Regional chronologies, hiatuses and continuities in Amazonian pre-colonial history

• Grant number: 05/60603-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2006
• End date: March 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Prehistoric Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Góes Neves
• Grantee: Eduardo Góes Neves
• Host Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant(s): 06/57291-3 - Michael Joseph Heckenberger | University of Florida - Estados Unidos, AV.EXT

Abstract

After a fairly rapid beginning, marked by the widespread colonization of different settings during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, from 7,500 BP onwards, signs of human occupation of the Amazon became restricted only to particular settings such as the estuary and the Upper Madeira basin. Around 2,500 BP, noticeable changes in patterns of social, economic and political organization emerge in the archaeological record of the Amazon, as indicated by growth in the size, density and duration of occupation in the archaeological sites. It is proposed here that the history of human occupation of the Amazon was marked by the oscillation between periods of stability permeable by sudden changes. The project aims to test this general hypothesis through fieldwork in two distinct areas of the Amazon: one marked by continuous occupations along the Holocene, the Upper Madeira Basin, the other marked by discontinuous occupations: the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers, in the Central Amazon. (AU)