Pathways to power in the southern Brazilian highlands: Households, communities and status at Southern Proto-Jê pit house settlements

This thesis is a contribution to the debate about the emergence of politically complex societies in the southern Brazilian highlands from a regional, community and household approach. At the regional level, I compare settlement patterns of the Southern Proto-Jê (Taquara/Itararé Tradition) in different areas, developing a model of territories structured around central places – represented by dense pit house villages and oversized pit houses. I test this model with new survey data from a yet unexplored region. At the centre of the pilot area, the site Baggio 1 – a dense, well-planned settlement focused around an oversized pit house – was chosen for excavations. I frame the discussion about the function of oversized structures in the broader theoretical debates about aggrandising vs corporate strategies in early complex societies and their archaeological correlates. Thus, the excavations at Baggio 1 were targeted at understanding community organisation, functional variation between pit houses of distinct sizes, and inter-household differentiation. I demonstrate how the oversized House 1 emerged as the founding structure in the settlement, hosting ceremonies of house renewal during the first part of the site’s history. Later, as the settlement grew, House 1 persisted as the social epicentre of the community. However, major differences emerged between the hilltop, formally arranged residential sector around House 1 and the periphery of the site. Although the earlier house renewal ceremonies were no longer practised, the inhabitants of House 1 asserted their presence in the same dwelling for over two centuries, maintaining the oversized structure as a conspicuous mark in the landscape and potentially deriving special status from their descent of the site’s founders. The excavations at Baggio 1 reveal a complex interplay of corporate and aggrandising strategies to power in the southern Brazilian highlands

Southern Jê earthworks and burial mounds

In this paper I com pare different Je sites with earthworks and burial mounds, excavated in Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The first type consists in two small circular earthworks surrounding mounds with cremated burials. The second presents a large circular earthwork joining a rectangular earthwork and surrounding three mounds. Site architecture, energy dispended in construction, and activities performed suggest hierarchical distinctions between the different cemeteriesNeste artigo comparo diferentes sítios de aterros e montículos funerários Jê escavados em Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul. O primeiro tipo consiste em dois pequenos aterros circulares cercando montículos com sepultamentos cremados. O segundo apresenta um grande aterro circular unido a um muro retangular e cercando três montículos. A arquitetura dos sítios, o dispêndio de energia em sua construção e as atividades realizadas nos mesmos sugerem distinções hierárquicas entre os vários cemitério

Reassessing the role of climate change in the Tupi expansion (South America, 5000–500 BP)

The expansion of forest farmers across tropical lowland South America during the Late Holocene has long been connected to climate change. The more humid conditions established during the Late Holocene are assumed to have driven the expansion of forests, which would have facilitated the dispersal of cultures that practised agroforestry. The Tupi, a language family of widespread distribution in South America, occupies a central place in the debate. Not only are they one of the largest families in the continent, but their expansion from an Amazonian homeland has long been hypothesized to have followed forested environments wherever they settled. Here, we assess that hypothesis using a simulation approach. We employ equation-based and cellular automaton models, simulating demic-diffusion processes under two different scenarios: a null model in which all land cells can be equally settled, and an alternative model in which non-forested cells cannot be settled or delay the expansion. We show that including land cover as a constraint to movement results in a better approximation of the Tupi expansion as reconstructed by archaeology and linguistics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Refining the Chronology and Occupation Dynamics of the Mound Villages of South-Eastern Acre, Brazil

This paper summarises recent test excavations at five Mound Village sites in the south-eastern sector of Acre state, Brazil, including Caboquinho, Boa Esperança, Tocantins, Dos Circulos IV and V. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the excavation of this site refine the chronology of this archaeological tradition. To improve the chronologies of the mound villages in Acre for which radiocarbon dates were available, we modelled them using Bayesian statistics. We conducted the analysis in ChronoModel, which is better suited for regional models. Bayesian modelling of new radiocarbon dates from basal contexts of nine sites in the region establish the beginning of this archaeological tradition at ~ AD 952-1216.  Nine dates from ten construction phases at the Caboquinho site establish the longest sequence from ~ AD 1169-1309 to colonial times. The stratigraphy of the test units reported in this study confirms previous results indicating that mounds are the result of alternating construction and occupation episodes. Dates from the Dos Circulos IV Rectangular Mound Village ~ AD 1367-1451 indicates that Rectangular Villages are broadly contemporaneous with Circular Mound Villages. Single dates from three superimposed villages at Dos Circulos V suggest the succession of village construction. Overall, these preliminary results make a contribution to a better understanding of the timing of emergence and demise of Mound Village construction

Out of Amazonia: Late Holocene Climate Change and the Tupi-Guarani Trans-Continental Expansion

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThe late Holocene expansion of the Tupi-Guarani languages from southern Amazonia to SE South America constitutes one of the largest expansions of any linguistic family in the world, spanning ~ 4000 km between latitudes 0°S and 35°S at about 2500 yr B.P. However, the underlying reasons for this expansion are a matter of debate. Here, we compare continental-scale paleoecological, paleoclimate, and archaeological datasets, to examine the role of climate change in facilitating the expansion of this forest-farming culture. Because this expansion lies within the path of the South American Low-Level Jet, the key mechanism for moisture transport across lowland South America, we were able to explore the relationship between climate change, forest expansion, and the Tupi-Guarani. Our data synthesis shows broad synchrony between late Holocene increasing precipitation and southerly expansion of both tropical forest and Guarani archaeological sites – the southernmost branch of the Tupi-Guarani. We conclude that climate change likely facilitated expansion of the Guarani forest-farming culture by increasing the area of forested landscape that they could exploit, showing a prime example of ecological opportunism.The ideas and themes developed in this paper stem from a European Research Council project ‘Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations’ (ERC-CoG 616179) to JI. The University of Reading’s ‘Centre for Past Climate Change’ funded a writing workshop for this paper. RS was funded by an NERC ‘Scenario’ DTP PhD award. JGS was funded by a CAPES PhD scholarship (Ministry of Education, Brazil). JFC and MLC received postdoctoral funding from the University of Reading and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, respectively

Legacies of Indigenous land use and cultural burning in the Bolivian Amazon rainforest ecotone

The southwestern Amazon Rainforest Ecotone (ARE) is the transitional landscape between the tropical forest and seasonally flooded savannahs of the Bolivian Llanos de Moxos. These heterogeneous landscapes harbour high levels of biodiversity and some of the earliest records of human occupation and plant domestication in Amazonia. While persistent Indigenous legacies have been demonstrated elsewhere in the Amazon, it is unclear how past human–environment interactions may have shaped vegetation composition and structure in the ARE. Here, we examine 6000 years of archaeological and palaeoecological data from Laguna Versalles (LV), Bolivia. LV was dominated by stable rainforest vegetation throughout the Holocene. Maize cultivation and cultural burning are present after ca 5700 cal yr BP. Polyculture cultivation of maize, manioc and leren after ca 3400 cal yr BP predates the formation of Amazonian Dark/Brown Earth (ADE/ABE) soils (approx. 2400 cal yr BP). ADE/ABE formation is associated with agroforestry indicated by increased edible palms, including Mauritia flexuosa and Attalea sp., and record levels of burning, suggesting that fire played an important role in agroforestry practices. The frequent use of fire altered ADE/ABD forest composition and structure by controlling ignitions, decreasing fuel loads and increasing the abundance of plants preferred by humans. Cultural burning and polyculture agroforestry provided a stable subsistence strategy that persisted despite pronounced climate change and cultural transformations and has an enduring legacy in ADE/ABE forests in the ARE

Moieties and mortuary mounds: dualism at a mound and enclosure complex in the southern Brazilian Highlands

Excavations at Abreu Garcia provide a detailed case study of a mound and enclosure mortuary complex utilised by the southern proto-Je in the southern Brazilian highlands. The recovery of 16 secondary cremation deposits within a single mound allows an in-depth discussion of spatial aspects of mortuary practice. A spatial division in the placement of the interments adds another level of duality to the mortuary landscape, which comprises: i) paired mound and enclosures; ii) twin mounds within a mound and enclosure; and iii) the dual division in the mound interior. The multiple levels of nested asymmetric dualism evoke similarities to the moiety system that characterizes modern southern Je groups, highlighting both the opposition and the complementarity of the social system. The findings offer a deeper insight into fundamental aspects of southern proto-Je social organization, including the dual nature of the community, the manifestation of social structure on the landscape and its incorporation into mortuary ritual. The results have implications for research design and developing appropriate methodologies to answer culture specific questions. Furthermore, the parallels among archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography enable an understanding of the foundation of modern descendent groups and an assessment of the continuity in indigenous culture beyond European contact

Out of Amazonia: late-Holocene climate change and the Tupi–Guarani trans-continental expansion

The late Holocene expansion of the Tupi-Guarani languages from southern Amazonia to SE South America constitutes one of the largest expansions of any linguistic family in the world, spanning ~ 4000 km between latitudes 0°S and 35°S at about 2500 yr B.P. However, the underlying reasons for this expansion are a matter of debate. Here, we compare continental-scale palaeoecological, palaeoclimate, and archaeological datasets, to examine the role of climate change in facilitating the expansion of this forestfarming culture. Because this expansion lies within the path of the South American Low-Level Jet, the key mechanism for moisture transport across lowland South America, we were able to explore the relationship between climate change, forest expansion, and the Tupi-Guarani. Our data synthesis shows broad synchrony between late Holocene increasing precipitation and southerly expansion of both tropical forest and Guarani archaeological sites – the southernmost branch of the Tupi-Guarani. We conclude that climate change likely facilitated the agricultural expansion of the Guarani forest-farming culture by increasing the area of forested landscape that they could exploit, showing a prime example of ecological opportunism

Understanding the chronology and occupation dynamics of oversized pit houses in the southern Brazilian highlands

A long held view about the occupation of southern proto-Je pit house villages of the southern Brazilian highlands is that these sites represent cycles of long-term abandonment and reoccupation. However, this assumption is based on an insufficient number of radiocarbon dates for individual pit houses. To address this problem, we conducted a programme of comprehensive AMS radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling at the deeply stratified oversized pit Houe 1, Baggio 1 site (Cal. A.D. 1395-1650), Campo Belo do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The straigraphy of House 1 revealed an unparalleled sequence of twelve well preserved floors evidencing a major change in occupation dynamics including five completely burnt collapsed roofs. The results of the radiocarbon dating allowed us to understand for the first time the occupation dynamics of an oversized pit house in the southern Brazilian highlands. The Bayesian model demonstrates that House 1 was occupied for over two centuries with no evidence of major periods of abandonment, calling into question previous models of long-term abandonment. In addition, the House 1 sequence allowed us to tie transformations in ceramic style and lithic technology to an absolute chronology. Finally, we can provide new evidence that the emergence of oversized domestic structures is a relatively recent phenomenon among the southern proto-Je. As monumental pit houses start to be bulit, small pit houses continue to be inhabited, evidencing emerging disparities in domestic architecture after AD 1000. Our research shows the importance of programmes of intensive dating of individual structures to understand occupation dynamcis and site permanence, and challenges long held assumptions that the southern Brazilian highlands were home to marginal cultures in the context of lowland South America

Reassessing climate and pre-Columbian drivers of paleofire activity in the Bolivian Amazon

A 50,000-year-old sediment core record from Laguna Chaplin is reanalyzed to explore potential paleoecological methods to detect the extent of pre-Columbian disturbance in the Bolivian Amazon. High-resolution (sub-centennial) macrocharcoal data are analyzed using statistical algorithm software including Regime Shift Detection and CHAR Analysis to detect changes in past fire regimes. These data are compared with existing charcoal records from throughout the Bolivian lowlands to provide a regional scale context of past biomass burning. During the mid-Holocene, changes in precipitation are the dominant driver of fire activity and biomass burning at Laguna Chaplin and across the Bolivian lowlands. During the late Holocene, increased fire activity across ecosystems ranging from fire-adapted to fire-intolerant forests is attributed to the apex of pre-Columbian activity. These data suggest human-caused ignitions during the late Holocene are the driving factor of regional scale fire activity in the Bolivian lowlands. After ca. 650 cal yr BP, there is an increase in biomass burning and fire frequency synchronous with the expansion of Moraceae/Urticaceae pollen (>50%) at Laguna Chaplin. This occurs during the time-transgressive southward expansion of the rainforest boundary, during the apex of pre-Columbian activity in the region. The increase in biomass burning at Laguna Chaplin is reflected at other sites in the region with known human occupation histories. The presence of Zea mays ca. 970 to 170 cal yr BP indicates maize cultivation is practiced in the immediate vicinity surrounding Laguna Chaplin. The simultaneous increase in fire activity with the expansion of the less flammable humid rainforest vegetation suggests human fire management practices. These data are interpreted as the use of frequent, low severity, human-caused fires to clear the croplands from encroaching rainforest vegetation. Despite evidence of pre-Columbian fire management during the late Holocene, vegetation and fire data indicate the extent of human-landscape modification and fire management at Laguna Chaplin, is not enough to inhibit the climate-driven regional forest expansion of the savanna-rainforest ecotonal boundary to its most southern extent in the last 50,000 years. This study demonstrates the utility of applying a multi-proxy, high-resolution paleoecological method to disentangle climate and pre-Columbian disturbance in the Bolivian Amazon