The water people: GPR-Ground Penetrating Radar image of wood stilts and ceramic materials in archaeological sites in Maranhão

• Grant number: 20/15560-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Agreement: CONFAP - National Council of State Research Support Foundations
• Principal Investigator: Jorge Luís Porsani
• Grantee: Jorge Luís Porsani
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Luiz Antonio Pereira de Souza ; Rodrigo Corrêa Rangel ; Vinicius Rafael Neris dos Santos

Abstract

Archaeological evidence of the shape of the Amazonian indigenous villages in the pre-colonial period is rare to be found because of the acidity of the soil of this great Amazon biome. Stilt marks quickly deteriorate in the soil because of the soil leaching caused by torrential rain. However, in the case of stilt villages, due to the fact that archaeological materials are in a bed within rivers and lakes, organic materials, such as the wooden stilts that served to build the villages, are well-preserved. The objective of this project is to refine the manual mapping of the of stilt villages built on the bed of rivers and lakes of the Baixada Maranhense by pre-colonial peoples in order to find these stilts, as well as concentrations of ceramic materials, and delimit the real size of these villages. The methodology to be applied is the Ground Penetrating Radar - GPR, a geophysical technology that has been showing good results in the task of guiding archaeologists to determine the best places to carry out their excavations. It is hoped that it will be possible to delimit the stilt villages of the Maranhão estuary, as well as find canoes, funerary urns and even burials. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PORSANI, JORGE LUIS; NAVARRO, ALEXANDRE GUIDA; RANGEL, RODRIGO CORREA; NETO, ANTONIO CARLOS DE SIQUEIRA; DE LIMA, LEONARDO GONCALVES; STANGARI, MARCELO CESAR; DE SOUZA, LUIZ ANTONIO PEREIRA; DOS SANTOS, VINICIUS RAFAEL NERIS. GPR survey on underwater archaeological site: A case study at Jenipapo stilt village in the eastern Amazon region, Brazil. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE-REPORTS, v. 51, p. 10-pg., 2023-10-01. (22/12482-9, 20/15560-5)