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Thursday 25
September 2003
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Evidence
of Pre-Columbian Civilization Found in
Amazon
Mario
Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO, (Tierramérica) -
Relatively large pre-Columbian
societies dramatically modified one of
the least-known areas of the Amazon
Basin, the Upper Xingú River, along
the Brazilian Amazon's southeast edge,
says a study published last week by
Science magazine.
The study, directed by archaeologist
Michael Heckenberger, of the
University of Florida, debunks the
notions that the Amazon was a virgin
forest when the Europeans reached the
Americas in the 15th century and that
barren soils had made massive human
settlements impossible.
The Upper Xingú, in Mato Grosso
state, was settled by Kuikuro Indians
in the 9th and 10th centuries,
according to evidence in ceramics,
organic materials and other objects
that archaeologists have uncovered.
The discoveries indicate the existence
of ”large villages, surrounded by
ditches and palisades, forming a
defensive structures” during the
14th and 15th centuries and the early
16th century, Brazilian ethnologist
Carlos Fausto, a member of the
research team, told Tierramérica.
The scientists have uncovered an
”astonishing plan” of 19
pre-Columbian villages linked to small
settlements around them.
”The villages were always three to
five kilometres apart and connected by
remarkably straight roads,” which
measured up to 35 meters wide,
according to the Science article.
This suggests that it was not a
concentration of many people living in
a village and then moving to another,
but that all were populated
simultaneously and maintained regular
communication, Fausto explained.
The defensive structure was not
intended to protect one village from
the others, because the wide roads
would not have been justified.
”This really blew us away,”
Heckenberger said, quoted in Science.
The network of villages, apparently
”built from a similar blueprint,”
suggests a society ”much larger and
more complex than any in the Amazon
today,” says the report.
But the extension of this network has
so far been difficult to determine.
Based on tests of ceramic fragments
found in the area, the boundaries of
the villages and the density of houses
in the most recent villages, the team
estimates that each cluster of
settlements was home to 2,500 to 5,000
people.
Over the past two decades,
archaeologists have gathered evidence
that parts of the Amazon were more
densely populated before the arrival
of Christopher Columbus in the
Americas in 1492 than they are now,
and that these peoples significantly
altered their surroundings.
But scientists assumed that the more
complex societies were concentrated in
the floodplains. That was until a
different picture began to emerge in
the Upper Xingú.
Heckenberger's team found an area that
had been ”widely transformed over
the past 1,000 years by a dense
population of farmers living in a
highly planned network of villages.”
Covering an area of 1,000 square
kilometres, initially working with
machetes and later with Global
Positioning System receivers, they
found canals, ponds, and roads -- now
overgrown with vegetation.
The research team is an unusual mix of
experts from different disciplines..
In addition to Fausto, of the National
Anthropology Museum of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, are
linguistic anthropologist Bruna
Franchetto, expert in indigenous
languages, and two leaders of the
Kuikuro peoples.
Satellite images and aerial photos
show how the Kuikuro utilised the
surrounding forests. These forests are
not virgin or primary, but rather were
cultivated gardens and orchards,
tended by the population, said Fausto.
”That doesn't mean there was
destruction of the forest, but rather
there was sustainable exploitation,
according to the data we have.
However, more research is needed,”
he added.
The alterations of the forest indicate
long-term use, but with techniques
very different from mechanised
cultivation.
”They are practices used today by
the Kuikuro, leaving areas of forest
intact and creating orchards, in which
they planted 'pequi'” a native tree
that produces an oily, aromatic fruit
that is used as a condiment for rice
and is distilled to make liquors.
”There are around 15 varieties of
pequi in the area studied, suggesting
a process of domestication -- a
hypothesis to be proved,” Fausto
said.
The sites that were village plazas,
for example, are covered with grass,
and certain types of trees were
planted along the old roads and the
abandoned fields.
”The point is that in 1492, human
influence had spread to essentially
the entire area. None of the area was
natural,” Heckenberger told Science.
Linguistic data contribute to the
hypothesis of how the Upper Xingú was
populated, forming an arc of
migrations extending from the
Caribbean Sea, through Venezuela,
Guyana, the Rio Negro in the extreme
northwest of Brazil, Peru and the
Bolivian plains, until reaching what
today is Mato Grosso.
”The cultural profile of the current
population is similar to what it was
in the 9th century. The villages are
smaller versions of those that existed
before the arrival of the whites
(Europeans). Just like the roads, now
two to four meters wide, and one or
two km long,” said Fausto.
Evidence indicates that other areas of
the Amazon could have been highly
populated before the colonial era.
This hypothesis had long been denied
with the argument that the Amazon
forests held relatively barren soils,
difficult to farm, and therefore
limiting the size of the local
population.
But the Amazon valleys are fertile,
says Fausto. The seasonal floods leave
nutrients in the soil, which could
have served as the basis for
large-scale agriculture, at least
along the riverbanks.
The Vilasboas brothers (Orlando,
Claudio, Leonardo and Alvaro),
indigenous experts, led expeditions to
the region in 1940 and 1950, and in
1961 founded the National Xingú Park,
a vast area reserved for several
indigenous communities, including the
Kuikuro..
Thirteen more archaeological sites
have been identified in the area, but
only four are being intensely studied
-- for now.
”The problem is that archaeology in
Brazil suffers from the lack of
information and resources. Perhaps the
impact of the article published in
Science will open new doors,” said
Fausto.
(* Mario Osava is an IPS
correspondent. Originally published
Sep. 20 by Latin American newspapers
that are part of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is a
specialised news service produced by
IPS with the backing of the United
Nations Development Programme and the
United Nations Environment Programme.)
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