Institute of Archaeology, University College London

MA Archaeology Dissertation

Research question:

What can ceramic decoration tell us about the pre- and post- colonial past on the

Upper Tapajs River?

Bruna Cigaran da Rocha

Supervisors: Dr. Jos Oliver, Dr. Manuel Arroyo-Kalin

Degree Coordinator: Dr. Karen Wright

September 2012

i

DECLARATION

This dissertation is the result of my own work. Work done in collaboration is

specifically indicated in the text. Excluding title page, contents pages, lists of

figures and tables, abstract, acknowledgements, bibliography, captions and

contents of tables and figures, appendice, the main text of the dissertation

consists of 15,134 words.

Unless otherwise stated in the reference list, all translations into English were

undertaken by myself. Unless otherwise stated, all photographs were taken by

Vinicius Honorato de Oliveira or by myself. Unless otherwise indicated, all

illustrations are my own.

ii

What can ceramic decoration tell us about the pre- and post- colonial past on

the Upper Tapajs River?

Bruna Cigaran da Rocha

Abstract

The aim of this research, conducted in an as yet little known area of the Brazilian Amazon, is

to provide a first step in inserting the archaeology of the Upper Tapajs River, in the

southwest of Par state, into the wider regional context. Its focus is on the analysis of ceramic

decoration from pottery collected from sites worked on, and its subsequent comparison to that

of adjacent areas and to the wider region. Following an overview of theoretical concepts and

tendencies pursued in the Brazilian Amazon, two distinct traditions are identified through

comparisons of pottery from other areas and consultation of historical accounts, and

interactions between their producers are postulated. This opens up a series of questions to be

investigated in the future.

Key words: Amazonian Archaeology, Tapajs River, Mangabal, Pimental, forest peoples,

Incised Punctuate tradition, Munduruku indians.

iii

Acknowledgements

This dissertation is the product of a trajectory that began six years ago. The project was made

possible because of the help of many individuals. I only hope to do justice to their efforts.

Eduardo Ges Neves welcomed me into his team and has been an unwavering source of

optimism and encouragement, providing me with intellectual guidance and the motivation to

make indigenous history throughout the years I have known him. I cannot thank him

enough.

I will always be grateful to Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, who recommended I study

archaeology, and who I admire for her commitment to the cause of the rights of forest

peoples in Brazil.

I thank friends of the Central Amazon Project and Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,

who introduced me to Amazonian Archaeology in practice and shared experiences with me

that will always be cherished: Carla Gibertoni, Tereza Parente, Helena Pinto Lima, Marcos

Brito, Fernando Costa, Bernardo Lacale, Mrcio Castro, Thiago Trindade, Jaqueline Belletti,

Eduardo Kazuo Tamanaha, Mrjorie Lima, Leandro Camilo, Guilherme Mongel and Agda

Sardinha.

The staff at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnologys Library at the University of So

Paulo, in particular Hlio Rosa de Miranda and Eleuza Gouveia, always bent over backwards

to help me.

Marcos Brito Castro digitalised our excavation profile drawings beautifully. Vinicius

Honorato created the other maps used here. Denise Gomes allowed me to reproduce images

from her book, Cotidiano e Poder na Amaznia Pr-Colonial, for which I am most grateful.

Klaus Hilbert assisted me immensely by scanning and sending me Peter Hilberts articles.

Francisco Pugliese was generous with his time and advice. Fernando and Dani, thank you for

your help in so many ways. Malu Camargo, I really appreciate your assistance. Daniel

Frechoso, thank you for rescuing my dissertation from the computational void!

I greatly value Fabola Andrea Silvas and Francisco Noellis encouragement and support of

our research on the Tapajs. You have set a high intellectual and ethical standard to be

followed.

Moving to the Tapajs, I am eternally indebted to Maurcio Gonsalves Torres, our very own

Rei da Selva, who has dedicated his life to justice for forest peoples. Thank you for taking us

to Mangabal and providing us with the logistical support, good humour and critical

perspective we needed. This project wouldnt have existed without you.

Eduardo Neves and Fernando Ozorio de Alemeida, thank you for agreeing to coordinate the

Projeto Alto Tapajs. Thank you to those who made up the team: Eduardo Kazuo Tamanaha,

Mrjorie Lima, Leandro Camilo, and Gilmar Henriques. I am extremely grateful to Rosanna

Delellis and to Alfixit for pledging to support the project. Natlia Guerrero kindly revised our

first report to the IPHAN.

iv

The people of Mangabal and Pimental who received and fed us, and took us to the sites in

their territories will forever be in my thoughts. Two strong women of the Tapajs, Odila

Braga and Gabriela Maria Bibiana da Silva symbolise the dignity of forest peoples and a way

of life that must be fought for. Pedro Braga da Silva, Raimundo Colares dos Santos,

Francisco Firmino da Silva, Solimar Ferreira dos Anjos, Josu Lobato Cirino and Tefilo

Braga Cirino took us to archaeological sites in 2010, when we stayed with Nildete Cardoso,

Raimundo Colares and at the Machado community. In 2011 we stayed with Dona Odila,

Pedro, Conceio, Odon and Tayrine at Sapucaia in Mangabal, and Pedro worked with us at

the Terra Preta do Mangabal archaeological site, to where he transported us every day.

Edmilson Ribeiro Azevedo and his son Ded, Eudeir Francisco da Silva Azevedo, worked

with us on some days at the Paja site, introduced us to their grandmother and took us to the

historic site of the rubber period near Pimental, where we stayed with Marinildo de Sousa

Robertino, his wife Bete and their family. Geizy Carla Ribeiro Azevedo donated the

projectile point her son found among the rocks to us: thank you.

I am beholden to Denise Pahl Schaan for support in Santarm, by allowing the material we

collected to be stored, washed and analysed at the Curt Nimuendaju lab, whose team made

our stay so productive and enjoyable. Mrcio Amaral, thank you for the friendly reception

and exchange of ideas. I hope this is just the beginning of a long collaboration. I similarly

thank Gizelle Morais and Cristiane Martins for the goodwill shown.

Still in Santarm, our good friends Anne and Claide helped us in every possible way they

could; I hope we can one day return their generosity. Rogrio Andrade dos Santos dedicated

time and care to the analysis of the pottery, with Claides help, making all the difference to

this research. I am thankful to tala Nepomuceno and Cndido Neto da Cunha for the

hospitality. Muito obrigada.

In Itaituba, our stay was made infinitely more interesting and comfortable by Juan Doblas

Prieto, Maite Guedes, Brbara Campello Silva and Leidiane Brusnello.

In London, the Institute of Archaeologys Masters Award made a huge financial difference.

My lecturers during the MA course were fantastic: Arlene Rosen, Bill Sillar, Todd Whitelaw,

Karen Wright, Norah Moloney and Patrick Quinn. Jos Oliver and Manuel Arroyo Kalin, my

supervisors at the Institute, have given me all the support, reassurance, guidance, critique,

ideas, suggestions, comments and good humour I could possibly hope for, and more. I am

privileged to have you as my orientadores. Gracias, professores!

And finally, my overwhelming expression of gratitude is to my family. My brother and sister,

Camilo and Ali, have constantly cheered me on and believed in me, along with my sister-in-

law, Juliana. Thank you to Lourdes for your care and affection. To my parents-in-law, Lcio

and Hulda, I greatly appreciate your endorsement and encouragement. To my parents Jan and

Plauto, I am grateful for the love, support and sense of what is right. To Vinicius husband,

friend and companion who has accompanied me from the beginning of my archaeological

career, and who partook in every stage of this project which is yours as much as it is mine

the biggest thank you of all.

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Contents

1. Introduction 1

Portuguese and Brazilian Colonisation of the Tapajs River 3

Background to archaeological research in the area 5

2. The role of ceramics in Amazonian Archaeology 8

Horizons, traditions, phases and related concepts used to determine cultural units 11

The Incised Punctuate Tradition 12

Decoration vs. form 13

Justification for focus of research 14

3. Beiradeiros, cachoeiras and terra preta 16

Introduction 16

Characterisation of the area 17

Methodology: survey, site delimitation and excavation 19

Montanha and Mangabal 20

Ponta do Jatob archaeological site 23

Terra Preta do Mangabal archaeological site 24

Survey along the Transamazon highway 26

Boa Vista archaeological site 27

Cocalino archaeological site 27

Pimental 28

Paja archaeological site 30

The Aracy-Paraguau museum in Itaituba 30

Conclusion 31

4. Pottery from the Upper Tapajs and beyond 32

Methods of ceramic analysis 32

Results 34

Terra Preta do Mangabal pottery 34

Paja pottery 36

Cocalino pottery 37

Discussion 38

Comparisons to ceramic decoration from the wider region 39

The pottery of Parau, Lower Tapajs 39

The Tapajs-Trombetas area 40

Santarm pottery 40

Pottery from the Madeira basin 44

Pottery from the Xingu basin 45

Pottery from the Orinoco basin 47

Interpretation of results 48

Paja and Cocalino 48

Terra Preta do Mangabal 49

5. Conclusion 52

Bibliography 54

Appendix Annexes 1-11

Plates 1-9

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List of figures

1 Advert by Queiroz Galvo 3

2 Agate arrowhead found on the beach at Itaituba by Barbosa Rodrigues 5

3 Funerary urns from the Curur River 6

4 Arrowheads from the Upper Tapajs 6

5 Map showing rivers mentioned in text 7

6 Nimuendajus Ethno-historical map 8 7 Distribution of sites representing the four horizon styles 10

8 Examples of the Incised Puntuate Tradition according to Lathrap 13

9 Pedro taking Vinicius and I to work on the Terra Preta do Mangabal site in his boat 16

10 Odila Braga in her kitchen with some of the ground stone axes she had collected 20

11 Pedro carrying a paneiro loaded with bananas 20

12 Josu preparing his roa to be planted with manioc 20

13 Sites identified in Montanha and Mangabal in 2010 21

14 Ceramic vessel found in the river by a diving gold miner 21

15 Josu and Bruna observe the surface of a campo area integrating the TPM site 21

16 Galdino: Francisco examines pottery fragments strewn in front of his home 21

17 Maloquinha: contrast between anthropogenic soil containing pottery and natural soil 22

18 Maloquinha: detail of rim within anthropogenic soil 22

19 Maloquinha: Francisca da Silva scrutinises ceramic pots buried in front of her house 22

20 Mangueira: ground stone axe and pottery 22

21 Buried urn (?) and ceramic fragments at Praia Chique 23

22 Buried urn (?) and ceramic fragments at Os Quirino 23

23 The Ponta do Jatob community and archaeological site 24

24 Auger hole at The Ponta do Jatob 24

25 Terra Preta do Mangabal: view to Tapajs River 24

26 Terra Preta do Mangabal: view from the campo area to Mangabal rapids 24

27 Terra Preta do Mangabal: the steep ascent up to the site 25

28 Terra Preta do Mangabal: marking out the grid 25

29 Terra Preta do Mangabal: midden/mound 26

30 Terra Preta do Mangabal: auger hole 26

31 Terra Preta do Mangabal: drawing one of the profiles of unit N1000 E1074 26

32 Boa Vista: Vinicius augering with Tapajs in background 27

33 Boa Vista: auger hole 27

34 Cocalino: general view of the site 27

35 Cocalino: auger hole 27

36 Pimental: Dona Gabriela and descendants 28

37 Pimental: view to the community from the river 28

38 Pimental: Geizy Carla Ribeiro Azevedo's son and siblings with biface 28

39 Bifacial lance head by Claide de Paula Moraes 28

40 Pimental port, with view to Bananal Island 28

41 Vinicius and Marinildo augering dark earth area 29

42 Non-anthropogenic? dark earth 29

43 Pottery located on Bananal Island, in front of Pimental 29

44 The barraco seringueiro at Pimental 29

45 View to Paja site 30

46 Paja: Edmilson cuts back thick vegetation so that the site can be delimited 30

47 Paja: yellow flags mark pottery fragments on the surface 30

48 Aracy-Paraguau museum: wooden anthropomorphic artefacts 31

vii

Cont.

49 Aracy-Paraguau museum: polished and ground stone axes and adzes 31

50 Aracy-Paraguau museum: silex projectile point 31

51 Lower Tapajs: Pottery from the Lago do Jacar site, Parau 39

52 Ceramic vessels from Santarm collected by Nimuendaj for Gothenburg Museum 41

53 Nhamund-Trombetas: Pottery from the Erepecur River and Sapuqu Lake 41

54 Nhamund-Trombetas: Typical elements of Konduri style decoration 42

55 Hollow rims in profile 44

56 Madeira: Pottery from the Itapirema archaeological site 45

57 Xingu: Decorated rims & Arauquinoid-like adorno 46

58 Xingu: Sherd from Lower Iriry and rim found in Altamira 47

59 Orinoco: Pottery from the Valloid series 47

60 Hrcule Florence watercolours of the Munduruku 49

61 Incised decoration on sherd found at the TPM site 49

62 Map produced by William Chandless (1862) 50

63 Engraving of Munduruku tattoos 50

List of tables and charts

Percentages of pottery from each site 33

Quantities of pottery from TPM 34

Quantities of pottery from Paja 36

Quantities of pottery from Cocalino 37

Overall characteristics of pottery analysed 39

Comparison between Santarm and Konduri pottery 43

1

What can ceramic decoration tell us about the pre- and post- colonial

past on the Upper Tapajs River?

1. Introduction

Archaeology has a vital, urgent role to play in constructing an alternative idea in the popular

imaginary about Amazonia, its people, and their past. Written records for the area under

investigation the Upper Tapajs River, south-western Par state in the Brazilian Amazon

only began after two centuries of conquest, by which time the demographic collapse of

Amerindian populations was well underway (Denevan 1992). This dissertation is an initial

step in what we hope will be a long term archaeological research project in this region. As

such, more questions will be asked than answered.

On travelling to Montanha and Mangabal on the Upper Tapajs River in March 2010, our

expectation was to find pottery similar to the painted wares identified by Almeida (2008) in

south-eastern Amazonia, associated by him to Tupian groups. Linguistic and archaeological

theories postulate that groups belonging to the Tupi language stock would have traversed the

Upper Tapajs region from their centre of origin thought to lie around the upper reaches of

the Madeira basin (Miller 1983) , towards the east (Almeida 2008, Brochado 1984, Urban

1992). However, what we have found instead so far is quite different, and apparently

much more recent (I say apparently because we have yet to date the sites worked on).

In this dissertation I will attempt to relate the pottery of these sites, located in the

municipality of Itaituba, to a wider context by comparing the decorative patterns found on

their ceramics to those of adjacent areas (fig. 5). My justification for this can be found in the

following chapter, where I will situate this research within a wider theoretical framework

related to the role of ceramics in Amazonian archaeology. In the second chapter I will narrate

the two field expeditions undertaken and present their findings. Chapter three will present the

pottery collection analysed and compare its decorative patterns to those of adjacent regions,

after which I offer an interpretation of my findings; ethnohistorical literature has also been

consulted towards this end. Following this, some concluding remarks will be made.

2

We originally reached Montanha and Mangabal thanks to our friend Maurcio Torres a

geographer working for local communities land rights in the Brazilian Amazon.1 Maurcios

research had been focussed on proving the beiradeiros (riverbank dwellers) of Mangabal

had legitimate claim to their territories, which they had historically occupied since the

nineteenth century (Torres 2008), but from which they were being threatened with expulsion

by landgrabbers from the south of the country. He demonstrated the longevity of the

communities in the area through their profound knowledge of their territories and its

environment, inherited from their Amerindian forebears; he also scoured historical

documents that could have recorded names of the present beiradeiros ancestors. Although

the beiradeiros are still there, their way of life is now being threatened by a far more

powerful force: the Brazilian Federal Government and a yet-to-be-defined consortium of state

and privately owned companies, which plan to build a series of hydroelectric dams on the

Tapajs.

1. The advert to the left, published in 1971, announces the first birth of a child in that brave new world we are helping to build in the greatest green space on the planet. Where only forests

existed. And legends. Myth and fear. The then military governments program of integration of the Amazon, to be facilitated by the opening up of the Transamazon Highway,

promised "a land without people for people without land" (Torres

et al. 2005).

The child, Transamaznico, was born exactly where we are beginning. Or rather, where Brazil is being discovered again.

In: Torres 2008, 287.

There is something in common between the assumptions of the landgrabbers and of the

government; they are based on the premise that this is an empty space, a place without history

(fig. 1). Forest peoples are perceived to be impoverished and uncultured, people who do not

1 Hereafter, Montanha and Mangabal will be collectively referred to as Mangabal.

3

have a past, a stock of reserve labour waiting for development to turn them into workers, if

they are lucky. This situation, a re-edit of the last 500 years of Brazilian history, is repeated

along similar lines throughout the Amazon today.

Before I proceed, some background on the colonial history of the area in question is needed,

followed by a summary of the archaeological research conducted near the Upper Tapajs to

date.

Portuguese and Brazilian Colonisation of the Tapajs River

Up until the nineteenth century, sources referring to indigenous groups around the Lower

Tapajs River were invariably written by missionaries or colonial officials. Irrespective of

their Christian, European and male perspective, their observations provide us with glimpses

of this period and the Amerindian peoples with whom they engaged. These and later sources

suggest a high demographic density for the Lower Amazon and Tapajs, given the great

quantity of ethnonyms recorded (Menndez 2006 [1992] 281).

In the sixteenth century, Gaspar de Carvajals (1941 [1546]) account of the expedition led by

Francisco de Orellana in 1541-2 introduces us to the female warriors who would give the

Amazon River its name, near the mouth of Nhamund River, and describes the volley of

poisoned arrows that greeted the explorers one of whom died within 24 hours of being

struck fired by the Tapaj, thought to be the producers of the famous ceramics from

Santarm.

The following century is represented by a greater number of written sources. The missionary

Joo Felipe Bettendorf (1910 [1693-1699]) located several indigenous groups along the

banks of the middle Amazon River, and depicted their subsistence practices and interethnic

contact and trade (Menndez 2006 [1992], 294). Visiting the Tapaj in 1661, the Jesuit

required a translator to communicate with them: this indicates that, unlike many of their

neighbours, their language did not belong to the Tupi language stock, since Bettendorf spoke

the lngua geral based on Tupi (In: Nimuendaju 1952, 6). Another aspect of note relates to

observed burial practices. Narrating his travels with Pedro Teixeira two decades on, the judge

Heriarte (1662) wrote that the Konduris on the north bank of the Amazon had similar forms

of government, analogous ceremonies and worshipped the same idols as the Tapaj (In:

Guapindaia 2008, 14). He also noted that the Tapaj practiced endocannibalism, consuming

the ashes of their deceased (In: Nimuendaju 1952, 7).

4

It appears that the Tapaj and their neighbours, the Tupinambaranas, were expanding their

dominion along the Lower Tapajs until the mid-seventeenth century (Menndez 2006, 282).

Contact with Europeans however resulted in subjection, slavery and movement of groups

(Menndez 2006, 282); the Tupinambaranas were extinct by the end of that century. Ruthless

Portuguese colonial agents forced the Tapaj to raid other groups for captives (see Acua

1894 [1641]). Portuguese violence allied to devastating Old World diseases meant it was only

a matter of time before the Tapaj were also wiped out. Living with members of other groups

in mission settlements, survivors would lose their identities. Some being captive, others

having fled, the rest having been led to death, this beautiful tribe was extinguished, leaving its

memory perpetrated in the name of the Amazon [Valleys] most beautiful river, the

naturalist Barbosa Rodrigues lamented a century later (1875, 130).

Just as the Tapaj had been feared along the Lower Tapajs, upstream, the Munduruku2

headhunters (Murphy 1958) terrorized other ethnic groups and Christian missions

downstream from the 1770s (Ribeiro Sampaio 1825 [1775] In: Menndez 2006 [1992], 284).

The Munduruku language family belongs to the Tupi language stock. Barbosa Rodrigues

(1875, 130) writes that the dwindling Tapaj could not resist their incursions. From this we

can infer a degree of interaction between them. This also demonstrates how the demographic

collapse downstream resulted in greater mobility of groups such as the Munduruku (F. Noelli,

pers. comm. 30/08/2011).

The upper course of the Tapajs River was to remain terra incognita to the white man until

the eighteenth century (Menndez 2006 [1991], 286), only being navigated in its entirety by a

member of colonial society (a miner called Joo Sousa de Azevedo) in 1748 (Tocantins 1877,

76). It is still difficult to ascertain the degree to which the effects of colonisation in the form

of disease, warfare and slave raiding were felt further upstream following conquest. The

Munduruku today have in memory the first approach made by a white man into their

territories in the hinterland campinas (grasslands). The man was Antnio Gonalves

Tocantins, who visited the Munduruku in 1875 and published a report of his expedition,

detailing his trajectory and Munduruku customs (1877). In 2004 a Munduruku man was

recorded stating that Antonio Tocantins was the first white [to come]. He left salt, machetes,

hoes, [metal] axes. The Munduruku would take these things and grow to like them. Then they

2 Their self-denomination is in fact Wuy jugu. The name Munduruku comes from the eighteenth century, when

the Parintintins, their enemies, called them Munduruku: red ants, because of their aggressive raids against rivals. (Ramos 2003. In: http://pib.socioambiental.org/pt/povo/munduruku/794)

5

became very ill. The white man brought measles and many people died (In: PPTAL 2008,

40). By the late nineteenth century, a number of Europeans and Brazilians were navigating

the Tapajs, which would have resulted in the spread of diseases to hinterland areas.

This increased Euro-Brazilian presence along the river was due to the arrival of the

Portuguese Court in Brazil. Having fled from the Napoleonic wars, the monarch Dom Joo

VI opened Brazilian ports to friendly nations, thus unleashing a wave of scientific expeditions

throughout the territory. Some of these would travel down the Tapajs, navigating its entire

length from its tributaries in Mato Grosso. Through the watercolours of Hrcule Florence, the

Russian Empires Langsdorff expedition (1820s) would deliver a fascinating register of the

places passed, its people and plants. The explorer William Chandless (1862) would describe

the peoples he encountered, their economic activities and other geographical and botanical

aspects of interest. Coming from the other end of the river, Barbosa Rodrigues (1875) got as

far as Montanha in 1872, before ill health forced him to return to Itaituba. The

aforementioned Tocantins (1877) left Belm with the express motive of visiting Munduruku

territories. Henri Coudreau (1895) was commissioned by Lauro Sodr, the state of Pars

Governor, to undertake a scientific survey along the river. By this time, occupation of the

area by national society was underway, and the extraction of latex from rubber trees had

become a profitable enterprise for rubber barons, who exploited the labour of northeastern

migrants lured to the area with promises of wealth, only to be exposed to conflict with

Amerindian groups and treated as slave labour. The account by Raimundo Pereira Brasil

(1910), one of the rubber lords of the Tapajs, elucidates the fast changes underway at the

time. He remarks how Munduruku indians living the Bacabal mission further upstream

were made to work. They died in great numbers (1909, 62).

Background of archaeological research in the area

2. Agate arrowhead found on the beach at Itaituba. Reproduced from Barbosa Rodrigues

1876, Plate II.

The Brazilian naturalist Barbosa Rodrigues (1876) observed that the rocks along the river

near the port of Bobur had been used as workshops in the fabrication of ground stone

6

axes; he also found an arrowhead made of agate (fig. 2), on the beach in front of the village

of Itaituba (1876, 111-112).

In the 1920s Nimuendaju (2004, 124) noted remains of funerary urns in the square of the

intendancy at Itaituba; where he also collected some sherds (2004, Plate 177). In the 1950s,

Protsio Frikel, a Franciscan friar stationed at the So Francisco do Curur mission on the

Upper Tapajs, disinterred ceramic funerary urns and sent them to archaeologist P. Hilbert at

the Goeldi Museum in Belm (fig. 3). They were found within a dark earth layer without an

apparent pattern in their disposition (Hilbert 1957, 3). The Munduruku indians with whom

the friar conversed stated that the urns were pariwat t a pots belonging to other, foreign

indians; the Munduruku do not practice secondary burial (1957, 11).

3. Funerary urn with lid improvised by three pot sherds, used to bury a child; Composite funerary urn: A, the urn proper; B and C: base sherds used as lids; D: pot fragments substituting base. Adapted from Hilbert 1957, 4-5.

In 1976, Simes would publish a brief description of two arrowheads donated to geologists

travelling along the river (fig. 4). Roosevelt et al. (1996) would revisit these projectile points

twenty years on, although they incorrectly attributed their provenance to the Lower Amazon

(1996, 375).3 They wrote that their morphology and the technique used in their manufacture

continuous pressure retouching, well-articulated stems, and down-turned wings linked

them to late Pleistocene triangular points of eastern South America (1996, 375).

4. A: hyaline quartz arrowhead found on Upper Tapajs left margin, below Chacoro rapid; B: silex arrowhead found at cassiterite mine called Grota do Caaba located at headwaters of Tucano stream, which flows into the Mutum, a tributary on the right margin of the Upper Tapajs. (Adapted from Roosevelt et al. 1996, 373).

3 The locations at which the arrowheads were found are in the Upper Tapajs area.

7

Under the National Program of Archaeological Research of the Amazon Basin

(PRONAPABA), Celso Perota surveyed sites along the Transamazon Highway in the late

1970s between Itaituba and Jacareacanga (Simes 1978-1982, 57-60). Near Itaituba he found

anthropogenic dark earth and pottery decorated with polychrome painting, incisions and

excisions. Other sites contained funerary urns and lithics. He attributed some of the pottery to

the Incised Punctuate Tradition. However, no further details have been located about these

finds.

Sites have also been registered along the Transamazon Highway to the east of the Tapajs,

containing anthropogenic dark earth (Kern 2003, 63). More recently, the Federal University

of Pars Centre for Archaeology has also been working along the Transamazon (Martins

2010, 2012 and forthcoming) under the coordination of Denise Schaan, in the municipalities

of Itaituba and Rurpolis. It is hoped that we will be able to compare data in order to begin

building a fuller panorama of the regions Amerindian past.

5. Rivers referred to in the text. Map by Vinicius Honorato, adapted from Natural Earth online

website: http://www.naturalearthdata.com/

8

2. The role of ceramics in Amazonian Archaeology

The culture historical framework has dominated the study of Amazonian archaeology during

the twentieth century, and still does today, albeit with increasing revision and critique. The

inescapable fact that languages belonging to the same stock or family have dispersed

throughout lowland South America is evidence of communication networks or migration

having taken place in the past, as can be seen in Nimuendajus 1944 ethno-historical map

below (fig. 6).

6. Reproduced from Nimuendaju 1944.

9

Edited by Julian Steward, the Handbook of South American Indians (1940-1947) is a

testament to this approach. Based on technology and perceived socio-political complexity,

the volumes addressed the Marginal Tribes; the Tropical Forest Tribes, the Circum-

Caribbean Tribes and the Andean Civilizations. In volume 3, Robert Lowie (1948)

outlined the characteristic traits of The Tropical Forest Tribes: cultivation of tropical root

crops (in particular, bitter manioc); effective river craft; the use of hammocks; and the

manufacture of pottery (1948, 1).

This understanding of culture as a structurally and functionally stable entity with hard

spatial boundaries (i.e., the concept of culture area) has been surpassed in recent decades (J.

Oliver, pers. comm. 11/09/2012). Projections into the past based on ethnographic

observations (the direct historical approach) of Amerindian groups who, in effect, were

survivors of unparalleled demographic collapse (Denevan 1992) are likewise untenable. In

spite of these acknowledged problems and shortcomings, vols. 1 and 3 were and can still be a

useful starting point for anthropologists and archaeologists working in Amazonia.

The theme of environmental determinism would permeate discussions on human adaptability

in the Amazon for decades to come (e.g. Lathrap 1970; Meggers 1971; Roosevelt 1980).

Betty Meggers and Clifford Evans of the Smithsonian Institution favoured Leslie Whites

(1949) materialist approach in particular. Because they headed Brazils National Program of

Archaeological Research in the Amazon Basin (PRONAPABA) and trained a generation of

Brazilian archaeologists, this theoretical approach would set the agenda of Brazilian

archaeology for decades to come.

Borrowing the Horizon-Style concept Kroeber (1944) had applied to the Andean area,

Meggers, Evans and associates compiled a panorama of Amazonian archaeology based

primarily on ceramic decoration (Meggers and Evans 1961, 373). They interpreted their

results as demonstrating four distinct and successive cultural influences (1961, 381), all of

which originated outside Amazonia.

10

7. Distribution of sites representing the four horizon styles. 1: the zoned-hachure horizon style; 2: the incised-

rim horizon style; 3: the polychrome horizon-style; 4: the incised-and-punctuate horizon style. The arcs

designate the postulated area of origin and the arrows show the suggested direction of spread (Adapted from

Meggers and Evans 1961, 375-380).

From oldest to most recent, the horizons defined (fig. 7) were:

1) the Zoned Hachured Horizon Style, dated at approximately 500 BC (Meggers and

Evans 1961, 382) in which the use of broad line incision to outline areas that are

filled with fine, parallel strokes or crosshatching was often combined with painting

in the form of a red band at the rim or bands on the body of the vessel (Meggers and

Evans 1961, 375);

2) the Incised Rim Horizon Style, dated from around Anno Domini (1961, 382). Its

diagnostic elements were a broad, flat-topped rim produced by interior thickening,

giving a heavy, trianguloid cross section [the] rim surface is usually decorated,

typically with rather broad, incised lines red paint or red slip was used to cover the

exterior and/or interior surface of some vessels (1961, 378);

3) the Polychrome Horizon style, dating from c. AD 600 (1961, 382), identified by a

white slip and polychrome (red-and-black-on-white) painting [and] relatively

complex techniques, such as excision, incision retouched with red or white before

firing, and grooving. Incision or excision on a red slipped or white slipped surface is

also characteristic, whereas in all the other horizon styles the decorated surface is

typically unslipped (1961, 379), and finally;

4) the Incised and Punctuate Horizon Style, dating from AD 1000 (1961, 382),

characterised by the use of incision, punctuation and modelling in several consistent

1 2

3

4

11

ways and for convenience it has been named for the most universal trait, a

combination of incision and punctuation as alternating elements (1961, 381).

Horizons, traditions, phases and related concepts used to determine cultural units

It was contemplated that the aforementioned traits had been rapidly diffused, which is why

they were named horizons. Twenty years later however, Meggers and Evans would be

referring to traditions instead of horizons (1983 [1978]), recognising that there had been

greater time-depth involved in the spread of traits than they had originally postulated. They

used Willey and Phillips (1958) definition of a tradition as a (primarily) temporal continuity

represented by persistent configurations in single technologies or other systems of related

forms (1958, 37, italics in original). Meggers and Evans (1983 [1978], 290) equated

traditions with the series concept first employed in Venezuela and the Caribbean by

Cruxent and Rouse (1958).

At the other end of the temporal and geographical scale, a complex was the local

chronological unit (Boomert 2000, 4), often referred to as phase in Brazil. Willey and

Phillips defined a phase as an archaeological unit possessing traits sufficiently

characteristic to distinguish it from all other units similarly conceived spatially limited to

the order of magnitude of a locality or region and chronologically limited to a relatively brief

interval of time (1958, 22, italics in the original). Given the requirement of relatively short

temporal spans, phases were defined by the PRONAPABA by means of Fordian seriation

methods (Ford 1954). Temper was the principal attribute in developing their taxonomic

classification.

The creation of new phases seems almost to have become an end in itself; Schaan (2007)

writes that phases would become a straight jacket, stopping other relevant questions beyond

pottery from being studied (2007, 78). It was often assumed that phases equated

ethnolinguistic groups. Migration from external locations became the automatic explanation

for perceived change in pottery characteristics (Schaan 2007, 78).

Notwithstanding, Meggers and Evans so-called Experimental Formulation is still with us

today and continues to provide a guiding framework for archaeologists working in the region,

although phases and traditions established by the PRONAPABA are being revised throughout

the Brazilian Amazon. For instance Schaan exemplifies how, by allying data on ceramic

12

decoration to other factors settlement patterns and technological attributes she was able to

reach a different conclusion about cultural changes on the island of Maraj (2007, 2004),

which were not solely a result of migration from outside Amazonia. Similarly, Lima (2008)

has argued for contextualising ceramic data which does not mean scrapping everything that

came before. Limas contextualisation in fact drove her to split the Manacupuru phase

established by P. Hilbert (1968) into two phases, Manacupuru and Autuba (2006), the latter

being found deeper in the stratigraphy, prior to the formation of dark earth. Classification is

integral to scientific activity, so that patterns and groupings can be understood (Schaan 2007,

87-88). The creation of typologies and groupings are a means to an end, instruments to aid us

in reconstructing historical contexts (2007, 88). However, Lima (2008) herself has proposed a

flexibilisation of these categories, acknowledging that the limits of such archaeological units

will never be reached, because the mechanisms involved in the establishment, maintenance or

change and spread of technological traditions are varied and dynamic (2008, 160).

The Incised Punctuate Tradition

Much of the focus of this work is with the last of the four traditions defined by Meggers and

Evans (1961, 1983 [1978]), the Incised Punctuate Tradition, seen to be distributed along the

Orinoco and Amazon basins, British Guiana and the Brazilian state of Amap. Following on

from Cruxent and Rouse (1958), Lathrap (1970) correlated the Incised-Punctuate Tradition

with the expansion of Carib speakers from the northeast quadrant of the Amazon Basin

(1970, 164-165). Although the archaeological equivalent to the Carib expansion has at times

seemed elusive, nonetheless, certain elements are sufficiently coherent for them to be

perceived as a ceramic tradition, but it is a tradition that cross-cuts several of the other

horizons and traditions recognized (1970, 165). Among these diagnostic traits (fig. 8)

Lathrap identifies

thin, deep incision, executed with a sharply pointed stylus This mode of V-shaped incised lines is almost always organized into rectilinear designs By far the most common germinal motif in all of the fine-line incised styles is a continuous band

of contiguous isosceles triangles (Lathrap 1970, 165).

The peculiar use of appliqu was another distinctive characteristic: The total effect could

well be simulated by using the ribbon of cake icing exuded from a pastry tube (Lathrap

1970, 168). He also made the link between the use of cauix temper and Carib speakers

(1970, 165).

13

8. Examples of the Incised Puntuate Tradition according to Lathrap (1970), from left to right: Matraquero Style, Middle Orinoco, Venezuela; Apostadero Style, Apostadero site, Lower Orinoco, Venezuela; Arauqun Style, Lower Rio Aruaca, Llanos de Orinoco, Venezuela. (Adapted from Lathrap 1970, 165-166).

The Incised-Punctuate Tradition was related to the dissemination of the Arauquinoid series

from Venezuela to Amazonia:

The Incised and Punctuate tradition expanded down the Amazon and up the southern tributaries. The most flamboyant member is the Santarem culture, which flourished at

the mouth of the Rio Tapajos until European contact. The evenly spaced, parallel

incisions terminating in punctuates or alternating with areas containing rings or

punctuates, which are diagnostic of this tradition, became widely disseminated during

the final centuries prior to the discovery of America (Meggers and Evans 1983 [1978], 324).

Zucchi (1985) would refine this scenario, establishing three stages of occupation for makers

of cauix-tempered pottery in the Middle Orinoco, from AD 400-500 (early stage), to AD

500-1000 (middle stage) and finally to AD 1000-1400 (third or domination stage) (Zucchi

1985, 25-39).

Decoration vs. form

This dissertation is centred on the observation of the ceramic decoration of the samples

collected and a comparison to those of adjacent areas; where possible, contextual and

technological data have also been considered. The term decoration is not ideal, because it

can imply an embellishment that does not have any further meaning something that cannot

be assumed. However, it has been chosen because it is an overarching term that encompasses

varied techniques and motifs, and in order to keep the same terminology as is used in the

literature.

Roe (1976) demonstrates that neither surface decoration (contrary to Meggers and Evans

argument [1961]) nor vessel form (as Lathrap [1970] proposed) is necessarily the paramount

indicator of cultural continuity and comparability. The main variables to identify include the

14

degree to which either component partakes of social identification, e.g., ethnicity, or, the

degree to which emphasis is placed on form or decoration along a behavioural and cognitive

continuum between art and craft in the culture of the group involved (1976, 85). He further

states that from an information theory point of view a nonliterate culture has the capacity to

store, retrieve and recombine fewer data bits than one possessing writing, and that the art of

nonliterate peoples will be characterized by slow, incremental changes of circumscribed

magnitude (1976, 88, ft. 39). However, Roe acknowledges that shape is not so central to

identity, partaking as it does of a higher degree of technological utility (1976, 82).

Justification for focus of research

I believe that as a starting point in an unknown area, the study of ceramic decoration is highly

profitable. Brazilian anthropologists and archaeologists have long considered that in pre-

industrial societies, the ambition of art is to signify, not simply represent (Vidal & Lopes da

Silva, 2007 [1992], 281). Writing on the current Asurin, Silva (2008) explains that pottery

is an essential item in preparation of daily food preparation and ritual performance, in

addition to being one of their primary supports for graphic art, expressing fundamental

principles of this populations world view (Silva 2008, 222). Meggers (1997) further argues

that The most reliable evidence for historical relations can be obtained by the observation of

characteristics that are not susceptible to environmental or technological limitations, in

particular, decorative methods and motives (1997, 11). Van der Leeuw (1993) postulates

that not nature but culture is the main constraint of technique; The choices, rather than the

materials and tools, are crucial in determining the nature and shape of [the potters]

product (1993, 241).

If recurrent decorative patterns are found, they may indicate a common grammar (Roe 1976)

being shared by peoples of a region. Although it is important to bear in mind Sassamans

(1998, 96) recognition that to base an idea of identity upon limited material traits or

behaviours is nothing more than an archaeological construct, ethnographic examples

support linkages between language group and material culture in Amazonia. Along the

Uaups River in the central northwest Amazon, Chernela (1992) found a system of craft

monopoly in which differences in design repertories and artifact form are greater between

adjacent settlements of different language group affiliations than among members of the same

affiliation, despite vast distances between them (1992, 118). This is because artifact

manufacture is (with language) the most salient feature identifying social groups and

15

distinguishing one group from another (1992, 121). This observation opens up various

possibilities for us to consider in correlating similar or disparate ceramic decorative patterns,

which will be turned to later, following the comparison between decorations found by us and

those from other locations.

Similar to Limas (2008) application of the interaction sphere model in the Central Amazon

(as utilised by Boomert [2000] for Trinidad, Tobago and the Lower Orinoco River), I will

favour this idea in my interpretations, because it allows for the contemplation of

developments as influenced by local and external forces, and can help us to escape a

normative view of culture (Sassaman 1998, 94) by encouraging a consideration of

archaeological units as fluid, flexible entities.

16

*(Riverbank dwellers, rapids and anthropogenic dark earth)

3. Beiradeiros, cachoeiras, terra preta*

9. Pedro taking Vinicius and I to another day's work on the Terra Preta do Mangabal site in his boat, on the

Tapajs river; in the background, an illegal gold mining river dredge.

Introduction

as soon as [the Island of] Goiana is passed, immediately above the Island of Lauritnia, the first currents of the Maranhzinho rapid are reached. From then on,

there is nothing but rapids [and] cascades up until its limits, and even up until the heart of Mato Grosso. Below the two islands, the river is free, accessible to steamers;

upstream, the river is obstructed, it leaps from fall to fall, runs from rapid to rapid.

Downstream is the Amazon Valley; upstream lies the Brazilian Central Plateau (Coudreau 1977 [1897], 24).

Henri Coudreaus lyrical depiction of the geological encounter between the Amazon Valley

and Brazils highland shield is culturally recognised today by the denominations Alto

(Upper) and Baixo (Lower) Tapajs. The Upper Tapajs stretches for over 400km, from

the south-western portion of the state of Par up to its tributaries, the Juruena and Teles Pires,

which delimit the borders of the states of Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Par. The difficulty of

navigation Coudreau so beautifully encapsulates is partly responsible for this area being largely

ignored scientifically, in contrast to the Lower Tapajs. The stretch of the river along which we

17

worked begins at the town of Itaituba and follows the river southwards until the Misso and

Rato igaraps (streams), where the territory of Mangabal ends.

Two field expeditions have so far been undertaken for this project by Vinicius Honorato and I.

In 2010 we conducted a surface survey at Mangabal, a territory situated on the left margin of

the Tapajs, 120km south of the town of Itaituba. Upon return we wrote a report about the

expedition (Rocha & Honorato 2011) and under the coordination of Eduardo Neves and

Fernando Ozorio de Almeida of So Paulo University applied to Brazil's National Institute of

Historic and Artistic Heritage (Instituto do Patrimnio Histrico e Artstico Nacional -

hereafter, IPHAN) for authorisation to work in the area, conducting sub-surface excavations

and collecting samples. Upon obtaining permission, Vinicius Honorato and I spent two months

on the Tapajs, from July to September 2011. We initially chose to look for sites along the

Transamazon Highway, around the environs of the town of Itaituba, imagining this would be a

cost-effective strategy. We would soon give up on this however, realising that two people

"navigating" the Transamazon in a 1.0 engine car in search of sites was somewhat unrealistic.

We opted for leaving Itaituba to go and stay with communities along the river, where sites

would be better preserved and our ability to work consistently was greater (fig. 9).

In Mangabal we worked on the Terra Preta do Mangabal (TPM) and Ponta do Jatob sites,

delimiting both and excavating a 1m2 unit in the former. Downstream, close to the

aforementioned geological encounter described by Coudreau, we delimited and dug a 1m2 unit

at the Paja site, on the rivers right margin; we chose this area because its pottery would

provide us with a counterpoint to what we found upstream at Mangabal. Samples were taken

from five sites in all (TPM, Paja, Cocalino, Ponta do Jatob and Boa Vista). The following

section will not be organised chronologically; following a general discussion of the physical

setting and social context of the area, the methodology employed will be outlined and

subsequently, the places worked in will be focussed on.

Characterisation of the area

The rivers crystalline water and its sandy soils result from long erosive processes and testify to

the Tapajs greater geological age and poverty of nutrients when compared to watercourses to

its west, engendered in the Andes (Morais 2008). Several geomorphological units are

traversed; excepting the Amazon floodplain around the vicinity of Itaituba, the landscape is

hilly or table land, often rising abruptly, close to the waters edge. Dense tropical submontane

18

forest prevails, although the landscape is also peppered with grassland areas, known locally as

campos da natureza. The width of river in the stretch we covered varies from around four

kilometres just south of Itaituba to almost three at Mangabal. The dry season lasts for

approximately two and a half months every year and annual rainfall is on average 1700mm.

Much of the Tapajs River lies in what can be regarded a frontier area, where the historical

absence of the state has left a vacuum filled easily by organised crime (Arbex Jr. 2005, 40-62).

Social conflict is commonplace, as large scale capital interests for which the Amazon region

is a repository of natural resources to be extracted at minimum cost and maximum gain clash

with those of forest peoples (Amerindian communities, riverine dwellers, extractivists, among

others) who inhabit the region. Forest peoples see the landscape as their living space, from

where they draw sustenance and their histories are etched; they have been the most effective

agents in impeding the advance of deforestation.

The Upper Tapajs is where one of the planets greatest concentrations in biodiversity can be

found. A mosaic of conservation areas decreed by the federal government over the past few

decades1 have been a mixed blessing, however, because in some cases such as with the

Amazon National Park local people were violently expelled. This represents an elitist

environmentalist view that understands nature as pristine and local people as a hindrance

(tourists would be welcome, though) (Torres & Figueiredo 2005, 354-391). The Parks borders

were later changed to accommodate mining interests.

The push by agribusiness interests linked to land grabbing, deforestation, cattle ranching and

slave labour is facilitated by the notorious Transamazon Highway (Torres et al. 2005). The

planned construction of several hydroelectric dams on the Tapajs basin has now heightened

social tensions further. The Tapajs basin also hosts the countrys largest gold province;

widespread wildcat gold mining activities have routinely generated violence, prostitution and

mercury pollution in the water and food chain. It is estimated that over half of the 110 thousand

goldminers spread throughout the Amazon are active here (Borges 2012).2

1 A number of these conservation units have recently been arbitrarily reduced by the government to pave the way

for the construction of hydroelectric dams. 2 http://www.valor.com.br/brasil/2765302/garimpo-invade-bacia-do-tapajos

19

Methodology: survey, site delimitation and excavation3

Archaeological sites are often part of living landscapes in Amazonia. Terras pretas de ndio are

considered a legacy left by pre-colonial indigenous peoples to the Amazonian farmers of today

(Peterson, Neves & Heckenberger 2001); their location is usually known because of their

enhanced fertility. Practically all the sites were reached because of local knowledge of them.

This is a particularly useful way to begin surveying unknown places of difficult access, where

there is dense vegetation, sparse habitation and resources are limited factors that make

random sampling (Orton 2000) impracticable and is called levantamento oportunstico

("opportunistic" survey) in Portuguese. One of the drawbacks of this strategy is a bias towards

dark earth areas close to the rivers edge; however, bearing our limited time and resources in

mind, it proved an effective way of recording the maximum number of sites in the short time

available.

Once a site is selected, a point named N1000 E1000 is established this way, it is unlikely

negative coordinates will be reached in any direction. Using a compass and metric tape, points

are then staked out at regular intervals and augered. Augering provides for a low-impact way to

assess the presence and density of remains below the surface (Neves 2000). For each1m-deep

hole, which is dug in arbitrary 20cm levels, a form is filled in detailing soil colour, type (or

lack) of archaeological material, etc.4 All the material collected is given a provenience number

that links it to its vertical and horizontal location on the site (see Annex 3).

Based on the results of augering, we choose a location to open up a 1m2 unit, which is named

according to its North East quadrant. It is dug in arbitrary 10cm levels and charted according to

x, y, and z (depth) coordinates. Each 10cm level is accounted for on a separate form, which

registers type of archaeological material found, its characteristics and quantity; soil texture,

colour (according to the Munsell soil chart) and compactness, and any other relevant

characteristics or observations.5 All soil extracted from the pit is sieved and archaeological

materials collected, again receiving provenience numbers. Photographs and drawings are used

to record the base of every level and any other occurrence of interest. Following the absence of

archaeological material for 20cm, an extra meter is dug with an auger, and provided no

archaeological material is found, the excavation is terminated. Profiles are then examined so

3 The methodology employed is derived from that developed by the Central Amazon Project.

4 See Annex 1.

5 See Annex 2.

20

that we can determine archaeological layers, which we document with photographs, drawings

and a detailed description. After this, the unit is closed.

Montanha and Mangabal

The people of Mangabal are descended from indigenous women and northeastern rubber

tappers and can be defined as forest peasants (Torres 2008, Ch. 2.2). They are extractivists who

rely on forest resources and through the generations, have developed complex behaviours and

codes of conduct to administer these resources in such a way as to guarantee a balance between

use and the environments capacity to regenerate itself; they practice itinerant agriculture;

their articulation to markets is weak and their technologies are low-impact (Torres &

Figueiredo 2005, 321-394) (figs. 10-12).

Clockwise from top: 10. Odila Braga in her kitchen with some of the ground stone axes she had collected. This

demonstrates a relationship with archaeological heritage by a social groups whose memory is oral. 11. Pedro carrying a paneiro loaded with bananas. 12. Josu preparing his roa to be planted with manioc.

We first arrived here in March 2010; during this sojourn we covered a thirty kilometre stretch

along the river's left margin and identified 24 archaeological sites, from the Ilha da Montanha

up to the Cachoeira do Peruano rapid (fig. 13). At this stage we did not yet have authorisation

from the IPHAN to conduct sub-surface exploration through test holes or pits, nor to collect

21

samples. We could however photograph the locations and archaeological remains we could see,

describe these and annotate GPS references, the estimated size of sites, altitude, vegetation,

proximity to the water, and any other relevant characteristics.

13. Sites identified in Montanha and Mangabal in 2010. Map by Vinicius Honorato. 14. At the Vilhinha

community (and site), we are shown a ceramic vessel found in the river by a diving gold miner. 15. Josu and

Bruna observe the surface of a campo area integrating the Terra Preta do Mangabal site. 16. Francisco examines

pottery fragments strewn in front of his home, at the Galdino community and site.

22

Clockwise from left: Maloquinha site 17 & 18. a cut made through the soil by a tractor exposes the contrast between anthropogenic soil containing pottery and natural soil below; 19. Francisca da Silva scrutinises ceramic pots buried in front

of her house; 20. ground stone axe and pottery located on the Mangueira site.

Archaeological remains strewn over the surface, differences in soil colour and exposed soil

profiles were observed; we were shown ethnographic and archaeological artefacts found by

gold miners at the bottom of the river. We left Mangabal convinced of its high potential for

archaeological research (Rocha & Honorato 2011). The observations we made can be

summarised under three main points. Firstly, we noticed a pattern in settlement areas: although

archaeological remains were often found under current communities along the river's edge, the

larger sites containing ADEs were invariably located on bluffs, which offered larger flat areas

where a greater number of dwellings could have been built, safe from the high water mark

during the annual rise of the river. The larger sites found are named Apu, Cabeceira da

Montanha, Itapel, Terra Preta do Mangabal, Sapucaia, Veia Tet and Ponta do Jatob. Closer to

the river, where the beiradeiros live today, we still found lithic flakes, sherds, stone axes, and

buried pots, but not in the same density as on the bluffs. The contemporaneity of these remains

(by the waters edge and in higher areas) is a matter for future research.

A second observation is related to buried vessels, seen closer to the waters edge, which appear

to be funerary urns. If this is found to be the case, it points to a significant difference in

mortuary customs between these past peoples and what has been recorded for the Tapaj,

Konduri and Munduruku. The former two were thought to practice endocannibalism by

23

drinking the ashes of their deceased (Heriarte 1662 In: Nimuendaju 2004, 124).6 The

Munduruku, on the other hand, practice primary burial, putting their dead straight in the

ground. It therefore appears that there is greater similarity between buried pots (possible urns)

found in Mangabal (figs. 21 & 22) to what Friar Protsio Frikel at the So Francisco do Curur

Mission recorded further upstream in the late 1950s (Hilbert 1957, 4-5; see Introduction).

Above: buried urn (?) and ceramic fragments at 21. Praia Chique (left) and 22. Os Quirino (right) sites.

Thirdly, all the pottery we saw was undecorated and coarse-tempered, usually with quartz sand.

The apparent lack of surface embellishments may be due to erosion; another possibility was

that it could have been made by displaced persons: Lathrap (1970, 129) writes how people

forced from the floodplain onto older alluvium in the Upper Amazon could be expected to

lose the more complex aspects of their social and religious life, and there would be far less time

for non-functional embellishments of ceramics (1970, 129). This is a possibility as the knock-

on effects of European conquest further downstream were felt; on the other hand, maybe time

was devoted to embellishing basketry or body ornamentation, invisible to us today.

Ponta do Jatob

When we returned to Mangabal a year later, we revisited the Ponta do Jatob archaeological

site, which extends from the shore line where a current community is established up to the

higher bluff area (altitude is approximately 90m above water level in August, which is a dry

month) (fig. 23). It is located approximately 150m west from the river, covered by a grass

patch recently used for pasture. Termite mounds and babau palms (Attalea speciosa) abound.

6 Recent discoveries at the Porto site in Santarm indicate that the Tapaj may in fact have used burial urns, as

pots decorated with stylised human forms were found containing pulverised bones (M. Amaral, pers. comm.,

20/08/2011; Martins et. al 2010, 138). The Tapaj are also recorded as having practiced mummification.

24

We delimited it digging nine test holes with an auger at 50m intervals (fig. 24).7 However,

pottery was only encountered in the first 20cm on three occasions, along the eastern portion of

the level area. Anthropogenic dark earth spread further than pottery horizontally and was found

in up to 40cm below the surface. We decided not to dig a 1m2

unit here due to the low density

of remains, which have not been included in the analysis.

23. The Ponta do Jatob community and archaeological site. 24. Archaeological remains pottery and lithics were found strewn along the water's edge, as well as on the higher land behind the present community in 2010; top

40cm are composed of anthropogenic earth.

Terra Preta do Mangabal (TPM)

25. View to TPM site from Tapajs River. 26. View from the sitess campo area to Mangabal rapids.

Located on a steep bluff (110m) overlooking the Mangabal rapid (Cachoeira do Mangabal),

this site contains anthropogenic dark earth, pottery and lithics (figs. 25 - 27). The estimated

dimension of the site is one hectare.8 It encompasses an area of successional vegetation

7 See Annex 1 for form used.

8 See Annex 4.

25

including a number of palm species (such as Astrocaryum murumuru and Attalea speciosa), a

recently-used planting area and an area known as a campo da natureza. In 2010 we identified

what appeared to be a mound or midden here and an abundance of archaeological remains. We

decided to delimit and excavate a 1m2 unit here. Due to recent anthropogenic activity, there

was dense undergrowth, which greatly hampered our work; we were unable to delimit the

whole site (fig. 28).

Fourteen test holes were dug with an auger at intervals of 25m, and pot sherds, lithic flakes and

dark earth were found in considerable amounts.9 Overall, there is a 40cm layer of

anthropogenic dark earth that covers the central area we augered. The colour of the soil below

40cm varied over different parts of the site, and the darker soil could dip to lower depths

after intervals at which it was shallower. This can suggest areas of differential activities,

intensity of occupation or even reoccupation; in some cases, it may be a result of post-

depositional events, such as agricultural activities. We often found small pottery and lithic

fragments at 100cm depth; however these frequently seemed to be related to bioturbation by

burrowing organisms. At this point it is not possible to affirm whether the site is

unicomponential or multicomponential. At the N1000 E975 point, the dark earth (10YR 2/1)

was not surpassed at 120cm depth, on what appeared to be the higher part of a mound or

midden. We chose to open up a 1m2 unit at the point E1000 N1074; the top of the

midden/mound was avoided because of the possibility of stratigraphic inversion.

9 See Annex 5.

27. The steep ascent up to the site. 28. Marking out the grid.

26

Clockwise from left: 29. Vinicius and Pedro act as scales to illustrate the midden/mound. 30. Auger hole showing

20cm levels from left to right. 31. Bruna and Vinicius draw one of the profiles of unit N1000 E1074 (photograph

by Pedro Braga da Silva).

We found that the layer that lies from zero to approximately 30cm depth has been impacted by

recent agricultural activities, causing pottery sherds to be smaller. The most clearly defined

archaeological layer lies between approximately 30-60cm depth, where the soil is greyer and

the largest quantity of pottery was encountered, alongside ground stone axes, arenite and quartz

lithic flakes and thermal flakes, as well as cobble-sized stones. A curious flake, resembling a

rudimentary arrowhead, was found associated to the pottery. Below, the soil becomes more

yellowish and compact, with few archaeological remains, which seem to be associated to

bioturbation.10

Survey along the Transamazon Highway

We knew that under the auspices of the PRONAPABA Celso Perota had found sites along the

highway in the late seventies and early eighties (Simes 1978-1982). We headed out along the

Transamazon, stopping at farmsteads and communities over a number of days, and in some

cases dug 1m test holes with an auger. The points dug were referenced to GPS locations.

10

See Annex 6.1 and 6.2.

27

Boa Vista archaeological site

The Boa Vista community is established by the Transamazon Highways (BR 230) 26th

kilometre south of Itaituba. Its residents told us about buried pots under one of the buildings.

Eight holes were dug with an auger at intervals of 25m, but the sandy soil only rendered one

pot sherd at 20-40cm depth. A few other sherds, including a couple of rims (see Plate 9), were

collected from the surface. This site, close to the waters edge, was heavily impacted by the

recent community and its proximity to the Transamazon. We decided not to return.

Boa Vista: 32. Vinicius augering with Tapajs in background; 33. 20cm layers dug, clockwise from left.

Cocalino archaeological site

Located near the boundaries of the Parque Nacional da Amaznia (Amazon National Park,

hereafter, PARNA), this site, lying in a currently occupied area, contains a dark earth layer and

much pottery. Three test holes were dug using an auger at 25m intervals. It was not possible to

return to this site for more intensive work because of transport difficulties. However, the

sample collected was analysed because of its diagnostic design elements.

34. General view of the site, with dwelling in the background and abundance of palm trees; 35. Bruna registers

test hole showing anthropogenic soil for first 40cm, with a lighter colour in the deeper levels.

28

Pimental

Above: 36. Dona Gabriela surrounded by some of her many descendants; 37. view to community from the river.

Below: 38. Playing among rocks, Geizy Carla Ribeiro Azevedo's son (pictured) found the bifacial lance head he is

holding in the photograph. 39. The bifacial point, snapped at its proximal end (drawing by Claide de Paula

Moraes), was found at (40.) the community's port where we later found other lithics (view of Bananal island).

In 1923 Nimuendaju stayed at the Pimental community, on the right bank of the Tapajs, just

above its last rapids. Following his discovery of Santarm ceramics, he intended to travel

upstream to visit the Munduruku, but had to give up and search for Mau Indians instead

because his boat was not fit to cross the rapids (2001 [1929-1932], 190). In 2011, we met

Gabriela Maria Bibiana da Silva, 104, who may have seen the German ethnologist. She arrived

at Pimental in 1917, when she was eight years old; her parents were going to tap rubber in the

western state of Acre, but they missed their boat and instead came to the Upper Tapajs. She

told us of terrible conflicts with Amerindian groups and the harshness of life at the time; she

remembers the rubber baron, Pereira Brasil.11

Her descendants are many. Edmilson Ribeiro

11

Interview with Gabriela Maria Bibiana da Silva, 24/08/2011.

29

Azevedo, Dona Gabrielas fifty-year-old grandson, took us to a site of the rubber period, where

the latex sent from upstream used to be stored for shipment to Itaituba. Dona Gabriela and her

progeny were anxious about the threatened construction of the So Luiz do Tapajs dam; if it

goes ahead, the community will go underwater.

Our host Marinildo took us to a dark earth area that apparently is not anthropogenic we found

no pottery after augering eight holes at 50m intervals. Later we received a donation of a

silicified sandstone projectile point with invasive bifacial retouch. We identified a large flake

and a lithic core near to where it was found, at the communitys port. This suggests ancient

occupation in this area, possibly linking it to early Holocene/late Pleistocene occupations

identified by Roosevelt et. al (1996) and Simes (1976), when the climate was drier and the

vegetation was closer to open woodland (Rossetti 2004).

Above: 41. Vinicius and Marinildo digging holes with an auger in (non-anthropogenic?) dark earth area. Below:

42. dark earth (without pottery); 43. pottery located on Bananal Island, in front of Pimental; 44. the barraco

seringueiro, where an energy turbine was once brought from the Curur River Fransciscan mission (where Friar

Protsio Frikel found the ceramic urns). Rubber shipped from upstream used to be stored here before being sent

to Itaituba.

30

Paja archaeological site

The Paja site is located near the Pimental community, on a bluff at approximately 85m above

water level.12

It is currently covered with successional vegetation; the area is used for hunting

by some of the locals. We had the good fortune to be helped by Edmilson and his son on some

days here.

45. View to Paja site; 46. Edmilson cuts back thick vegetation so that the site can be delimited; 47. yellow flags

mark pottery fragments on the surface.

The site contains a layer of dark earth that varies from 5-40cm in depth.13

Below this,

archaeological material pottery sherds and lithic fragments, flakes and larger stones

dwindles drastically. Due to its shallowness, it appears that the site may be unicomponential,

although this still needs to be confirmed. Twenty-three holes were dug with an auger at 25m

intervals. Following this, the point N1000 E1071 was selected for the opening of a 1m2 unit,

because this was near to where the greatest quantity of pottery was extracted from augering.

Two main archaeological layers were identified, from approximately 5-20cm depth and from

20-40cm, although the limit between them was diffuse.14

The upper layer yielded the greatest

amount of archaeological material (pottery, flakes and thermal flakes and charcoal). Below

40cm, archaeological vestiges dropped abruptly and the soil colour changed. At the end of the

excavation another 1m was dug with an auger to confirm absence of archaeological remains.

The Aracy-Paraguau Museum in Itaituba

Although the museums objects generally lack provenance (many donations were found

underwater) and need better conditions, the collection includes fascinating artefacts that

demonstrate the areas rich archaeological record. The wooden anthropomorphic (male and

12

See Annex 7. 13

See Annex 8. 14

See Annex 9.

31

female) figures in particular stand out for their singularity. I cannot say what their intended

function would have been.

Donations to the Aracy-Paraguau museum, Itaituba. Clockwise from left: 48. Wooden anthropomorphic artefacts

found by a gold mining dredge on the Tapajs River. Carvings on their bodies may represent body painting (M.

Amaral, pers.comm., 22/02/2012); 49. polished and ground stone axes and adzes; 50. silex projectile point.

Conclusion

The Upper Tapajs is a region rich in history, most of which is scarcely known. We were only

able to find the sites we did because of the help and hospitality of local inhabitants. Besides the

pottery found, which will be focussed on in the following chapter, anthrosols, lithics and

botanic remains present possible avenues for further exploration. The relationship between

current inhabitants of the places we visited, whose collective memory is oral and reliant on

place, and the archaeological remains located in their territories, is a subject deserving of

greater attention, having the potential to challenge conceptions of heritage and its guardianship.

32

4. Pottery from the Upper Tapajs and beyond

Following the collection of pottery and lithics from the Upper Tapajs, we loaded the material onto

a steam boat in Itaituba and took it to the Curt Nimuendaj lab in Santarm, where it is presently

housed. We were able to wash most of the pottery and some of the lithics collected and photograph

some of the diagnostic sherds. Diagnostic sherds were considered thus either because of the part of

the vessel they came from (rim, handle or base) or because they presented decorative (plastic or

painted) elements. The sherds came from three archaeological sites1.

This chapter will present the analysis of the diagnostic pottery collected, compare its decoration to

those of ceramics from nearby areas and the wider region and finally offer an interpretation of what

we might infer from this. Absolute dates are not yet available, so our chrono-

stylistic interpretations are necessarily based on a comparison to the ceramics of other sites in the

region that have been dated, or that through seriation have been assigned to traditions (and therefore

time frames) established for the region; ethnohistorical evidence has also been used to this end.

Methods of ceramic analysis

Diagnostic sherds have been analysed for a number of attributes, the selection of which was related

to the information they could render in relation to technological practices, vessel form and their

1 The Boa Vista site also rendered a few sherds.

Terra Preta do Mangabal

47%

Paja 33%

Cocalino 17%

Boa Vista 3%

no. of sherds

33

decoration/design.2 The objective was to reconstruct a basic sequence involving the preparation of

the paste, the forming of the vessel, its decoration and firing. Signs of use-wear (e.g. fire clouds) or

post-depositional features, such as weathering or erosion, were also noted, but will not be

emphasised here. The focus of this work is on ceramic decoration; however, if we can associate this

to specific practices, it may represent a first step towards posterior modal analyses, by giving us

some indication of attributes or combinations of attributes that recur. Our comparisons with pottery

from the wider region may also be stronger if we compare sets of attributes, although this was not

the primary focus of the work. I based my choice of attributes on the Central Amazon Projects

pottery analysis form; some dimensions were altered to correspond to the specific characteristics of

the pottery, particularly in relation to decorative dimensions.

The technological attributes3 looked for include temper, its roundness/angularity (a BEL Photonics

binocular microscope with 45x magnification was used); firing atmosphere (indicated by core

colour)4

and surface treatment (i.e. smoothing, burnishing, or polishing). Formal attributes,

including measurements of sherd thickness (using a standard caliper) and estimated diameter of

vessel mouths and bases (using a rim chart) were noted, along with points of inflection, vessel

contour and base and lip shape (when possible). Finally, I analysed the decorative attributes and

techniques of the collection by viewing photographs of each sherd.

The decoration analysis contemplated the following criteria: decorated surface (internal/external),

type of decoration, slip colour, type of painting, paint colour, lip finish, plastic decoration tech-

niques and designs present. Absent or not identified categories were always listed as an option.

The location and type of decoration was then observed. Plastic decoration techniques looked for

include clay displacement (incision, ungulation, impression, perforation, modelling) and clay addi-

tions. When relevant, these categories were then split further into specific decorative patterns. Inci-

sions (fish spines, straight parallel lines, zoned-hachured lines, parallel curved lines); impressions

divided into punctuation (with rectilineal instrument or round stylus) and cord or fibre impres-

sions ; perforation; and modelling were subsumed under clay displacement techniques. Clay ad-

dition was subdivided to specify whether fillets or blobs had been applied. I then attempted to ob-

serve the state of paste when the plastic decoration was executed (undetermined, wet/damp, leather

2 Annex 10 displays the lists of attributes considered in the analysis.

3 Technological and formal analyses were conducted by Rogrio Andrade dos Santos at the Curt Nimuendaj Lab in

Santarm, supervised by Claide de Paula Moraes. 4 See Annex 11 for reference diagram used for determining firing environment through the examination of cross-section

of vessel walls.

34

hard/dry, post firing, pre slip, post slip). The results of these analyses were entered into a Microsoft

Word Excel spread sheet.

The order in which attributes observed will be referred to aims to reflect the different stages of the

pottery production process. Before the presentations of the results of the ceramic analyses of the

Terra Preta do Mangabal, Paja and Cocalino sites, some remarks will be made about the main dec-

orative techniques employed. Due to the small size of the collections analysed, I have given approx-

imate indications of quantities, since providing exact percentages may mislead the reader into a

false sense of security: that the trends observed from such figures are statistically meaningful. The

emphasis here is on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis.

Results

Terra Preta do Mangabal pottery

Pottery analysed from this site comes from the test pit N1000 E1074, from the two main

archaeological levels identified between 10 and 60cm depth.5 Level 0-10cm presented diminutive

sherds, as did the levels below 60cm, after which the change in soil characteristics suggests the

beginning of occupation at the site; sherds found below 60cm may be attributed to the effect of

bioturbations. I identified no obvious differences in attributes to mirror this distinction, so

characteristics from these different layers have been summarised together. Ninety sherds were

analysed from this site.

Rim sherds* 61

Point of inflection 1

Body sherds 28

Total 90

The predominant non-plastic is quartz sand, found on its own or together with cauix (each of these

was found in a third of the sample).6 Cauix, caraip and quartz sand in conjunction were found to

temper just over ten per cent of the sample. The rest of the collection contained the following

mixtures: caraip and quartz sand; cauix and grog; quartz and quartz sand; charcoal and quartz

sand; cauix, charcoal and quartz sand; cauix, caraip and grog; cauix, caraip, grog and quartz

sand; and cauix, grog and quartz sand. The shape of the inclusions was mostly rounded.

5 Except from one rim sherd (Plate 3, fig. a).

* One rim sherd belonged to a griddle, so it was also a base sherd (see Plate 1, fig. b). 6 See Annex 11 for a description of cauix and caraip.

35

The information we have on form is as yet inconclusive, since morphological attributes were often

not discernible. Thickness of sherds ranged from 15mm to 4mm, although most frequently

thickness was 5mm. Rim diameter varies from 10cm to 47cm, averaging 27cm. Simple

(approximately 10%) and composite (

36

Paja pottery

The sherds included here came from the first two levels (0-10 and 10-20cm) of the 1m2 unit (save a

couple of fragments collected from the surface); the remainder were too small and associated to

bioturbations. Two thirds of the sample analysed was decorated.

Rim sherds 37

Body sherds 26

Handle 1

Total 64

Approximately a third of the sherds were tempered solely with quartz sand. Quartz sand mixed with

cauix was the second most common temper, followed by quartz and quartz sand, and cauix,

caraip and quartz sand. Fewer specimens possessed a mixture of cauix, charcoal and quartz sand,

or grog, cauix and quartz sand; other variations of these same non-plastics were uncommon but not

absent.

Measurements of sherd thickness ranged from 4mm to 16mm, but most frequently thickness was

7mm. Simple ( of sample) and composite (one sixteenth of sample) vessel contours were detected.

A third of the sample was determined to represent unrestricted or restricted vessels. A handle was

found (Plate 6, fig. h); it is likely to have been part of a pair. Rims were either direct or everted. Rim

diameter varied from 14cm to 49cm, 21 to 23cm being the most frequent measures. Lips are mostly

rounded or flat shape (a few pointed and bevelled examples were also recognised).

Smoothing of surfaces was the norm, with polishing rarely identified. Slipping seems to have been

occasional. Decoration plastic and painted was observed on exterior vessel walls, on the interior

of everted rims and on lips. Rim and lip decoration seems to have been a relatively common

practice; lips were carved to produce a serrated effect (see Plate 7, figs. a, j, k) and everted rims

punctuated (e.g. Plate 7 fig. a). Punctuations are also present on the interior of an inverted rim (Plate

7, fig. i). A distinctive decorative feature present on three sherds consists in the application of clay

fillets, which are subsequently punctuated perpendicularly to the vessel using a rounded or

rectilinear tool (Plate 6, figs. a, b and e). In the three examples found, the fillets were applied

horizontally. Lines of punctuations applied straight onto the vessel surface also occur (Plate 7 figs.

b, c). Incisions are common. The fish spine design (Hilbert 1955a) (see Plate 6 fig. c and Plate 7

fig. e) and similar variations (Plate 7, fig. g) can be noted. Parallel incisions also occur, but less

frequently. A single example of a T-shaped incision was found (Plate 7, fig. f) but the small size

37

of the sherd means it is not possible to view the whole design. One specimen displays a

combination of rectilinear punctuation and a possible fish-spine incision (Plate 7, fig. d). Painting

is not uncommon. Red paint was the most frequently observed (Plate 6, figs. b-d, f, g, and i),

applied in bands which were often curved. One sherd with parallel, curved black lines was collected

(Plate 6, fig. j this may be an example of resist paint).

The majority of sherds had been fully oxidised (reduced firings were identified in approximately a

sixth of the sample). A few sherds were incompletely oxidised.

Cocalino pottery

Thirty three sherds were analysed from this site. The sample is small and the stratigraphic

provenience of the pottery is imprecise (it was collected from the surface or extracted by digging

auger holes), but the decoration present is worthy of mention.

Rim sherds 17

Body sherds 13

Base sherds 3

Total 33

Almost half of the sample was tempered with cauix and quartz sand, closely followed by sherds

tempered with quartz sand only. Mixtures of quartz sand, cauix and caraip, and caraip and

quartz sand made up a tenth of the sample each; a single sherd had quartz an