Archaeological Plant Remains from the Lower Xingu

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.

Recent archaeological excavations at the sites of Jacupí, Carrazedo, and Gurupá in the Lower Xingu in the Brazilian Amazon have implemented a significant program for the recovery of plant remains, resulting in a large archaeobotanical assemblage currently undergoing analysis. Recent archaeobotanical research in Amazonia has focused on and identified large-scale processes of environmental change, domestication, and agricultural practices; however, archaeobotanical studies that aim to identify local and short-term environmental and cultural processes are less common. The analysis of plant remains from these smaller sites can provide information on local environmental change, plant use, and also provide insight into the process of the manufacture of Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE). In this presentation, we will discuss the preliminary results of our analysis of the archaeobotanical remains from these sites, and situate the data within the local environmental context of this region. In particular, we will discuss the plant remains recovered specifically from ADE contexts and suggest possible techniques for ADE manufacture.

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): 32970