Pollen analysis of holocene pre-historic coprolithes collected at “Toca do Boqueirão do Sítio da Pedra Furada”. Palaeoethnological, palaeoclimatological and palaeoenvironmental contributions for the Southeastern Region of Piauí State - Brazil.

Abstract

This work presents the results of the pollen analyses made on animal and human coproliths collected from the rock-shelther “Toca do Boqueirão do Sítio da Pedra Furada”. These coproliths were identified by researchers from the National School of Public Health (ENSP) and were treated according to the methodology described by Chaves (1994, 1996, 1997) and Chaves & Renault-Miskovsky (1996). The results have generated data which permited us to elaborated a palaeoclimatological and palaeoenvironmental scene of the studied region. From the palaeoethnobotanical point of view, the results from the pollen analysis in human coproliths allowed us to demonstrate the variety of plants used by the prehistoric men who inhabited the region around 8.000 years B.P..

Keywords

• Coprolithes - Pollen analyses - Brazil - Palaeoenvironment.