A Chronology of the Introduction of Domesticated Plants in Central Brazil

The paleoethnobotanical analysis of archaeological remains from two sites in central Brazil provides chronological data for the introduction of domesticated plants to the region. The sites of Lapa dos Bichos and Lapa Pintada, located in the northern portion of the state of Minas Gerais, are within rock shelters in limestone rock outcroppings. The dry conditions at the sites preserved both burnt and unburnt organic materials, including the seeds and fruits that were analyzed in this study. The chronological documentation for the introduction of domesticated plants is based on relative chronology from excavation stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating. The domesticated plants found include maize (Zea mays), manioc (cf. Manihot esculenta), cotton (cf. Gossypium barbadense), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and squash (Cucurbita spp.). Central Brazil is not documented as the region of origin for these species and as such is a periphery where they were introduced. Maize and manioc are found in the strata dated between 750 and 2000 BP at Lapa dos Bichos and c. 1200 BP at Lapa Pintada; bottle gourd occurs in earlier strata (2000 to 4250 BP at Lapa dos Bichos). In addition to domesticated plants, numerous native plant foods were identified in the archaeological assemblage, such as palm nuts (Syagrus oleracea), passion fruit (Passiflora spp.), jatobá (Hymenaea spp.), umbu (Spondias tuberosa), and pequi (Caryocar brasiliensis). At the site of Lapa dos Bichos human habitation is known to span the entirety of the Holocene. Based on the archaeological macroscopic plant remains, the introduction of domesticated plants to central Brazil was a gradual process

As práticas de caça entre os Awá-Guajá: contribuições para uma análise de sustentabilidade de longo prazo em um contexto indígena amazônico

Indigenous Reserves have played an indispensable role in maintaining forest areas in the Neotropics. In the Amazon there is a clear correlation between these reserves and the presence of forest cover; however, the simple presence of uninterrupted vegetation is no guarantee for the conservation of biodiversity, especially where hunting is practiced. This study describes hunting practices among the Awá-Guajá people from 1993 through 1994, also identifying sociocultural, technological, and demographic changes that have influenced their resource acquisition strategies over the last two decades. The data was obtained through ethnographic fieldwork, recording 78 days of foraging returns, with follow-up visits through 2010. This work provides useful information for an effective diachronic analysis of hunting in this community, by revealing foraging patterns of the early to mid-1990s, and describing community transformations over the last two decades in this locale

Late Holocene dietary and cultural variability on the Xingu River, Amazon Basin:A stable isotopic approach

Although once considered a ‘counterfeit paradise’, the Amazon Basin is now a region of increasing interest in discussions of pre-colonial tropical land-use and social complexity. Archaeobotany, archaeozoology, remote sensing and palaeoecology have revealed that, by the Late Holocene, populations in different parts of the Amazon Basin were using various domesticated plants, modifying soils, building earthworks, and even forming ‘Garden Cities’ along the Amazon River and its tributaries. However, there remains a relatively limited understanding as to how diets, environmental management, and social structures varied across this vast area. Here, we apply stable isotope analysis to human remains (n = 4 for collagen, n = 17 for tooth enamel), and associated fauna (n = 61 for collagen, n = 28 for tooth enamel), to directly determine the diets of populations living in the Volta Grande do Rio Xingu, an important region of pre-Columbian cultural interactions, between 390 cal. years BC and 1,675 cal. years AD. Our results highlight an ongoing dietary focus on C3 plants and wild terrestrial fauna and aquatic resources across sites and time periods, with varying integration of C4 plants (i.e. maize). We argue that, when compared to other datasets now available from elsewhere in the Amazon Basin, our study highlights the development of regional adaptations to local watercourses and forest types.Introduction Background - Environmental and cultural contexts of the Xingu River - Isotope analysis in the tropics Materials and methods - Archaeological sites - Samples - Stable isotope analysis - Statistical analysis Results - Radiocarbon dating - δ13Cco and δ15N from collagen - δ13Cca and δ18O from enamel bioapatite Discussion - Amazonian baselines - Diets on the Xingu River between 390 cal. BC and 1,675 cal. years AD - Comparison with other Amazon datasets Conclusion

Um muiraquitã em seu contexto arqueológico no lendário amazônico

Em salvamento arqueológico realizado pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia da UFPA em 2011 no porto da cidade de Santarém (Pará) foi encontrado um pingente lítico com as características morfológicas de um muiraquitã, aqui denominado de muiraquitã Santarém, portanto um dos primeiros em ambiente contextualizado no vale amazônico. Enquanto se tem em mente que esses pingentes sejam elaborados em jade nefrítico, o Santarém, embora lítico e de cor cinza esverdeado, foi entalhado em clorita-sericita-quartzo xisto, uma rocha metamórfica de baixo grau recorrente.  Mesmo assim o achado é raro, em função do design e uso, além de representar objetos pré-históricos socioculturais, que no design encontram paralelos na pré-história ao longo da costa atlântica amazônica e nas ilhas do Caribe

Early Holocene ritual complexity in South America: the archaeological record of Lapa do Santo (east-central Brazil)

Early Archaic human skeletal remains found in a burial context in Lapa do Santo in eastcentral Brazil provide a rare glimpse into the lives of hunter-gatherer communities in South America, including their rituals for dealing with the dead. These included the reduction of the body by means of mutilation, defleshing, tooth removal, exposure to fire and possibly cannibalism, followed by the secondary burial of the remains according to strict rules. In a later period, pits were filled with disarticulated bones of a single individual without signs of body manipulation, demonstrating that the region was inhabited by dynamic groups in constant transformation over a period of centuries

Simpósio de Geoarqueologia: temas abordados e resultados

Resumo: o Simpósio de Geoarqueologia da VI TAAS, coordenado por Rosiclér Theodoro da Silva e Michelle Mayumi Tizuka contou com a apresentação de nove trabalhos de pesquisadores do Brasil, Argentina e Colômbia. Este artigo trata de uma síntese dos temas abordados incluídos em: arqueologia e eventos climáticos, arqueologia e regiões costeiras, arqueologia da paisagem, arqueoestratigrafia, geoarqueologia de sistemas fluviais, arqueologia e vulcanismo. Seu objetivo principal é divulgar os resultados do simpósio e fortalecer a abordagem geoarqueológica nas pesquisas arqueológicas tanto em território nacional como no exterior. Palavras-chave: Geoarqueologia. Teoria Arqueológica. América do Sul

Genomic history of coastal societies from eastern South America

Sambaqui (shellmound) societies are among the most intriguing archaeological phenomena in pre-colonial South America, extending from approximately 8,000 to 1,000 years before present (yr bp) across 3,000 km on the Atlantic coast. However, little is known about their connection to early Holocene hunter-gatherers, how this may have contributed to different historical pathways and the processes through which late Holocene ceramists came to rule the coast shortly before European contact. To contribute to our understanding of the population history of indigenous societies on the eastern coast of South America, we produced genome-wide data from 34 ancient individuals as early as 10,000 yr bp from four different regions in Brazil. Early Holocene hunter-gatherers were found to lack shared genetic drift among themselves and with later populations from eastern South America, suggesting that they derived from a common radiation and did not contribute substantially to later coastal groups. Our analyses show genetic heterogeneity among contemporaneous Sambaqui groups from the southeastern and southern Brazilian coast, contrary to the similarity expressed in the archaeological record. The complex history of intercultural contact between inland horticulturists and coastal populations becomes genetically evident during the final horizon of Sambaqui societies, from around 2,200 yr bp, corroborating evidence of cultural change

The Oldest Case of Decapitation in the New World (Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil)

We present here evidence for an early Holocene case of decapitation in the New World (Burial 26), found in the rock shelter of Lapa do Santo in 2007. Lapa do Santo is an archaeological site located in the Lagoa Santa karst in east-central Brazil with evidence of human occupation dating as far back as 11.7-12.7 cal kyBP (95.4% interval). An ultra-filtered AMS age determination on a fragment of the sphenoid provided an age range of 9.1-9.4 cal kyBP (95.4% interval) for Burial 26. The interment was composed of an articulated cranium, mandible and first six cervical vertebrae. Cut marks with a v-shaped profile were observed in the mandible and sixth cervical vertebra. The right hand was amputated and laid over the left side of the face with distal phalanges pointing to the chin and the left hand was amputated and laid over the right side of the face with distal phalanges pointing to the forehead. Strontium analysis comparing Burial 26's isotopic signature to other specimens from Lapa do Santo suggests this was a local member of the group. Therefore, we suggest a ritualized decapitation instead of trophy-taking, testifying for the sophistication of mortuary rituals among hunter-gatherers in the Americas during the early Archaic period. In the apparent absence of wealth goods or elaborated architecture, Lapa do Santo's inhabitants seemed to use the human body to express their cosmological principles regarding death

Foraging societies of eastern central Brazil: An evolutionary ecological study of subsistence strategies during the terminal Pleistocene and Early /Middle Holocene.

This dissertation concentrates on the development of a frame of reference grounded on evolutionary ecology theory and based on ecological, paleoecological, and ethnographic data in order to examine the archaeological record from eastern Central Brazil for the Terminal Pleistocene and Early/Middle Holocene epochs. Particular emphasis is given to the diet breadth model, which is used to generate expected values for comparison with empirical data from three sites (Santana do Riacho, Lapa do Boquete, and Lapa dos Bichos) in order to understand and explain the postglacial foraging economies in this part of Brazil. In this study I examine the hypothesis that when the first Terminal Pleistocene hunter-gatherers settled in eastern Central Brazil some of the highest-ranked resource types (e.g., megafauna) were already scarce or absent, and based on optimal diet breadth models it is predicted that those foraging societies would have employed a generalized gathering and opportunistic hunting strategy that included several low-ranked resource types. Analyses of faunal remains show that small- and medium-size animals predominate in the assemblages. The absence of high-ranked items like giant anteater, giant armadillo, capybara, and very low frequencies of other high-ranked species such as tapir, peccaries, and even deer, together with the presence and high frequency of several low-ranked resource types including cavies, opossum, and reptiles, indicate subsistence stress. Diet diversification and more labor-intensive processing strategies, predicted to be the first risk-buffering mechanisms against environmental stresses, were already being employed, and could not be substantially increased. Thus, higher level risk-management strategies, notably the development of social networks, the most inclusive risk-management strategy, is expected to have been employed by hunter-gatherer societies in eastern Central Brazil during Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene time. Some indirect evidence such as lithic technology, exotic raw materials, and notably rock art, supports the prediction of the development of social networks on which interlocking, widespread foraging groups could rely during periods of extreme stress.Ph.D.ArchaeologySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129778/2/3042099.pd