Hostname: page-component-8678677fb7-h96qj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-10-11T16:53:34.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterned Villagescapes and Road Networks in Ancient Southwestern Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2020

Sanna Saunaluoma Open the ORCID record for Sanna Saunaluoma [Opens in a new window] ,
Justin Moat ,
Francisco Pugliese  and
Eduardo G. Neves
Sanna Saunaluoma*
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Degree Program in Cultural Production and Landscape, PO Box 124, 28101 Pori, Finland
Justin Moat
Affiliation:
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, TW9 3AB, London, United Kingdom (J.Moat@kew.org)
Francisco Pugliese
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Geochronology, Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasília, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, 70910-900 Brasília-DF, Brazil (pugliesefrancisco@yahoo.com.br)
Eduardo G. Neves
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tropical Archaeology, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 1466, 05508-070, São Paulo, Brazil (edgneves@usp.br)
*
(sanna.saunaluoma@gmail.com, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Our recent data, collected using remotely sensed imagery and unmanned aerial vehicle surveys, reveal the extremely well-defined patterning of archaeological plaza villages in the Brazilian Acre state in terms of size, layout, chronology, and material culture. The villages comprise various earthen mounds arranged around central plazas and roads that radiate outward from, or converge on, the sites. The roads connected the villages situated 2–10 km from each other in eastern Acre. Our study attests to the existence of large, sedentary, interfluvial populations sharing the same sociocultural identities, as well as structured patterns of movement and spatial planning in relation to operative road networks during the late precolonial period. The plaza villages of Acre show similarity with the well-documented communities organized by road networks in the regions of the Upper Xingu and Llanos de Mojos. Taking into consideration ethnohistorical and ethnographic evidence, as well as the presence of comparable archaeological sites and earthwork features along the southern margin of Amazonia, we suggest that the plaza villages of Acre were linked by an interregional road network to other neighboring territories situated along the southern Amazonian rim and that movement along roads was the primary mode of human transport in Amazonian interfluves.

Los recientes datos, recopilados por nosotros a través de prospecciones utilizando imágenes de sensores remotos y vehículos aéreos no tripulados (VANT), revelaron aldeas arqueológicas con plazas en el estado brasileño de Acre que destacan por presentar patrones bien definidos en términos de tamaño, diseño, cronología y cultura material. Las aldeas comprenden varios montículos de tierra dispuestos alrededor de plazas centrales y caminos que se proyectan o convergen desde o hacia los sitios. Los caminos conectaban las aldeas situadas a una distancia de 2 a 10 km entre sí en el este de Acre. Nuestro estudio atestigua la existencia de grandes poblaciones interfluviales sedentarias que comparten las mismas identidades socioculturales, así como patrones estructurados de movimiento y planificación espacial en relación con los sistemas operativos de redes viales durante el período pre-Colonial Tardío. Las aldeas con plazas de Acre muestran una similitud con comunidades bien documentadas organizadas por redes de caminos en las regiones del Alto Xingu y los Llanos de Mojos. Teniendo en cuenta la evidencia etnohistórica y etnográfica, así como la presencia de sitios arqueológicos comparables, y características de movimiento de tierras a lo largo del margen sur de la Amazonía, sugerimos que las aldeas con plazas de Acre estaban conectadas a los territorios vecinos por una red de caminos interregionales situados a lo largo del borde sur de la Amazonía, y ese movimiento a lo largo de las caminos fue el principal modo de transporte humano en las zonas interfluviales amazónicas.

Keywords

interfluvial AmazoniaUAV surveyearthworksroad networksplaza villagesAmazonia interfluvialprospección con VANTmovimiento de tierrasredes de caminosplazas

Information

Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 173 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Blatrix, Rumsaïs, Roux, Bruno, Béarez, Philippe, Prestes-Carneiro, Gabriela, Amaya, Marcelo, Aramayo, Jose Luis, Rodrigues, Leonor, Lombardo, Umberto, Iriarte, Jose, de Souza, Jonas Gregorio, Robinson, Mark, Bernard, Cyril, Pouilly, Marc, Durécu, Mélisse, Huchzermeyer, Carl, Kalebe, Mashuta, Ovando, Alex, and McKey, Doyle 2018 The Unique Functioning of a Pre-Columbian Amazonian Floodplain Fishery. Scientific Reports 8:5998.10.1038/s41598-018-24454-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cardale de Schrimpff, Marianne 1996 El estudio de caminos precolombinos de la cuenca del alto río Calima, Cordillera Occidental, Valle del Cauca. Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Nacionales Banco de la República. Asociación Pro-Calima, Santafé de Bogotá.Google Scholar
Carson, John, Watling, Jennifer, Mayle, Francis, Whitney, Bronwen, Iriarte, Jose, Prümers, Heiko, and Soto, Daniel 2015 Pre-Columbian Land Use in the Ring-Ditch Region of the Bolivian Amazon. Holocene 25:1285–1300.10.1177/0959683615581204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvajal, Gaspar de 1894 [1541–1543] Descubrimiento del río de las Amazonas. Imprenta de E. Rasco, Seville, Spain.Google Scholar
Chandless, William 1866 Ascent of the River Purus. Journal of the Royal Geographic Society 36:86–118.10.2307/1798493CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clement, Charles, Rodrigues, Doriane, Alves-Pereira, Alessandro, Mühlen, Gilda, De Cristo-Araújo, Michelly, Moreira, Priscila, Lins, Juliana, and Reis, Vanessa 2016 Crop Domestication in the Upper Madeira River Basin. Boletin do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 11(1):193–205.10.1590/1981.81222016000100010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Da Cunha, Euclides 2006 [1905] Comissão Mista Brasileiro-Peruana: Extrato do relatório da Comissão Mista Brasileiro-Peruana de reconhecimento do alto Purus. Printac, Rio Branco, Brazil.Google Scholar
Denevan, William 1966 The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Dickau, Ruth, Bruno, Maria, Iriarte, Jose, Prümers, Heiko, Betancourt, Carla Jaimes, Holst, Irene, and Mayle, Francis 2012 Diversity of Cultivars and Other Plant Resources Used at Habitation Sites in the Llanos de Mojos, Beni, Bolivia: Evidence from Macrobotanical Remains, Starch Grains, and Phytoliths. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:357–370.10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Clark 2001 Pre-Columbian Roads of the Amazon. Expedition 43(2):21–30.Google Scholar
Erickson, Clark 2006 The Domesticated Landscapes of the Bolivian Amazon. In Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology, edited by Erickson, Clark and Balée, William, pp. 235–278. Columbia University Press, New York.10.7312/bale13562-011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Clark 2009 Agency, Causeways, Canals, and the Landscapes of Everyday Life in the Bolivian Amazon. In Landscapes of Movement: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Snead, James, Erickson, Clark, and Darling, Andrew J., pp. 204–231. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Erickson, Clark, and Walker, John 2009 Pre-Columbian Causeways and Canals as Landesque Capital. In Landscapes of Movement: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Snead, James, Erickson, Clark, and Andrew, J. Darling, , pp. 232–252. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Ewart, Elizabeth 2003 Lines and Circles: Images of Time in a Panará Village. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 9:261–280.10.1111/1467-9655.00149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawcett, Percy 1915 Bolivian Exploration 1913–1914. Geographical Journal 45:219–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckenberger, Michael 2002 Rethinking the Arawakan Diaspora: Hierarchy, Regionality, and the Amazonian Formative. In Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia, edited by Hill, Jonathan and Santos-Granero, Fernando, pp. 99–122. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Heckenberger, Michael 2005 The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place, and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, AD 1000–2000. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Heckenberger, Michael, Kuikuro, Afukaka, Kuikuro, Urissapa Tabata, Russell, Christian, Schmidt, Morgan, Fausto, Carlos, and Franchetto, Bruna 2003 Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland? Science 301:1710–1713.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heckenberger, Michael, Russell, Christain, Fausto, Carlos, Toney, Joshua, Schimdt, Morgan, Pereira, Edithe, Franchetto, Bruna, and Kuikuro, Afukaka 2008 Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon. Science 321:1214–1217.10.1126/science.1159769CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hilbert, Lautaro, Neves, Eduardo, Pugliese, Francisco, Whitney, Bronwen, Shock, Myrtle, Veasey, Elisabeth, Zimpel, Carlos, and Iriarte, Jose 2017 Evidence for Mid-Holocene Rice Domestication in the Americas. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:1693–1698.10.1038/s41559-017-0322-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyslop, John 1984 The Inka Road System. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ingold, Tim 2007 Lines: A Brief History. Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killick, Evan 2009 Ashéninka Amity: A Study of Social Relations in an Amazonian Society. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15:701–718.10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01580.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch-Grünberg, Theodor 1908 Die Hianákoto-Umáua. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Labre, Antônio 1887 Itinerário de exploração do Amazonas á Bolivia. Typ. d'A Provincia do Pará,’ Belém, Brazil.Google Scholar
Labre, Antônio 1889 Colonel Labre's Explorations in the Region between the Beni and Madre de Dios Rivers and the Purus. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography 11:496–502.Google Scholar
La Combe, Ernesto, Von Hassel, Jorge, and Pesce, Luis 1904 El Istmo de Fiscarrald. Imprenta La Industria, Lima.Google Scholar
Lathrap, Donald 1970 The Upper Amazon. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude 1963 Do Dual Organizations Exist? In Structural Anthropology, edited by Lévi-Strauss, Claude, pp. 132–166. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Lombardo, Umberto, Denier, Sebastian, and Weit, Heinz 2015 Soil Properties and Pre-Columbian Settlement Patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon. SOIL 1:65–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombardo, Umberto, and Prümers, Heiko 2010 Pre-Columbian Human Occupation Patterns in the Eastern Plains of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazonia. Journal of Archaeological Science 37:1875–1885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowie, Robert 1948 The Tropical Forest: An Introduction. In The Tropical Forest Tribes, pp. 1–55. Handbook of South American Indians Vol. 3, Julian Steward, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Maybury-Lewis, David (editor) 1979 Dialectical Societies: The Gê and Bororo of Central Brazil. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Métraux, Alfred 1942 The Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Western Mato Grosso. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 134. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Moraes, Claide, and Neves, Eduardo G. 2019 Earthworks of the Amazon. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Smith, Claire, pp. 1–25. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Mori, Scott, and Prance, Ghillean 1990 Taxonomy, Ecology, and Economic Botany of the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa Humb. & Bonpl. Lecythidaceae). Advances in Economic Botany 8:130–150.Google Scholar
Neves, Eduardo G. 2008 Ecology, Ceramic Chronology and Distribution, Long-Term History, and Political Change in the Amazonian Floodplain. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Silverman, Helaine and Isbell, William, pp. 359–379. Springer, New York.10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5_20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neves, Eduardo G, Pugliese, Francisco, Furquim, Laura, Zimpel, Carlos, and Gibertoni, Carla 2016 Pesquisa e formação nos sítios arqueológicos Espinhara e Sol de Campinas do Acre—PESC. Relatório Final. Unpublished field report submitted to Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artistico Nacional. Copies available from Laboratório de Arqueologia dos Trópicos, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Nimuendajú, Curt 1946 The Eastern Timbira. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 41. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Nimuendajú, Curt 1983 Os Apinayé. Museo Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil.Google Scholar
Nordenskiöld, Erland 1930 L'archéologie du Bassin de L'Amazone. Ars Americana 1, Les Éditions G. van Oest, Paris.Google Scholar
Pérez, Juan, Gonçalves, Gil, and Charro, María Christina 2019 On the Positional Accuracy and Maximum Allowable Scale of UAV-Derived Photogrammetric Products for Archaeological Site Documentation. Geocarto International 34:575–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prümers, Heiko 2014 Sitios prehispánicos com zanjas em Bella Vista, Provincia Iténez, Bolivia. In Memorias de las conferencias magistrales del 3er Encuentro Internacional de Arqueología Amazônica, edited by Rostain, Stéphen, pp. 73–91. IFEA, FLASCO, MCCTH, SENESCYT, Quito.Google Scholar
Prümers, Heiko, and Betancourt, Carla Jaimes 2014 C. 100 años de investigación arqueológica en los Llanos de Mojos. Arqueoantropológicas 4:11–54.Google Scholar
Pugliese, Francisco, Zimpel, Carlos, and Neves, Eduardo 2019 What Do Amazonian Shellmounds Tell Us about the Long-Term Indigenous History of South America? In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Smith, Claire, pp. 1–25. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Ranzi, Alceu, Feres, Roberto, and Brown, Foster 2007 Internet Software Programs Aid in Search for Amazonian Geoglyphs. Eos 88:226–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renard-Casevitz, France-Marie 2002 Social Forms and Regressive History: From the Campa Cluster to the Mojos and from Mojos to the Landscaping Terrace-Builders of the Bolivian Savanna. In Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia, edited by Hill, Jonathan and Santos-Granero, Fernando, pp. 123–146. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Rostain, Stéphen 2012. Between Sierra and Selva: Pre-Columbian Landscapes in the Upper Ecuadorian Amazonia. Quaternary International 249:31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunaluoma, Sanna 2012 Geometric Earthworks in the State of Acre, Brazil: Excavations at the Fazenda Atlântica and Quinauá Sites. Latin American Antiquity 23:565–583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunaluoma, Sanna, Anttiroiko, Niko, and Moat, Justin 2019 UAV Survey at Archaeological Earthwork Sites in the Brazilian State of Acre, Southwestern Amazonia. Archaeological Prospection 26:325–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunaluoma, Sanna, Pärssinen, Martti, and Schaan, Denise 2018 Diversity of Pre-Colonial Earthworks in the Brazilian State of Acre, Southwestern Amazonia. Journal of Field Archaeology 43:362–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunaluoma, Sanna, and Schaan, Denise 2012 Monumentality in Western Amazonian Formative Societies: Geometric Ditched Enclosures in the Brazilian State of Acre. Antiqua 2:e1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaan, Denise, Ranzi, Alceu, and Barbosa, Antonia 2010 Geoglifos: Paisagens da Amazônia Ocidental. GKNORONHA, Rio Branco, Brazil.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Morgan 2012 Landscapes of Movement in Amazonia: New Data from Ancient Settlements in the Middle and Lower Amazon. Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences 35:355–364.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Morgan, Py-Daniel, Anne Rapp, de Paula Moraes, Claide, Valle, Raoni, Caromano, Caroline, Texeira, Wenceslau, Barbosa, Carlos, Fonseca, João, Magalhães, Marcos, do Carmo Santos, Daniel Silva, da Silva, Renan, Guapindaia, Vera, Moraes, Bruno, Lima, Helena, Neves, Eduardo, and Heckenberger, Michael 2014 Dark Earths and the Human Built Landscape in Amazonia: Widespread Pattern of Anthrosol Formation. Journal of Archaeological Science 42:152–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silveira, Marcos, Daly, Douglas, Salimon, Cleber, Wedt, P., Ferreira, Evandro, Pereira, Maria, and Passos, Verônica 2008 Physical Environments and Vegetation Cover of Acre. In First Catalogue of the Flora of Acre, Brazil, edited by Daly, Douglas and Silveira, Marcos, pp. 37–63. EDIUFAC, Rio Branco, Brazil.Google Scholar
Souza, Jonas, Schaan, Denise, Robinson, Mark, Barbosa, Antonia, Aragão, Luiz, Marimon, Ben, Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes, da Silva, Izaias, Khan, Salman, Nakahara, Francisco, and Iriarte, Jose. 2018 Pre-Columbian Earth-Builders Settled along the Entire Southern Rim of the Amazon. Nature Communications 9:1125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stahl, Peter 2015 Interpreting Interfluvial Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Amazon. Holocene 25:1598–1603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Virtanen, Pirjo-Kristiina, and Saunaluoma, Sanna 2017 Visualization and Movement as Configurations of Human–Nonhuman Engagements: Precolonial Geometric Earthwork Landscapes of the Upper Purus, Brazil. American Anthropologist 911:614–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, John 2008 The Llanos de Mojos. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Silverman, Helaine and Isbell, William, pp. 927–940. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watling, Jennifer, Iriarte, Jose, Mayle, Frank, Schaan, Denise, Pessenda, L., Loader, N., Street-Perrott, F., Dickau, Ruth, Damasceno, Antonia, and Ranzi, Alceu 2017 Impact of Pre-Columbian ‘Geoglyph’ Builders on Amazonian Forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114:1868–1873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watling, Jennifer, Saunaluoma, Sanna, Pärssinen, Martti, and Schaan, Denise 2015 Subsistence Practices among Earthwork Builders: Phytolith Evidence from Archaeological Sites in the Southwest Amazonian Interfluves. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4:541–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watling, Jennifer, Shock, Myrtle, Mongeló, Guilherme, Almeida, Fernando, Kater, Thiago, De Oliveira, Paulo, and Neves, Eduardo 2018 Direct Archaeological Evidence for Southwestern Amazonia as an Early Plant Domestication and Food Production Centre. PLoS ONE 13(7):e0199868.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wüst, Irmhild, and Barreto, Cristiana 1999 The Ring Villages of Central Brazil: A Challenge for Amazonian Archaeology. Latin American Antiquity 10:3-23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar