Evidence of Pre-Columbian Polyculture and Agroforestry in the Eastern Amazon

Summary

The scale of pre-Columbian impact on Amazonia is one of the most debated topics in archaeology and paleoecology. To address this issue, an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological soil profiles and lake sediment cores from the lower Tapajos are used to investigate climate-human-ecosystem interactions over the past 8,000 years. Pollen and phytolith data indicate the presence of polyculture crops including Ipomea, Manihot, Zea mays, and Cucurbita. The presence of Theobroma, Mauritia/Mauritiella, Myrtaceae, Brosimum, Attalea, Lecythidaceae (Berotholiea), and Caryocar suggest the exploitation of naturally occurring trees of economic importance. Pollen, phytolith and charcoal data do not documented large-scale pre-Columbian deforestation at this site. The presence of polyculture, trees of economic importance, and rainforest vegetation suggest Formative Pre-Columbian populations (ca. 4000 cal yr BP) employed diverse subsistence strategies that combined forest and fire management, polyculture and soil amelioration that maximized subsistence diversity without large-scale land clearing. These data provide evidence of resource diversification, improved food security, and sustainable anthropogenic landscapes during increased climate variability and expanding pre-Columbian populations in the late Holocene. This provides an example of long-term example of sustainable anthropogenic landscapes that can inform management and conservation efforts for sustainable futures of Amazon ecosystems in the 21st c.

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): 18736