Fractal and extended identities: the dynamics of ceramic styles from Monte Alegre, Lower Amazon.

Summary

This paper presents the initial results from analysis of ceramic materials from open air sites in Monte Alegre, a region that has long been known for abundant and impressive rock art sites, and for the very early human occupation at Pedra Pintada cave excavated by Ana Roosevelt 20 years ago. A new research project in the area with a broader regional approach so as to explain the enormous diversity of sites, has included now sites from a more recent occupation beginning around the XII century AD. Despite the proximity of the large Santarém chiefdom, and influences from Santarem ceramic styles, Monte Alegre ceramics nonetheless exhibit a particular local pattern permeated by elements from both Santarém (and Konduri) styles but, more importantly, by what seems to be a unique cross-cultural stylistic complex in the Lower Amazon and Guianas, now being identified as the Koriabo complex. Based on analysis of ceramics from this more recent period, we discuss relations between the longevity of human occupation in the area, the emergence of persistent ceramic traditions, and the dynamics of stylistic flows and interaction spheres suggested by studies of materials since the XII century AD across the Lower Amazon region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Ceramics, Identity and Regional Interaction in the Lower Amazon

Keywords

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