Earliest clear occupation of the Amazon Basin begins at the same time as in NA and Western SA: roughly 11,000-10,500 years ago (or earlier based on calibrated C14 dates)

Mobile hunter-gatherers, more or less like a tropical forest variant on Clovis-like band societies

Caverna de Pedra Pintada

Taperinha

• In the lower part of Level 17c at a depth of ≈120-130 cm pigments used in rock paintings were found and dated to an age of around 11,100 before the present by the following methods:

• - C14 (Carbon 14, cracked palm fruits in stratum 17c)

• The Paleo-Indian layers were full of carbonized wood and the pits and nutshells of the fruits of evergreen tropical forest and seasonal woodland trees and palms that still grow in the region today. Among them was the highly important economic species Brazil nut, Bertholletia excelsa, and other trees: Sacoglottis guianensis, Mouriri apiranga, Byrsonima crispa, numerous palms (Attalea spp. and Astro•caryum spp.), and tree legumes (Hymenea, c.f., parvifolia and oblongifolia).

• The faunal remains were poorly preserved but highly diverse: taxa included fish, tortoises, turtles, toads, snakes, shellfish, small and medium-sized rodents, bats, and very rare large mammals (probably ungulates). Many of the reptiles and rodents were juveniles. Fish, the most common fauna, included very large fishes (1.5 m) to very small ones (10 cm); species ranged from Hoplias malabaricus to Arapaima gigas, and there were numerous unidentified catfishes, characins, and cichlids.

• The fact that none of the plant or animal species are particularly adapted to cold, desert, or grass savanna environment confirmed that this was indeed a tropical forest adaptation, as did the carbon isotope patterns. The presence of several tree species considered to be adapted to human disturbance suggests that the Paleo-Indian occupation may have already begun to have an impact on the character of the forest.

• (from Roosevelt et al. 1996)

Dona Stella, 7500-2500 BC, Near Manaus

Pedra PintadaLower Amazon

Anna C. Roosevelt

• View of Taperinha shellmound. Roosevelt et al. (1991) excavated the site in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Early Holocene strata near the base of the 6 m high mound produced a series of radiocarbon dates on shell, charcoal, and pottery and TL dates on pottery, between 7100 and 5700 years ago. About 100 sherds of Archaic and Formative period pottery, a small percentage of which bears geometric incised rim decoration. Subsistence remains include abundant fishbone and fresh water pearly shellfish, small turtles, and amphibians. No apparent domesticated plants.

sambaqui, southern coastal Brazil

Manioc, the major Amazonian staple crop (domesticated by 6,000-8,000

BC, based on genetic evidence)

• At least 138 crops with some degree of domestication were being cultivated or managed by native Amazonians at the time of European conquest (83 crops native to Amazonia).

• 68% of these Amazonian crops are fruit or nut trees or woody perennials (not surprising in Amazon forest).

Peach Palm

The ArawakDiaspora

Fish farming

Raised Agricultural Fields, Bolivian lowlands

Fish-farming, Baure ofeastern lowland Bolivia

1

5

43

2

MIDDLE BERBICESTUDY AREA

A B

Kaurikreek:2200-1750 BC

Dubulay:

3320-2760 BC3010-2870 BC

300 m

The Province of the Arawaks, and the Berbice (Lokono)