EVIDENCE FOR DIVERSIFIED PLANT USE IN THE LATE HOLOCENE ON THE MIDDLE SOLIMÕES RIVER, AMAZON
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 17/01/2021

Full title: GROWING CROPS AND HARVESTING FRUIT: EVIDENCE FOR DIVERSIFIED PLANT USE IN THE LATE HOLOCENE ON THE MIDDLE SOLIMÕES RIVER, AMAZON

The archaeological site of São João is located on the middle Solimões River (Amazonas, Brazil). The occupational evidence, dating to between 900 and 1,450 AD, is from populations that produced ceramics associated with the Amazonian Polychrome Tradition. This cultural manifestation has been documented occurring contemporaneously along the Amazon River and several of its important tributaries. In 2016, four test pits (1x1m) were excavated and ten liters of sediment were collected from every 10cm level. The charred archaeological plant remains recovered by flotation were analyzed, quantified, and, when possible, fruit and seed fragments were identified to botanical taxa. Analysis of this archaeobotanical record points to a considerable richness of fruit trees species, that include several genera of Arecaceae, Bertholletia excelsa (Lecythidaceae), Theobroma sp. (Malvaceae), Spondias mombin (Anacardiaceae), Caryocar sp. (Caryocaraceae), Byrsonima sp. (Malpighiaceae), Annonaceae, and Solanaceae. Cultivated annual plants are represented in the numerous fragments of maize cupules and kernels. In combination, the results suggest the existence of ancient agroforestry systems since, even with the adoption of maize cultivation, past populations relied on a rich set of fruit trees, some of which were domesticated. Floristic and ethnobotanical surveys of modern vegetation on the São João site, concurrent with the excavations, indicate that many of the species identified in the archaeobotanical record are important components of the present local landscape. These species are recognized as usually forming oligarchic stands in association with amazonian dark earths, the anthropic soils that resulted from past human activities around dwellings and cultivated areas. The continuity that can be traced at this location on the middle Solimões River between the past uses (and probably the associated management practices) and the present occurrence of domesticated amazonian trees corroborates the hypothesis that the composition of Amazon vegetation was extensively shaped by human societies throughout the Holocene.


Cassino, Mariana (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá) - Shock, Myrtle Pearl (Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará) - Freire, Guilherme de Queiroz (Universidade do Estado do Amazonas) - Lopes, Rafael Cardoso de Almeida (Universidade Federal de Sergipe) - Lima, Anderson Márcio Amaral (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá) - Almeida, Fernando Ozório (Universidade Federal de Sergipe) - Tamanaha, Eduardo Kazuo (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá; Universidade de São Paulo)