A Historical Perspective on the Nature of Precolonial Settlements in the Middle Xingu River Basin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In order to understand the processes that generated the rich, complex, and diverse cultural and environmental history present in Amazonia, and specifically along the Xingu River basin, it is crucial that we generate information on when, where, and how small-scale foraging societies changed to more sedentary lifestyles and complex social arrangements based on agriculture. Here we present and discuss the archaeological record generated by research carried out within environmental licensing process of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Middle Xingu River, state of Pará, Brazil, which involved systematic regional survey and the study of close to 200 archaeological sites. It shows continuous human occupation dating back to the late Pleistocene throughout the Holocene period, with great variability in space and time of archaeological sites and material culture. The high-resolution archaeological data presents the potential to discuss issues such as the antiquity of human occupation; the emergence, or not, of hierarchical organized systems; changes in mobility and settlement patterns; gaps in the archaeological record during the middle Holocene period; the spread of agricultural practices; and dispersion of Tupi and Koriabo ceramics in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32520