Facing Change through Diversity: Resilience and Diversification of Plant Management Strategies during the Mid to Late Holocene Transition at the Monte Castelo Shellmound, SW Amazonia
Laura P. Furquim,
Jennifer Watling,
Lautaro M. Hilbert,
Myrtle P. Shock,
Gabriela Prestes-Carneiro,
Cristina Marilin Calo,
Anne R. Py-Daniel,
Kelly Brandão,
Francisco Pugliese,
Carlos Augusto Zimpel,
Carlos Augusto da Silva,
Eduardo G. Neves
Affiliations
Laura P. Furquim
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Jennifer Watling
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Lautaro M. Hilbert
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Myrtle P. Shock
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Federal University of Western Pará, Santarém, Pará 68040-255, Brazil
Gabriela Prestes-Carneiro
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Federal University of Western Pará, Santarém, Pará 68040-255, Brazil
Cristina Marilin Calo
Laboratory of Archaeometry and Applied Sciences for Cultural Heritage Studies, Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 00508-090, Brazil
Anne R. Py-Daniel
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Federal University of Western Pará, Santarém, Pará 68040-255, Brazil
Kelly Brandão
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Francisco Pugliese
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Carlos Augusto Zimpel
Department of Archaeology, Federal University of Rondônia, Porto Velho, Rondônia 76801-059, Brazil
Carlos Augusto da Silva
Center for Environmental Sciences, Federal University of the Amazon, Manaus, Amazonas 69080-900, Brazil
Eduardo G. Neves
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Recent advances in the archaeology of lowland South America are furthering our understanding of the Holocene development of plant cultivation and domestication, cultural niche construction, and relationships between environmental changes and cultural strategies of food production. This article offers new data on plant and landscape management and mobility in Southwestern Amazonia during a period of environmental change at the Middle to Late Holocene transition, based on archaeobotanical analysis of the Monte Castelo shellmound, occupied between 6000 and 650 yr BP and located in a modern, seasonally flooded savanna–forest mosaic. Through diachronic comparisons of carbonized plant remains, phytoliths, and starch grains, we construct an ecology of resource use and explore its implications for the long-term history of landscape formation, resource management practices, and mobility. We show how, despite important changes visible in the archaeological record of the shellmound during this period, there persisted an ancient, local, and resilient pattern of plant management which implies a degree of stability in both subsistence and settlement patterns over the last 6000 years. This pattern is characterized by management practices that relied on increasingly diversified, rather than intensive, food production systems. Our findings have important implications in debates regarding the history of settlement permanence, population growth, and carrying capacity in the Amazon basin.
