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The Casarabe culture (500–1400 ce), spreading over roughly 4,500 km² of the monumental mounds region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia, is one of the clearest examples of urbanism in pre-Columbian (pre-1492 ce) Amazonia. It exhibits a four-tier hierarchical settlement pattern, with hundreds of monumental mounds interconnected by canals and causeways1...
Understandings of spatiotemporal dispersals of Homo sapiens onto the neotropical South American landscape and their environmental interactions during the late Pleistocene to late Holocene are being refined by multidisciplinary archaeological research. The Sabana of Bogota region in Colombia hosts a concentration of occupational sites, including Teq...
RESUMO Recentemente, Roberts et al. (2023) definiram três thresholds socioeconômicos que teriam sido a base do Antropoceno no mundo: o primeiro, entre 4.000 e 1.000 AEC, relacionado ao início da agricultura; o segundo, entre 0 e 1.500 EC, relacionado ao urbanismo e à consolidação demográfica das populações humanas; e o terceiro, entre 1.500 EC e o...
Recently, Roberts et al. (2023) defined three socioeconomic thresholds thought to have laid the foundations for the Anthropocene: the first, between 4000 and 1000 BCE, related to the beginnings of agriculture; the second, between 0 and 1500 CE, related to urbanism and the demographic consolidation of human populations; and the third, between 1500 a...
There are tens of thousands of painted rock art motifs in the Serranía de la Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon, including humans, animals, therianthropes, geometrics, and flora. For most of the last 100 years, inaccessibility and political unrest has limited research activities in the region. In this paper, we discuss findings from six years of field...
The Serranía de la Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon hosts one of the most spectacular global rock art traditions. Painted in vibrant ochre pigments, the artwork depicts abstract and figurative designs – including a high diversity of animal motifs – and holds key information for understanding how Amazonians made sense of their world. We compare a zoo...
O sul do Brasil tem uma presença de longa duração das sociedades Jê, os atuais Kaingang e Xokleng. Estes povos criaram paisagens compostas por uma diversidade de lugares e espaços de coexistência e circulação com diferentes funcionalidades, que interagem entre si por meio de uma estrutura sociocosmológica própria. Ao longo de mais de 2000 anos de h...
Nas terras altas do sul do Brasil, uma expansão antropogênica da floresta ocorreu
em detrimento dos campos entre 1410 e 900 cal anos AP, coincidindo com um período de mudança demográfica e cultural na região. Estudos anteriores debateram as contribuições relativas ao aumento das condições climáticas mais úmidas e quentes e as modificações humanas d...
Este capítulo apresenta os resultados das análises de grãos de amido e de fitólito de 14 fragmentos cerâmicos recuperados em duas estruturas de cocção domésticas de uma casa semissubterrânea dos Jê Meridionais no sítio Bonin (Urubici, Santa Catarina, sul do Brasil) que datam entre os anos 1280 e 1420 cal. AD e 1280 e 1400 cal. AD. A inédita aplicaç...
Neste capítulo, examinamos o surgimento dos complexos de recintos e montículos funerários do planalto sul-brasileiro durante os últimos 1000 anos em relação aos processos de expansão populacional, contato, conflito e estabelecimento de fronteiras. Testamos a hipótese de que tais monumentos surgiram entre os povos Jê meridionais locais como resposta...
As escavações no sítio Abreu Garcia oferecem um estudo de caso detalhado de um conjunto de recintos e montículos funerários utilizados pelos grupos Jê meridionais nas terras altas do sul do Brasil. A descoberta de dezesseis depósitos secundários de pessoas cremadas dentro de um único montículo permite uma discussão profunda dos aspectos espaciais d...
Informação Suplementar do capítulo "Separando Fatores Humanos e Climáticos na
Mudança de Vegetação do Holoceno Tardio no Sul do Brasil"
Amazonia constitutes one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world. However, our understanding of the arrival and historical trajectories of people in Amazonia is still poorly understood. Our recent excavations in the Serranía de la Lindosa have begun to fill this gap and provide new insights into the first human societies that settled in...
The archaeological excavation of two abandoned prehispanic agricultural terraces (Infiernillo and Tocotoccasa) in the Chicha-Soras Valley (Apurimac) in southern-central Peru revealed the presence of palaeosols. The palaeosols represent soil that developed following construction of agricultural terraces during the Middle Horizon. The soil profiles a...
Shell mounds are anthropic intentional constructions produced by pre-Columbian fishing/gathering communities. They are generally composed of a primary layer of mollusc carapaces, fish bones and, in some cases, human burials. Our case study is the Tucumã shell mound located on western Marajó island. The site has two occupation components comprising...
The Muaco and Taima-Taima sites, in Falcón State of northwestern Venezuela, are among the earliest sites of human occupation in South America containing artifacts associated with preserved megafaunal remains and dating between 19,810 and 15,780 calybp. Here we report novel visual and CT scanning analysis of six glyptodont skulls of Glyptotherium cf...
The hills of the Serrania de la Lindosa in the north-west Colombia are home to a unique and astonishing collection of rock art.On the sheer faces of sacred table-top hills are 'panels' filled with boldly painted animals, peoples, plants, and abstract designs, crowded together as if jostling to tell their stories. This booklet aims to allow a new au...
Archaeological remains of agrarian-based, low-density urbananism1–3 have been reported to exist beneath the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and Central America4–6. However, beyond some large interconnected settlements in southern Amazonia7–9, there has been no such evidence for pre-Hispanic Amazonia. Here we present lidar data of site...
Megafauna paintings have accompanied the earliest archaeological contexts across the continents, revealing a fundamental inter-relationship between early humans and megafauna during the global human expansion as unfamiliar landscapes were humanized and identities built into new territories. However, the identification of extinct megafauna from rock...
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 Ind...
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 mou...
The role of plants in early human migrations across the globe has received little attention compared to big game hunting. Tropical forests in particular have been seen as a barrier for Late Pleistocene human dispersals due to perceived difficulties in obtaining sufficient subsistence resources. Archaeobotanical data from the Cerro Azul rock outcrop...
It has been suggested that Iberian arrival in the Americas in 1492 and subsequent dramatic depopulation led to forest regrowth that had global impacts on atmospheric CO2 concentrations and surface temperatures. Despite tropical forests representing the most important terrestrial carbon stock globally, systematic examination of historical afforestat...
During the last two decades, new archaeological projects which systematically integrate a variety of plant recovery techniques, along with palaeoecology, palaeoclimate, soil science and floristic inventories, have started to transform our understanding of plant exploitation, cultivation and domestication in tropical South America. Archaeobotanical...
Anthropogenic soils known as Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) have long been known as a key component of subsistence systems for various pre‐Columbian Amazonian populations. Often treated as a single category, ADE systems consist of two broad anthrosols (human‐modified soils): the darker ADE (traditionally known as terra preta) and a lighter brown Amaz...
During the last two decades, new archaeological projects which systematically integrate a variety of plant recovery techniques, along with palaeoecology, palaeoclimate, soil science and floristic inventories, have started to transform our understanding of plant exploitation, cultivation and domestication in tropical South America. Archaeobotanical...
Aim
Amazonian forests predominantly grow on highly weathered and nutrient poor soils. Anthropogenically enriched Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE), traditionally known as Terra Preta de Índio , were formed by pre‐Columbian populations. ADE soils are characterized by increased fertility and have continued to be exploited following European colonization. H...
The onset of plant cultivation is one of the most important cultural transitions in human history1–4. Southwestern Amazonia has previously been proposed as an early centre of plant domestication, on the basis of molecular markers that show genetic similarities between domesticated plants and wild relatives4–6. However, the nature of the early human...
Recent research has shown that the entire southern rim of Amazonia was inhabited by earth-building societies involving landscape engineering, landscape domestication and likely low-density urbanism during the Late Holocene. However, the scale, timing, and intensity of human settlement in this region remain unknown due to the dearth of archaeologica...
Recent research carried out in the Serranía La Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon (Department of Guaviare) provides archaeological evidence of the colonisation of the northwest Colombian Amazon during the Late Pleistocene. Preliminary excavations were conducted at Cerro Azul, Limoncillos and Cerro Montoya archaeological sites in Guaviare Department, C...
The South American Monsoon System is responsible for the majority of precipitation in the continent, especially over the Amazon and the tropical savannah, known as ‘Cerrado’. Compared to the extensively studied subtropical and temperate regions the effect of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) on the precipitation over the tropics is still poorly un...
Landscape ordering GIS-based analysis Least-cost path Network analysis Patos-Mirim basin A B S T R A C T The present paper shows a GIS-based analysis for understanding the mobility system of the mound-builders (cerriteiros) of Patos and Mirim lagoons, located in southern Brazil, during the late Holocene. A geospatial model of mobility and centralit...
The long-term response of ancient societies to climate change has been a matter of global debate. Until recently, the lack of integrative studies using archaeological, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatological data prevented an evaluation of the relationship between climate change, distinct subsistence strategies and cultural transformations across...
Anthropogenic climate change—combined with increased human-caused ignitions—is leading to increased wildfire frequency, carbon dioxide emissions, and refractory black carbon (rBC) aerosol emissions. This is particularly evident in the Amazon rainforest, where fire activity has been complicated by the synchronicity of natural and anthropogenic drive...
Amazonian peoples use and manage plant populations in previously domesticated landscapes, but the extent of landscape transformation remains uncertain, especially in interfluvial areas. We tested the hypothesis that useful plant communities vary in richness, abundance and basal area around pre-Columbian and current settlements independent of the di...
Southern Brazil's highland Araucaria forest is ancient, diverse and unique, but its future is under significant threat from 20th Century habitat loss and 21st Century climate change. Paleoecological studies have revealed that it expanded rapidly over highland grasslands around 1000 years ago, but whether this expansion was caused by human land use...
In the HTML version of this Article originally published, Fig. 4 was a duplicate of Fig. 1. This has now been amended.
The archaeology of southern proto-Jê groups
dates back to c. 2220 cal year BP and extends to
the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is
mainly characterized by its diagnostic small
ceramics with thin walls, the construction of
earthworks (including pit houses and elaborated
mound and enclosure complexes) in the highlands,
plus collective burial...
Anthropogenic climate change driven by increased carbon emissions is leading to more severe fire seasons and increasing the frequency of mega-fires in the Amazon. This has the potential to convert Amazon forests from net carbon sinks to net carbon sources. Although modern human influence over the Earth is substantial, debate remains over when human...
The legacy of pre-Columbian land use on modern Amazonian forests has stimulated considerable debate which, until now, has not been satisfactorily resolved due to the absence of integrated studies between pre-Columbian and modern land use. Here we show an abrupt enrichment of edible forest species combined with the cultivation of multiple annual cro...
In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at the expense of grasslands between 1410 and 900 cal BP, coincident with a period of demographic and cultural change in the region. Previous studies have debated the relative contributions of increasing wetter and warmer climate conditions and human lands...
Archaeology provides few examples of large-scale fisheries at the frontier between catching and farming of fish. We analysed the spatial organization of earthen embankments to infer the functioning of a landscape-level pre-Columbian Amazonian fishery that was based on capture of out-migrating fish after reproduction in seasonal floodplains. Long ea...
The discovery of large geometrical earthworks in interfluvial settings of southern Amazonia has challenged the idea that Pre-Columbian populations were concentrated along the major floodplains. However, a spatial gap in the archaeological record of the Amazon has limited the assessment of the territorial extent of earth-builders. Here, we report th...
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 de...
The development of agriculture is one of humankind's most pivotal achievements. Questions about plant domestication and the origins of agriculture have engaged scholars for well over a century, with implications for understanding its legacy on global subsistence strategies, plant distribution, population health and the global methane budget. Rice i...
Newly created academic programs at Brazilian universities have provided the impetus for new archaeological projects in southeastern South America during the last two decades. The new data are changing our views on emergent social complexity, natural and human-induced transformation of the landscape, and transcontinental expansions and cultural inte...
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...
Palaeoecological research can provide important insights into the impacts of humans vs climate change upon ecosystems in the past, which can inform land-use and conservation planning. Our international project aims to reveal past dynamics of the iconic Araucaria forest in the context of land use by the pre-Columbian Jê culture in southern Brazil ov...
Significance
Amazonian rainforests once thought to be pristine wildernesses are increasingly known to have been inhabited by large populations before European contact. How and to what extent these societies impacted their landscape through deforestation and forest management is still controversial, particularly in the vast interfluvial uplands that...
Abstract Identification of wood charcoal associated with earth ovens at a southern proto-Jê mortuary complex in Misiones, Argentina, are discussed in relation to a dual social structure. A distinct difference in form between the ovens in the east and west follow a pattern of asymmetry that manifests at multiple levels across the mortuary landscape....
O presente texto apresenta as questões centrais de pesquisa do projeto Paisagens Jê do Sul do Brasil e também traz resultados preliminares do primeiro ano de atividades de pesquisa em Arqueologia e Paleoecologia. Palavras-chave: Jê do Sul; Arqueologia; Paleoecologia; Interdisciplinaridade
Abstract: This paper presents the main research issues of J...
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 2.5k cal. yr BP. However, the underlying reasons for this expansion are a matter of debate. Here, we compare c...
We present palaeoecological results from an interdisciplinary project, which seeks to understand the relationship between late Holocene expansion of Araucaria forest, climate change, and land use by the pre-Columbian (pre-1492) Jê culture in southern Brazil. Previous palaeoecologial studies in the southern highlands of Brazil (Iriarte & Behling 200...
There is increasing concern regarding the future of the iconic, but threatened Araucaria forest in southern Brazil in the face of pressures from climate change and the devastating consequences of human land-use. In order to comprehend the effects of these drivers over the Araucaria forest by looking at the long term history with fossil pollen recor...
A long held view about the occupation of southern proto-Jê 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 programm...
Ceramic types per floor in House 1.
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Attributes of the ceramic types identified in House 1.
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Lithic raw material per floor in House 1.
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Lithic data from House 1.
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Lithic assemblage for each floor of House 1.
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OxCal model specification.
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