16^th century's South America was witness to the Spanish invasion and thus began the European colonization. At that time the Indians in the dry desert regions along the Pacific coast had developed many advanced agricultural systems of which one technique consisted of sunken fields, which are still in use in some locations.
The following paper deals with recent archaeological and anthropological investigations giving new insight in Pre-Columbian agricultural history and will hopefully add and inspire others to do research for comparative studies of similar types of sunken fields known from Micronesia [Cushing Falanruw 1994] Spain [Mørch 1989], and Algeria [Soldi 1982]. The end of my paper will address the case of Algeria very shortly. However literature on the subject is very spread and inadequate.