The La Mojana field systems in Colombia’s wetlands are some of the largest examples of monumental ancient engineering in South America. “These field systems are so impressive that people have assumed they were achieved by hierarchical chiefdoms. Construction began during the first centuries BCE,and local pre-Hispanic communities continued to rely on these field networks until about the 11th century CE. The raised fields were used for roughly 1,000 years. Adopting these ancient field systems may avoid similar outcomes, and they don’t even require centralized governance to realize them.