Monte Castelo Shellmound and Early Ceramic Technologies in Amazon: A Perspective on Long-Term Landscape Management and the Origins of Pottery in the Americas

Summary

Recent research has confirmed that the some of the oldest ceramics of the Americas are associated with Amazonian shellmounds. Excavations at Monte Castelo site produced a representative assemblage of these early technologies, and has also demonstrated a long history of ceramic production and use, with significant changes during the Middle Holocene that accompany the intensification of landscape management and the emergence of several other cultural innovations in that period. In this presentation, we will bring the results of geochemical analyzes carried out on pottery remains and sediments from different strata of the site as well as from off-site areas, correlating its chronology with the paleoenvironmental scenario of southwestern Amazonia. In an attempt to contribute to the discussions about the characteristics of the emergence and the adoption of ceramic technology, some indications of its relation with the early process of landscape management that are marked in the history of occupation of the region will be further presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21415