conflito na Amazônia Central. Amazônica a 4, 122–148 (2012).

35. Pärssinen, M., Schaan, D. P. & Ranzi, A. Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia. Antiquity 83, 1084–1095 (2009).

36. Saunaluoma, S. & Schaan, D. Monumentality in Western Amazonian formative societies: geometric ditched enclosures in the Brazilian state of Acre. Antiqua 2, 1 (2012).

37. Schaan, D. et al. New radiometric dates for precolumbian (2000–700 B.P.) earthworks in western Amazonia, Brazil. J. Field Archaeol. 37, 132–142 (2012).

38. Watling, J. et al. Impact of pre-Columbian “geoglyph” builders on Amazonian forests. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 1868–1873 (2017).

39. Neves, E. G. et al. Pesquisa e Formação nos Sítios Arqueológicos Espinhara e Sol de Campinas do Acre - PESC (University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 2016).

40. Lombardo, U. & Prümers, H. Pre-Columbian human occupation patterns in the eastern plains of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazonia. J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 1875–1885 (2010).

41. Lombardo, U., Denier, S., May, J.-H., Rodrigues, L. & Veit, H. Human–environment interactions in pre-Columbian Amazonia: The case of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia. Quat. Int. 312, 109–119 (2013).

42. Lombardo, U., Denier, S. & Veit, H. Soil properties and pre-Columbian settlement patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon. SOIL 1, 65–81 (2015).

43. Prümers, H. ¿”Charlatanocracia” en Mojos? investigaciones arqueológicas en la Loma Salvatierra, Beni, Bolivia. Bol. Arqueol. PUCP 11, 103–116 (2007).

44. Prümers, H. & Jaimes Betancourt, C. 100 años de investigación arqueológica en los Llanos de Mojos. Arqueoantropológicas 4, 11–54 (2014).

45. Whitney, B. S., Dickau, R., Mayle, F. E., Soto, J. D. & Iriarte, J. Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos, lowland Bolivia. Quat. Res. 80, 207–217 (2013).

46. Dickau, R. et al. Diversity of cultivars and other plant resources used at habitation sites in the Llanos de Mojos, Beni, Bolivia: evidence from macrobotanical remains, starch grains, and phytoliths. J. Archaeol. Sci. 39, 357–370 (2012).

47. Prümers, H., Jaimes Betancourt, C. & Plaza Martinez, R. Algunas tumbas prehispanicas de Bella Vista, Prov. Iténez, Bolivia. Z. f.ür. Arch.äologie Außereuropäischer Kult. 1, 251–284 (2006).

48. Carson, J. F. et al. Environmental impact of geometric earthwork construction in pre-Columbian Amazonia. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 10497–10502 (2014).

49. Prümers, H. in Amazonía: Memorias de las Conferencias Magistrales del 3er Encuentro Internacional de Arqueología Amazónica (ed Rostain, S.) 73–89 (Ekseption Publicidad, 2014).

50. Erickson, C.L. in Arqueología de las Tierras Bajas (eds Coirolo, A. D. & Boksar, R. B.) 207–226 (Comisión Nacional de Arqueología, 2000).

51. Heckenberger, M. J. et al. Amazonia 1492: pristine forest or cultural parkland? Science 301, 1710–1714 (2003).

52. Heckenberger, M.J. The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place, and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, A.D. 1000–2000 (Routledge, 2005).

53. Heckenberger, M. J. et al. Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon. Science 321, 1214–1217 (2008).

54. Novello, V. F. et al. Two millennia of south Atlantic convergence zone variability reconstructed from isotopic proxies. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 5045–5051 (2018).

55. Haug, G. H., Hughen, K. A., Sigman, D. M., Peterson, L. C. & Rohl, U. Southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone through the Holocene. Science 293, 1304–1308 (2001).

56. Bird, B. W. et al. A 2,300-year-long annually resolved record of the South American summer monsoon from the Peruvian Andes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 8583–8588 (2011).

57. Wang, X. et al. Hydroclimate changes across the Amazon lowlands over the past 45,000 years. Nature 541, 204 (2017).

58. Novello, V. F. et al. Centennial-scale solar forcing of the South American Monsoon System recorded in stalagmites. Sci. Rep. 6, 24762 (2016).

59. Apaéstegui, J. et al. Precipitation changes over the eastern Bolivian Andes inferred from speleothem (δ18O) records for the last 1400 years. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 494, 124–134 (2018).

60. Mann, M. E. et al. Global signatures and dynamical origins of the Little Ice Age and medieval climate anomaly. Science 326, 1256–1260 (2009).

61. Vuille, M. et al. A review of the South American monsoon history as recorded in stable isotopic proxies over the past two millennia. Clim 8, 1309 (2012).

62. Hammond, D. S., Steege, Ht & Van Der Borg, K. Upland soil charcoal in the wet tropical forests of central Guyana. Biotropica 39, 153–160 (2007).

63. Iriarte, J. et al. Fire-free land use in pre-1492 Amazonian savannas. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6473–6478 (2012).

64. Schaan, D.P. in The Handbook of South American Archaeology (eds Silverman, H. & Isbell, W. H.) 339–357 (Springer New York, 2008).

65. Hermenegildo, T., O’Connell, T. C., Guapindaia, V. L. C. & Neves, E. G. New evidence for subsistence strategies of late pre-colonial societies of the mouth of the Amazon based on carbon and nitrogen isotopic data. Quat. Int. 448, 139–149 (2017).

66. Meggers, B.J. & Evans, C. Archaeological Investigations at the Mouth of the Amazon (Smithsonian Institution, 1957).

67. Cheng, H. et al. Climate change patterns in Amazonia and biodiversity. Nat. Commun. 4, 1411 (2013).

68. Lara, R. J. & Cohen, M. C. L. Palaeolimnological studies and ancient maps confirm secular climate fluctuations in Amazonia. Clim. Change 94, 399–408 (2009).

69. Almeida, F.O. & Neves, E.G. in Antes de Orellana: Actas del 3er Encuentro Internacional de Arqueología Amazónica (ed. Rostain, S.) 175–182 (Ekseption Publicidad, 2014).

70. Oliveira, E. in Cerâmicas Arqueológicas da Amazônia: Rumo a Uma Nova Síntese (eds Barreto, C., Lima, H. P. & Betancourt, C. J.) 387–396 (IPHAN/Ministério da Cultura, 2012).

71. Novello, V. F. et al. Multidecadal climate variability in Brazil’s Nordeste during the last 3000 years based on speleothem isotope records. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L23706 (2012).

72. Schaan, D. P., Pärssinen, M., Ranzi, A. & Piccoli, J. Geoglifos da Amazônia ocidental: Evidência de complexidade social entre povos da terra firme. Rev. de. Arqueol. 20, 67–82 (2007).

73. Saunaluoma, S. Pre-Columbian earthworks in the Riberalta region of the Bolivian Amazon. Amazônica 2, 104–138 (2010).

74. Apaéstegui, J. et al. Hydroclimate variability of the northwestern Amazon basin near the Andean foothills of Peru related to the South American monsoon system during the last 1600 years. Clim 10, 1967–1981 (2014).

75. Kanner, L. C., Burns, S. J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L. & Vuille, M. High-resolution variability of the South American summer monsoon over the last seven millennia: insights from a speleothem record from the central Peruvian Andes. Quat. Sci. Rev. 75, 1–10 (2013).

76. Erickson, C.L. in Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands (eds Balée, W. & Erickson, C. L.) 235–278 (Columbia University Press, 2006).

77. Lombardo, U., May, J.-H. & Veit, H. Mid- to late-Holocene fluvial activity behind pre-Columbian social complexity in the southwestern Amazon basin. Holocene 22, 1035–1045 (2012).

78. Mayle, F. E., Burbridge, R. & Killeen, T. J. Millennial-scale dynamics of southern Amazonian rain forests. Science 290, 2291–2294 (2000).

79. Maezumi, S. Y., Whitney, B. S., Mayle, F. E., Gregorio de Souza, J. & Iriarte, J. Reassessing climate and pre-Columbian drivers of paleofire activity in the Bolivian Amazon. Quat. Int. 488, 81–94 (2017).

80. Abbott, M. B., Binford, M. W., Brenner, M. & Kelts, K. R. A. 3500 14C yr high-resolution record of water-level changes in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia/Peru. Quat. Res. 47, 169–180 (1997).

81. Thompson, G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Bolzan, J. F. & Koci, B. R. A. 1500-year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru. Science 229, 971–973 (1985).

82. Kolata, A.L. & Ortloff, C.R. in Tiwanaku And Its Hinterland: Archaeology And Paleoecology On An Andean Civilization Smithsonian Series In Archaeological Inquiry 181–201 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996).

83. Eder, F.J. Breve Descripción de las Reducciones de Mojos (J. Barnadas, 1985).

84. de Souza, J. G. et al. Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon. Nat. Commun. 9, 1125 (2018).

85. Wortham, B. E. et al. Assessing response of local moisture conditions in central Brazil to variability in regional monsoon intensity using speleothem 87Sr/86Sr values. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 463, 310–322 (2017).

86. Meggers, B. J. Environmental limitation on the development of culture. Am. Anthropol. 56, 801–824 (1954).

87. Denevan, W. M. Pre-Spanish earthworks in the Llanos de Mojos of northeastern Bolivia. Rev. Geogr.áfica 33, 17–25 (1964).

88. deMenocal, P. B. Cultural responses to climate change during the Late Holocene. Science 292, 667–673 (2001).

89. Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H. & Brenner, M. Possible role of climate in the collapse of ancient Maya civilization. Nature 357, 391–394 (1995).

90. Iriarte, J., DeBlasis, P., De Souza, J. G. & Corteletti, R. Emergent complexity, changing landscapes, and spheres of interaction in southeastern South America during the Middle and Late Holocene. J. Archaeol. Res. 25, 251–313 (2017).

91. Håkansson, N. T. & Widgren, M. Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications (Left Coast Press, 2014).

92. Whitney, B. S. et al. Pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture and land use in the Bolivian Amazon. Holocene 24, 231–241 (2014).

93. Rodrigues, L., Lombardo, U. & Veit, H. Design of pre-Columbian raised fields in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon: differential adaptations to the local environment? J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 17, 366–378 (2018).

94. Levis, C. et al. Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition. Science 355, 925–931 (2017).

95. Levis, C. et al. How people domesticated Amazonian forests. Front. Ecol. Evol. 5, 171 (2018).

96. Sheehan, O., Watts, J., Gray, R. D. & Atkinson, Q. D. Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 3628–3633 (2018).

97. Earle, T.K. How Chiefs Come to Power: the Political Economy in Prehistory (Stanford University Press, 1997).

98. Turchin, P. et al. Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, E144–E151 (2017).

99. Dark, K.R. Waves of Time: Long Term Change and International Relations (Continuum, 1998).

100. Johnson, N. Simply Complexity: a Clear Guide to Complexity Theory (OneWorld Publications, 2007).

101. Renfrew, C. in Transformations, Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change (eds Renfrew, C. & Cooke, K. L.) 481–506 (Academic Press, 1979).

102. Redman, C. L. & Kinzig, A. P. Resilience of past landscapes: resilience theory, society, and the longue durée. Conserv. Ecol. 7, 14 (2003).

103. Redman, C. L. Resilience theory in archaeology. Am. Anthropol. 107, 70–77 (2005).

104. Hegmon, M. et al. Social transformation and its human costs in the prehispanic U.S. Southwest. Am. Anthropol. 110, 313–324 (2008).

105. Flores, B. M. et al. Floodplains as an Achilles’ heel of Amazonian forest resilience. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 4442–4446 (2017).

106. Gomes, D. C. Cronologia e Conexões Culturais na Amazônia: as Sociedades Formativas na Região de Santarém. Pa. Rev. Antropol. 54, 268–314 (2011).

107. Quinn, E. Excavating “Tapajó” Ceramics at Santarém: Their Age and Archaeological Context PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Chicago (2004).

108. Woods, W. I. et al. Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek’s Vision (Springer, 2009).

109. McMichael, C. H. et al. Predicting pre-Columbian anthropogenic soils in Amazonia. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 281, 20132475 (2014).

110. Glaser, B. & Woods, W. I. Amazonian Dark Earths: Explorations in Space and Time (Springer, 2004).

111. Schmidt, M.J. & Heckenberger, M.J. in Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek’s Vision (eds Woods, W. I. et al.) 163–191 (Springer, 2009).

112. Glaser, B. Prehistorically modified soils of central Amazonia: a model for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 362, 187–196 (2007).

113. Neves, E.G., Petersen, J.B., Bartone, R. & Augusto Da Silva, C. in Amazonian Dark Earths: Origins, Properties, Management (eds Lehmann, J., Kern, D. C., Glaser, B. & Woods, W. I.) 29–50 (Kluwer Academic Publisher, 2004).

114. Levis, C. et al. historical human footprint on modern tree species composition in the Purus-Madeira Interfluve, Central Amazonia. PLoS One 7, e48559 (2012).

115. ter Steege, H. et al. Hyperdominance in the Amazonian tree flora. Science 342, 1243092 (2013).

116. Kunen, J.L. Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo: Social and Environmental Change in the Wetlands of Belize (The University of Arizona Press, 2004).

117. Rodrigues, L. et al. An insight into pre-Columbian raised fields: the case of San Borja, Bolivian lowlands. SOIL 2, 367–389 (2016).

118. Balée, W.L. Footprints of the Forest: Ka’apor Ethnobotany — The Historical Ecology of Plant Utilization by an Amazonian People (Columbia University Press, 1994).

119. Arroyo-Kalin, M. The Amazonian formative: crop domestication and anthropogenic soils. Divers. (Basel) 2, 473–504 (2010).

120. Woods, W.I., Denevan, W.M. & Rebellato, L. in Soils, Climate and Society: Archaeological Investigations in Ancient America (eds Wingard, J. D. & Hayes, S. E.) 1–20 (University Press of Colorado, 2013).

121. Kaniewski, D. et al. Environmental roots of the Late Bronze Age crisis. PLoS One 8, e71004 (2013).

122. Drake, B. L. The influence of climatic change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages. J. Archaeol. Sci. 39, 1862–1870 (2012).

123. Cline, E.H. 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2015).

124. Dillehay, T. D. et al. Cultivated wetlands and emerging complexity in south-central Chile and long distance effects of climate change. Antiquity 81, 949–960 (2015).

125. Dull, R. A. et al. The Columbian encounter and the Little Ice Age: abrupt land use change, fire, and greenhouse forcing. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 100, 755–771 (2010).

126. Nevle, R. J., Bird, D. K., Ruddiman, W. F. & Dull, R. A. Neotropical human–landscape interactions, fire, and atmospheric CO 2 during European conquest. Holocene 21, 853–864 (2011).

127. Power, M. J. et al. Climatic control of the biomass-burning decline in the Americas after ad 1500. Holocene 23, 3–13 (2012).

128. WinklerPrins, A. Locating Amazonian dark earths: creating an interactive GIS of known locations. J. Lat. Am. Geogr. 9, 33–50 (2010).