Early and Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Occupations in Western Amazonia : The Hidden Shell Middens
Lombardo, Umberto (University of Bern. Institute of Geography)
Szabo, Katherine (University of Wollongong)
Capriles, José M. (University of Pittsburgh. Center for Comparative Archaeology)
May, Jan Hendrik (University of Wollongong)
Amelung, Wulf (Universität Bonn. Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation)
Hutterer, Rainer (Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig)
Lehndorff, Eva (Universität Bonn. Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation)
Plotzki, Anna (University of Bern. Institute of Geography)
Veit, Heinz (University of Bern. Institute of Geography)

Data:	2013
Resum:	We report on previously unknown early archaeological sites in the Bolivian lowlands, demonstrating for the first time early and middle Holocene human presence in western Amazonia. Multidisciplinary research in forest islands situated in seasonally-inundated savannahs has revealed stratified shell middens produced by human foragers as early as 10,000 years ago, making them the oldest archaeological sites in the region. The absence of stone resources and partial burial by recent alluvial sediments has meant that these kinds of deposits have, until now, remained unidentified. We conducted core sampling, archaeological excavations and an interdisciplinary study of the stratigraphy and recovered materials from three shell midden mounds. Based on multiple lines of evidence, including radiocarbon dating, sedimentary proxies (elements, steroids and black carbon), micromorphology and faunal analysis, we demonstrate the anthropogenic origin and antiquity of these sites. In a tropical and geomorphologically active landscape often considered challenging both for early human occupation and for the preservation of hunter-gatherer sites, the newly discovered shell middens provide evidence for early to middle Holocene occupation and illustrate the potential for identifying and interpreting early open-air archaeological sites in western Amazonia. The existence of early hunter-gatherer sites in the Bolivian lowlands sheds new light on the region's past and offers a new context within which the late Holocene "Earthmovers" of the Llanos de Moxos could have emerged.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	SDG 15 - Life on Land
Publicat a:	PloS one, Vol. 8, Issue 8 (August 2013) , art. e72746, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072746
PMID: 24013964

14 p, 3.8 MB

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