Detecting Pre-Columbian Paleoecological Disturbance in the Lower Amazon

Summary

Amazonia is a major reservoir of biodiversity that has been influenced by anthropogenic activities for millennia. However, the temporal and spatial scale of pre-Columbian land use and its modern legacy on Amazonian landscapes are among the most debated topics in New World archaeology, paleoecology and conservation. This research investigates pre-Columbian (3000-1492 AD) land-use on Amazonian landscapes near the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers, a region once occupied by the capital of the Tapajós chiefdom (ca. 1000-1600 AD). This area exhibits high habitat heterogeneity and a diverse range of vegetation communities. There are >100 documented Amazonian Dark Earth sites within a 30 km radius evidencing high-density anthropogenic disturbance across a forest-savanna ecotone. Sediment cores were collected for charcoal and pollen analysis at Lago Jacare and Lago Carañas. The habitat heterogeneity in this region suggests a potential legacy from high-density prehistoric settlement. Multiple working hypotheses are explored: firstly, high-density archaeological sites correspond to high habitat and fire regime heterogeneity. Secondly, sub-centennial charcoal records from Lago Jacare and Lago Carañas follow similar patterns of regional biomass burning.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Multidisciplinary Approaches to Amazonian landscapes

Keywords

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