Debates in "World Archaeology" || Landscape Transformation, Mounded Villages and Adopted Cultigens: The Rise of Early Formative Communities in South-Eastern Uruguay

Landscape Transformation, Mounded Villages and Adopted Cultigens: The Rise of EarlyFormative Communities in South-Eastern UruguayAuthor(s): José IriarteSource: World Archaeology, Vol. 38, No. 4, Debates in "World Archaeology" (Dec., 2006), pp.644-663Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40024061 .

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Landscape transformation, mounded villages and adopted cultigens: the rise of early Formative communities in south-eastern Uruguay

Jose Iriarte

Abstract

New research in lowland South America is beginning to reveal a diversity of complex cultural trajectories in a region that was long-considered marginal with respect to Andean and Mesoamerican civilizations. This paper summarizes new archaeological, palaeoecological and archaebotanical data from Los Ajos site, south-eastern Uruguay, showing that a changing and increasingly dry mid- Holocene climate was associated with significant cultural transformations, including early village formation, the adoption of a mixed economy and the construction of the earliest public architecture known for the area. Collectively, this evidence indicates an early and unexpected development of social complexity that had not heretofore been recorded in this area of South America. Human- environment interactions, social processes related to the development of early village life and the role of early public architecture are discussed with reference to the emergence of early Formative communities in the region.

Keywords

Early Formative; middle-range societies, public architecture; Uruguay; La Plata Basin; agriculture.

Introduction

Research on the emergence and internal dynamics of middle-range societies in South America has concentrated mainly on Andean coastal and highland valleys (Burger 1995; Moseley 2001; Solis et al. 2001), and more recently in the lowland forest and riverine regions of Amazonia (Heckenberger et al. 1999; Lehman et al. 2003; Roosevelt 1999). Historically viewed as a marginal area when compared to the Andean and Mesoamerican chiefdoms and states, the La Plata basin and its adjacent littoral region is a large and little explored area that is beginning to reveal an early and long sequence of unique and

RRoutledqe World Archaeology Vol. 38(4): 644-663 Debates in World Archaeology

Tay.ors.Franciscroup © 2006 Taylor & Francis ISSN 0043-8243 print/ 1470- 1375 online DOI: 10.1080/00438240600963262



Landscape transformation, mounded villages and adopted cultigens 645

complex cultural trajectories. Multidisciplinary investigations at the Los Ajos archae-

ological mound complex in the wetlands of south-eastern Uruguay run counter to the traditional view that the La Plata basin was inhabited by simple groups of hunters and

gatherers for much of the pre-Hispanic era (Meggers and Evans 1978; Steward 1946). The renewed community-focused archaeological program at Los Ajos showed that large Preceramic mound complexes in the region were not the result of random, successive short-term occupations of mobile hunter-gatherers (Schmitz et al. 1991) nor the burial mounds or monuments of complex hunter-gatherers as previously proposed (Bracco et al. 2000a; Gianotti 2000; Lopez 2001), but well-planned plaza villages built by people who

practised a mixed economy. In this paper, I present new archaeological, palaeoecological and botanical data indicating that during an increasingly dry mid-Holocene, at around 4190 BP, Los Ajos became a permanent circular plaza village and its inhabitants adopted the earliest cultivars known in southern South America including maize (Zea mays L.) and

squash (Cucurbita spp.). During the following Ceramic Mound Period (between around 3000 and 500 BP) Los Ajos experienced the formalization and spatial differentiation of communal spaces through the development of elaborated mounded architecture around the central plaza area, whose architectural plan reveals an early and distinct form of civic- ceremonial architectural tradition for South America. Furthermore, the presence of at least four other mound complexes in the region with closely comparable dates and

similarity in their overall plan to Los Ajos suggests that these mound complexes had been

integrated at a regional level since Preceramic times (see Fig. lb and Table 1) (Bracco and Ures 1999; Iriarte et al. 2004; Lopez 2001).

Brief history of archaeological investigations in the region

The mound-building pre-Hispanic cultures dating back to c. 4000 BP are generally referred to as 'Constructors de Cerritos' in Uruguay and are divided into the Umbu (Archaic Preceramic) and Vieira (Ceramic) traditions in southern Brazil. They extend along the coastal and inland wetlands and grasslands that occur in the Atlantic coast between around 28° and 36°S (Bracco et al. 2000a; Schmitz et al. 1991) (Fig. la). The study region, the southern sector of the Laguna Merin basin (Fig. lb), is characterized by a patchwork of closely packed environments including wetlands, wet prairies, grasslands, riparian forests, large stands of Butia palms and the Atlantic ocean coast. It has a subtropical humid climate with high average temperatures of 21.5°C during the summer and low

average temperatures of 10.8°C during the winter. Total annual rainfall averages 1 123mm

(PROBIDES 2000). The 'Constructors de Cerritos' are divided into two main periods: a Preceramic Mound Period (hereafter PMP), which begins around 4190 BP and ends with the appearance of ceramics in the region around 3000 BP; and a Ceramic Mound Period

(hereafter CMP), which extends from around 3000 BP to the Contact Period (Bracco et al. 2000a; Iriarte 2003; Lopez 2001) (Fig. 2).1

Archaeological research in Uruguay and Brazil has been permeated by theoretical and

methodological approaches that have hampered researchers from obtaining the information needed to examine the processes involved in the development of these early Formative societies. During the 1960s and 1970s, the aim of the National Programme of



646 Jose Iriarte

Figure I A Location of 'Constructores de Cerritos' studied regions in the south-eastern portion of the La Plata Basin and its adjacent littoral zone. Figure IB Map of south-eastern Uruguay showing archaeological sites: 1. Los Ajos; 2. Estancia Mai Abrigo; 3. Puntas de San Luis; 4. Isla Larga; 5. Los Indios; 6. Potrerillo; 7. Craneo Marcado.




Table 1 Radiocarbon dates from Los Ajos and other sites with Preceramic mound components from Uruguay

Provenience Arbitrary Lab Dated Conventional 2-Sigma (site) depth (cm) number material 14C yr BP cal. yr BP*

Los Ajos TBN Trench,

sector 7 160-165 Beta- 158278 charcoal 1,050 ± 40 1,050-920 (AMS)

sector 6 190-195 Beta-158281 charcoal 1,660 + 40 1,690-1,660 (AMS)

Mound Delta 205-210 Beta-158277 charcoal 2,960 + 120 3,400-2,740 Mound Gamma,

sector 1/D 210-215 Beta-158279 charcoal 3,460 ± 100 3,980-3,470** sector 6/C 270-275 Beta- 158280 charcoal 4,190 ±40 4,840-4,580

(AMS) Mound Alfa,

Layer III 280-285 URU 0052 charcoal 3,350 + 90 3,830-3,380** 285-290 URU 0033 charcoal 3,870 + 280 5,030-5,010 and

4,990-3,550** 295-300 URU 0034 charcoal 3,690 ± 270 4,830-3,370** 340-345 URU 0089 charcoal 3,950 ± 80 4,580-4,160 345-355 URU 0088 charcoal 3,750 + 140 4,520-4,470 and

4,450-3,710** Punt as de San Luis

Mound II Layer II URU 009 charcoal 3,550 + 60 3,980-3,680** Layer III URU 009 charcoal 3,650 ± 50 4,100-3,840** Layer III URU 010 charcoal 3,730 ± 100 4,410-3,830**

Isla Larga Mound I 260-270 URU013 charcoal 3,660 + 120 4,380-3,670**

URU014 charcoal 3,630 + 60 4,100-3,820** Potrerillo

Mound I basal level URU 083 charcoal 3,790 ± 90 4,420-3,900** URU 165 charcoal 3,820 + 100 4,510-4,480 and

4,440-3,910**

Arroyo Yaguari Lemos Mound 27 UE02/level 11 Ua 18817 charcoal 3250 + 40 3569-3379 Yaguari SI 6496 charcoal 3170 ± 150 2962-3722**

Note: "Calibrations based on Stuiver et al. 1998; **C13/C12 ratio estimated

Archaeological Investigations in Brazil (PRONAPA) was to develop a chronological framework for the yet unstudied south-eastern sector of the La Plata Basin by applying ceramic sedation (Meggers and Evans 1969) and lithic typologies (Schmitz 1978, 1987). Their classificatory-historical approach focused on obtaining representative samples from limited test units, which allowed them to build chronological relationships of lithic and ceramic phases but limited their ability to study intra-site spatial relationships. Although the presence of large and numerous mound complexes can be surmised from the regional



648 Jose Iriarte

Figure 2 Chronological chart for south-eastern Brazil and Uruguay.

archaeological maps of PRONAPA publications in the inland freshwater wetlands of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, these investigators often reduced the unit of archaeological analysis and interpretation to the study of individual mounds, which prevented them from studying community patterns (Cope 1991: 214- 15; Prieto et al. 1970: map 2; Ruthschilling 1989: map 3).2

PRONAPA archaeologists interpreted mound sites as the result of successive short-term occupations of hunters, gatherers and fishers that moved seasonally to exploit locally rich environments (Brochado 1984; Schmitz et al. 1991). The habitation nature of the mounds was inferred based on the identification of post-moulds, hearths and the presence of domestic debris resulting from food preparation, tool manufacture and maintenance, in conjunction with occasional findings of human burials. These researchers see continuity between the Archaic Umbu Tradition (8000-2500 bp) of generalized hunter-gatherers and the Preceramic Mound occupations (Schmitz 1987). They also envision a direct connection between the CMP (Vieria Tradition) and the historic Charrua and Minuano groups. The lifeways of these profoundly transformed historic groups were often projected into the past and used as direct ethnographic analogues to interpret the archaeological record (Becker 1990; Cope 1991; Schmitz et al. 1991). Agriculture and cultigens were thought to have been brought by the Amazonian Tupi-Guarani immigrants during the late Holocene (Schmitz 1991). It is hardly surprising that this interpretative framework fitted comfortably with the long-held assumption that this region was inhabited by marginal hunter-gatherers (Meggers and Evans 1978; Steward 1946).

In the mid-1980s, the Archaeological Salvage Programme of the Laguna Merin Basin (CRALM) began systematic archaeological fieldwork in Uruguay. Initial excavations on small two-paired mound sites, which yielded complex arrays of CMP multiple burials, led




these researchers to characterize these sites as ceremonial and/or mortuary in nature (Cabrera et al. 1989) and typified these societies as complex hunter-gatherers adapted to a resource-rich wetland environment (Lopez and Bracco 1994). While this early research recognized the presence of large mound complexes and their high degree of similarity in ground plan, as well as the presence of an extensive off-mound area associated with the mounds, they generally overlooked the importance of conducting work to articulate mound and off-mound contexts to reveal community organization. However, this renewed work in the region set the tone for more advanced studies on mound construction techniques, analysis of mortuary practices, faunal analysis, as well as lithic and ceramic technology (see papers in Beovide et al. 2004; Consens et al. 1995; Duran and Bracco 2000; Gianotti 2000; Lopez and Sans 1999; MEC 2001).

Unlike PRONAPA researchers, Cabrera (1992) pointed out that there was a rupture between the 'Constructors de Cerritos' and the historic Charnia and Minuano groups, which resulted from the dramatic transformations that historic groups experienced due to the dissemination of European diseases, the Spanish military campaigns of extermination, the Portuguese slave-hunters and the introduction of cattle. These transformations severely reduced their numbers and forced them to change their traditional lifeways significantly. More recently, a re-examination of the earlier chronicles and the analysis of new ethnohistorical documents are beginning to show that the groups that inhabited the area were more sedentary, displayed a more complex sociopolitical organization and practised food production (Bracco 2004; Cabrera 2000).

In the early 1990s, new investigations in the upper freshwater wetlands of India Muerta documented the presence of numerous large and spatially elaborated mound complexes and established the beginning of the PMP around 4000 BP (Bracco 1993). My own preliminary research in the area demonstrated that the wetlands of India Muerta display some of the largest and spatially most complex sites in the region (Iriarte et al. 2001). Mound sites are circumscribed to wetland floodplains situated in ecotonal areas characterized by a mosaic of wetlands, wet prairies, grasslands, riparian forests and palm groves. They showed a dual distribution pattern. Small sites (one to three mounds) generally occur in the wetland floodplains positioned on top of the most prominent levees following the courses of streams and exhibiting a linear/curvilinear pattern. In contrast, in the more stable locations of the landscape, like flattened spurs adjacent to wetland floodplains, which are secure from flooding and have immediate access to the rich-resource and fertile wetlands, mound sites are large, numerous and spatially complex covering up to 60ha. These sites contain varied mounded architecture geometrically arranged in circular (e.g. Estancia Mai Abrigo), elliptical (e.g. Damonte) and horseshoe formats (e.g. Los Ajos) surrounding a central communal space accompanied by vast outer sectors, which generally exhibit more disperse and less formally integrated mounded architecture (Bracco 1993; Bracco et al. 2000b; Dillehay 1995; Iriarte 2003; Iriarte et al. 2001) (Fig. 3).

New research at Los Indios mound complex (Fig. lb) and the Craneo Marcado mound (Lopez 2000, 2001; Lopez and Gianotti 1998; Pintos 2000) has led the excavators to interpret the beginning of mound building as a major breakthrough in the history of the hunter-gatherers of the region marked by the monumentalization of the landscape. According to these researchers, mounds are ceremonial in nature and were built through discrete and separate construction stages using refuse and sediments extracted from



650 Jose Iriarte

Figure 3 Distribution of mound sites in the India Muerta wetlands in the southern sector of Laguna Merin.

surrounding soils. Within a landscape archaeology approach (Bradley 1998; Criado 1993), these investigators have interpreted mounds variously as monuments for the dead (Pintos 2000), ceremonial spaces and/or territorial markers (Gianotti 2000; Lopez 2001; Lopez and Gianotti 1998), while the adjacent off-mound areas are generally interpreted as the

living quarters of these populations. Despite these advances in the archaeology of the Constructores de Cerritos, some

important questions crucial to understanding the nature of Los Ajos, and by extension the

large multi-mound sites in the area, remain unanswered. Are these large, formally laid out mound complexes the result of a succession of randomly placed, short-term occupations by mobile hunter-gatherers? Are they burial mounds or monuments? Or are they well-

planned villages incorporating public spaces? What is the occupational history of these sites? More importantly, what kind of subsistence did these societies practise and what was the nature and dynamics of the societies that built these complex mound sites? To address these questions, I carried out a multidisciplinary community-focused archaeological investigation at Los Ajos site, which is described below.

Excavations at Los Ajos

Los Ajos is located in a flattened spur of the Sierra de Los Ajos, which overlooks the wetlands of India Muerta. The first excavations at Los Ajos by Bracco consisted of a block excavation in Mound Alfa, a test unit in Mound Beta and a few opportunistic test units in




off-mound areas. This work established the mid-Holocene age of the earthen mounds in the area. The Preceramic Mound Period (PMP) component at Los Ajos yielded five dates between 3950 and 3350 BP (4580 and 3380 cal. BP) (Bracco 1993; Bracco and Ures 1999). To reveal settlement patterns, our renewed community-focused excavation programme consisted of the placement of a block excavation in Mound Gamma, a test unit in Mound Delta, two trench transects articulating mound and off-mound areas and a 50m systematic interval transect sampling strategy of test units to target off-mound areas totalling an excavated area of 305m2. Our work showed that Los Ajos, which covers about 12 ha, is one of the largest and most formally laid out sites in the study area (Fig. 4a). Its Inner Precinct includes six flat-topped, quadrangular platform mounds (called 6, Alfa, Delta, Gamma, 4 and 7) closely arranged in a horseshoe formation and with a height above

ground level of 1.75 to 2.5m (Fig. 4). Two dome-shaped mounds (called Beta and 8) frame the central, oval plaza with a size of 75 x 50m. The formal and compact inner precinct contrasts with more dispersed and informally arranged peripheral sectors, which include two crescent-shaped rises (named TBN and TBS), five circular and three elongated lower dome-shaped mounds, borrow pits and a vast off-mound area bearing subsurface

occupational refuse. The TBN crescent-shaped rise (14-25m wide and 0.40-0. 80m

tall) extends over 150m surrounding Mounds Alfa and Delta. At its base, it becomes wider prolonging to the north east and forming a rounded elongation facing Mound 13. The TBS, a lower (15-35cm) and narrower (4-8m) arc-shaped rise, encircles Mounds 5, 8, and 9.

The Preceramic Mound Period

Our research indicates that a series of major social and economic changes took place at Los Ajos during the PMP. The broad contemporaneity of radiocarbon dates, artefact

Figure 4 A Los Ajos site planimetric and topographical map. Figure 4B The inner precinct (modified from Iriarte et al. 2004).



652 Jose Iriarte

content and similarities in Preceramic Mound Component (PMC) stratigraphy among mounds Alfa, Delta and Gamma suggest that the Los Ajos inhabitants began to live in a circular household-based community, partitioning the site into discrete domestic and

public areas characterized by the placement of residential units around a central plaza area. Eight dates from Los Ajos place the PMC occupation between c. 4190 and 2960 BP. The two oldest dates from the basal levels of the PMC at Mound Gamma and Alfa suggest that mound-building began between around 4190 and 3950 BP (4840-4160 cal. BP) (Iriarte 2003; Iriarte et al. 2004).

Excavation at Mound Gamma indicates that it grew as a result of multiple overlapping of domestic occupations where a wide range of activities associated with food preparation, consumption, stone tool production and maintenance took place. The PMC Layer 4 is characterized by an 85cm-thick, compact, very dark brown silty loam organic sediment

consisting of relatively undifferentiated deposits composed of lithic debitage and tools, small fragments of charred bone, ash and soot lenses, and small pieces of burned clay (Fig. 5). The combined analysis of stratigraphy, features, artefact and ecofact composition and horizontal spatial distribution of lithic debitage density indicates that, during the PMC, Mound Gamma was a residential area that grew through the gradual accumulation of occupational refuse. Despite intensive hand excavation and the large block excavation

placed in the center of the mound, no house features were identified. However, lithic

debitage horizontal density trends show a consistent pattern characterized by the presence of a central area of low density and a periphery exhibiting higher artifact density. The central zone of the mound is interpreted as a regularly maintained habitation space and the periphery as a zone where trash was deposited (Iriarte 2003).

The central plaza area, located around the domestic accretional mounds, is characterized by low artefact densities and a lack of anthropogenically altered soil accumulations. Thin occupational refuse (10-20cm) was deposited in the TBN and TBS

crescent-shaped rises. The systematic interval transect sampling in the off-mound areas documented a vast outer area of subsurface domestic debris which does not show accumulation of anthropogenic soils.

Figure 5 Stratigraphy of Mound Gamma (modified from Iriarte et al. 2004).




The lithic assemblage indicates that tool manufacture, use and maintenance took place at Los Ajos. Local raw materials, mainly rhyolite and quartz, were brought to the site, where all stages of lithic reduction are represented, including core reduction, tool manufacture, use and maintenance/rejuvenation. The tool assemblage is characterized by a generalized, non-specific assemblage that includes a broad range of different tool-types displaying a wide variety of edge angles including flake-knives, end-scrapers, wedges, notches, point/ borers and hafted bifaces indicating that Mound Gamma was a domestic area where a wide

range of activities were carried out (Iriarte 2003; Iriarte and Marozzi in press). Plant and animal remains at Los Ajos indicate that PMP people adopted a mixed

economy shortly after they began to live in more permanent villages. Medium to large-sized mammals like deer (Ozoterus bezoarticus and Mazama gouazubira) and semi-aquatic rodents such as otter (Myocastor coypus) and capybara {Hidrochoerus hydrochaeris) dominate the bone assemblage. Other medium to small-sized mammals, including small rodents such as rat-otter {Holochilus brasilensis), 'aperea' (Cavia sp.) and mouse

(Cricetidae), in addition to opposums (Didelphis alventris and Lutreolina crassiculata) and armadillos (Dasypus sp. and Euphractus sexintus), are also present. Reptiles like lizard

(Tupinambis merianae) and turtle (Chelonia), birds such as Greater Rhea (Rhea Americana), dove (Zenaida auriculata) and Great grebe (Podiceps major) and freshwater fish were also recovered in minor quantities. A large part of the bone assemblage consisting of distinctive

spiral fractures, bone splinters and charred bones exhibiting cut marks indicate that

processing and consumption of medium and large mammals took place in Mound Gamma

during the PMC (Iriarte 2003). Phytolith and starch grain analyses documented seeds, leaves and roots from a variety of wild and domesticated species marking the earliest occurrence of at least two domesticated crops in the region: corn (Zea mays) and squash (Cucurbita spp.) shortly after 4190 BP (Iriarte in press; Iriarte et al. 2004). The close association between large mound complexes and the most fertile agricultural lands in the

region suggest that PMP people practised flood-recessional farming. During the spring and summer months, organic soils are exposed on the wetland margins. These superficial peat horizons are highly fertile, hold moisture and are easy to till. Furthermore, the floodwater of the nearby Cebollati River periodically inundates the area and replenishes the soils with nutrients, which makes the India Muerta wetlands an ideal locale for the practice of wetland

margin seasonal farming (Iriarte 2003; Iriarte et al. 2004; Juan Montana pers. comm. 2000). Our associated palaeoecological data indicate that the major cultural transformations that

occurred during the PMP were associated with significant climatic changes (Iriarte 2006; Iriarte et al. 2004). The mid-Holocene between c. 6620 and 4020 (7580-7440 to 4570-4410 cal.

BP) was a period of significant climate fluctuation marked by increasing aridity. At around 4020 BP a maximum drying episode occurred, as evidenced by a massive spike of

Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae coupled with a sharp drop in wetland species. The maximum drying episode that took place around 4020 BP probably caused a decrease in the surface water recharge to the inland wetlands and waterways, which resulted in the desiccation of grasslands. This caused increasing diminishing returns from grasslands, deepening the resource gradient between wetlands and grasslands. Although reduced in extent, wetlands became attractive places for pre-Hispanic populations by providing abundant, now more highly circumscribed plant and animal resources and a stable source of water. The Los Ajos site indicates that, during this period, local populations did not disperse



654 Jose Iriarte

(e.g. disaggregate into smaller groups and increased mobility) or out-migrate to other regions but opted for orienting their settlement towards the upper freshwater wetlands where they established more permanent communities. Increased sedentism appears to have been a

response to local resource abundance in wetland areas in the face of regional resource scarcity produced by the drying trend of the mid-Holocene (Iriarte et al. 2004).3

The making of early Formative communities: the Los Ajos plaza village

The Los Ajos plaza village materialized a series of social processes that unfolded during the PMC. When these populations became less mobile and began to aggregate more

frequently in larger communities, the problems associated with forming and remaining in

large groups for longer periods of time surfaced. The incorporation of a central and communal space may have played a crucial role as a social integrative facility (sensu Adler and Wilshusen 1990), representing the formalization of a wider social field of interaction that transcended the household sphere.

Plazas are an early prototype of public architecture that lies at the root of complex societies in the Americas (Lathrap et al. 1977). Embodying shared public space, they constitute a threshold in terms of the appropriation and the transformation of social

spaces, which take through time particular sets of meanings and connotations in the social realm. Plazas not only represent the tangible formalization of group-level integration, but, as prominent and fixed constructions, they perpetuate and sediment these relations in

place (Dillehay 1992a; Moseley 2001; Sassaman and Heckenberger 2004). It is in this new arena that communities diffuse tensions and promote social cohesion. There they also

express, negotiate and reaffirm their identities and goals through the practice of ritual

activities, such as meetings of sodalities, initiation rites, group-sponsored activities (e.g. dances or feasts) and multi- village ceremonial activities.

Circular plaza villages gravitate towards the central plaza which embraces the community as a whole. They have been interpreted as representing unity and egalitarian societies, where the whole community can participate in a democratic fashion. They denote equal access to

public activities and ritual performances as long as houses are equidistant from the central

public area (Gron 1991; Gross 1979). However, it should not be forgotten that plazas also mark social differences along lines of gender, age and lineages. In Amazonian and Central Brazilian groups (e.g. Heckenberger 2005; Hornborg 1988; Levi-Strauss 1963; Turner 1996), plazas materialize a series of ranked oppositions between an inner, public, sacred, male domain versus an outer, domestic, profane, female space. Plaza villages also embody inherent structural contradictions, which carry the seeds of incipient social differentiation; a

development that, as we will see below, may have taken place during the subsequent CMC. The occurrence of other broadly contemporaneous PMP mound complexes (Isla Larga,

Puntas de San Luis, Los Indios and Potrerillo) (Fig. lb, Table 1) and other sites with similarities in overall ground plan to Los Ajos (e.g. Da Monte, Campo Alto, Estancia Mai

Abrigo and 5 Islas) (Fig. 3) suggest that these societies were integrated through pan-tribal institutions at a regional level since Preceramic times. Previous and new research at

Arroyo Yaguari, Tacuarembo Province (Fig. la), is beginning to show similar patterns (Gianotti 2005; Sans 1985).




The palaeoclimatic record at Los Ajos indicates that after 4000 BP dry conditions ameliorated, returning to more humid conditions, resembling the current climate. At least in the long-term, this climatic change did not reverse the social processes initiated at Los Ajos during the mid-Holocene, but seems to have accelerated them. The rich and abundant wetland resources combined with the ability to manage part of the food supply through the adoption of domesticated plants may also have enhanced the possibilities of forming and remaining in larger groups throughout longer parts of the year.

The transformation of the plaza village: the Ceramic Mound Period

The inner precinct took on new roles in the constitution of the social and ritual life of Los Ajos during the Ceramic Mound Period. While during the PMC we saw the appearance of a household-based community distributed around a central public space, the CMC witnessed the appearance of internal site stratification characterized by the formalization and spatial differentiation of the inner precinct with respect to an outer, more dispersed and less formally integrated peripheral area.

Mound Gamma's Layers 5 and 6 consist of dark brown sediment bearing a medium to high concentration of gravel within a mottled silt loam matrix (Fig. 5) containing burned clay, charcoal and ash lenses. Capping episodes consisting of gravel loads remodelled Mound Gamma from the extant PMP 0.6-0.8m high, circular, dome-shaped mound to a larger, quadrangular, 1.40m tall, flat-topped, bevelled-edged platform mound. The presence of similar gravelly layers in Mound Alfa and Delta indicates that the remodelling of mounds was a generalized practice at Los Ajos. A similar practice was reported in the Puntas de San Luis site, where ant hill burnt chunks were used as mound construction materials during the CMP to heighten and reshape mounds (Bracco et al. 2000b). Extensive borrow areas in the periphery of the site attest to the scale of mound building that occurred during this period. During this period, interments became an integral and recurrent activity that took place only in mounds. So far, excavations in the off-mound areas have not found burials, restricting this practice to the mound located in the inner precinct. The CMC in Mound Gamma and Alpha is characterized by the presence of clusters of disarticulated and fragmented human bone clusters, most of which are severely shattered bone fragments (Bracco 1993; Iriarte 2003). The lithic and faunal assemblage show minor changes with respect to the preceding PMP. Ceramics are adopted during the CMP and they closely resemble the broadly defined Viera Tradition types (Schmitz et al. 1991). Phytolith and starch grains analyses documented the presence of maize and squash throughout this period. Mound Gamma reflects multiple construction stages during the CMP with interspersed periods of use. Around 1660 BP, the TBN and the TBS crescent- shaped rises experienced a more substantial accumulation of occupational refuse, which attained 0.80m and 0.35m of anthropic deposits in their central sectors, respectively, and indicate a more intense and permanent occupation of the site. Subsurface occupational refuse distributed over the vast peripheral off-mound areas covering over 12ha suggests a large resident population for the site during the CMC (Iriarte 2003).

The CMP formal layout of the inner precinct bespeaks formality and convention. The horseshoe arrangement of imposing platform mounds, the TBN and Mound 13 appear to



656 Jose Iriarte

represent an integrated architectural plan oriented to the north east that contrasts with the less conspicuous and informally arranged south-western sector, marking an asymmetrical distribution of architecture in the inner precinct. Through these transformations, the inner precinct acquired a strong public ritual character. Formality is one of the most essential characteristics of ritual and the way it operates in society. Public ritual communicates through very specific media, it follows a set pattern and its contents are standardized to the extent that they usually allow little modification (e.g. Bell 1997; Block 1974; Bradley 1998). Formalism reflects an adherence to restricted modes of activities, often viewed by participants as timeless, invariant and tradition-laden. Formalized activity can also be important in the reproduction of social power. The apparent contradictions between competition and cooperation are not atypical of middle-range societies (e.g. Fowles 2002; Tuzin 2001). Social actors and groups can manipulate public architecture to legitimize their political power drawing on the fact that architecture is an effective tool for structuring the activities that form social organization by expressing or restricting relations among individuals and groups (e.g. Bourdieu 1977; Giddens 1979). Formal ceremonial contexts 'create opportunities for social control, more complex architectural expressions, social stratification, exchange, and centralized leadership' (Dillehay 1992b: 418) - and more so if these circumstances are accompanied by population growth, population pressure on fertile lands, technological change and territorialism: all processes that appear to be taking place at a regional level in the wetlands of India Muerta during the Ceramic Mound Period.

The mounds that are closer to the plaza area had privileged access to public ritual and political control. Their advantageous location, architectural elaboration and the segregation of activities that they materialize suggest that the members of this segment of the society possibly enjoyed a somewhat higher social standing than those living in more peripheral areas of the site. Platform mounds may have served as mnemonic devices to establish a social memory of place and perpetuate asymmetrical relationships by an emerging sector of the population during the CMP.

The inner precinct of the site also shows a marked dual spatial asymmetry. The northeast sector became more formal and prominent, characterized by the steep-sided, relatively high platform mounds presenting large, fairly rectangular summits framed by a larger, wider and taller crescent-shaped rise, which articulates with platform Mound 13. In contrast, on the opposite south-west end of the inner precinct, there is a less formally integrated area characterized by low, dome-shaped, circular mounds surrounded by a less prominent TBS crescent-shaped rise. Given the widespread ethnographic (e.g. Levi-Strauss 1963; Nimandeju 1946; Turner 1996) and archaeological (e.g. Knight 1990; Netherly and Dillehay 1986) presence of dual organization associated with dual architectural patterns and plaza villages both in South and North America, the Los Ajos ground plan during the CMP may well represent an expression of a ranked dual social organization. These patterns require clarification through further research at Los Ajos and other sites in the region.

Concluding remarks

The multidisciplinary investigations at Los Ajos have advanced previous interpretations of cultural development in the region in significant ways. First, the combined archaeological




and palaeoecological data show that the mid-Holocene was characterized by significant climatic and ecological changes, and that these perturbations were associated with important cultural transitions involving permanent mounded settlements situated within resource-rich, circumscribed wetlands. Second, the renewed community-focused archaeological programme at Los Ajos revealed that Preceramic mound complexes are not the result of successive, short-term occupations by hunter-gatherer-fishers who moved seasonally to exploit the rich local environments of this region (e.g. Schmitz et al. 1991) nor the burial mounds or monuments of complex hunter-gatherers as previously proposed (Gianotti 2000; Lopez and Bracco 1994; Lopez and Giannotti 1998). According to our alternative argument, Los Ajos is a well-planned village incorporating central public spaces built by people who practised a mixed economy combining hunting and gathering with food production. The domestic use of mounds at Los Ajos during the PMP forming a village is not in agreement with the monumental/ceremonial nature of early mound-building proposed by other researchers (Gianotti 2000; Lopez and Gianotti 1998; Pintos 2000).

The presence of at least four other Preceramic mound complexes with dates broadly contemporaneous and degrees of similarities in the overall plan of mounded architecture to Los Ajos suggest that south-eastern Uruguay was a locus of early population concentration in lowland South America. Although most of the large mound complexes in the region display the recursive geometrical layout (circular, elliptical and horseshoe), there is also considerable variability not only in the formal structure of the sites, but also in the combination, dimensions and shapes of mounds (Bracco et al. 2000b; Gianotti 2000, 2005; Lopez and Pintos 2000). Future work at a regional level will be able to clarify what is now a rather complicated picture of settlement variability allowing a more precise understanding of the role that Los Ajos played in the emergence of early Formative societies in the region.

Third, the archaeobotanical evidence from Los Ajos and other contemporary sites in the region, including Isla Larga, Estancia Mai Abrigo and Los Indios, indicates that cultigens such as maize, squashes, Phaseolus beans and possibly domesticated tubers (Canna sp. and Calathea sp.) were introduced and became integrated into local food economies by c. 4000 bp (Iriarte in press; Iriarte et al. 2001; Iriarte et al. 2004). These new data put into question previous interpretations that proposed that the expansion and colonization of the region by Tupi-Guarani tropical forest farmers during the late Holocene were responsible for the arrival and dissemination of food production to the region (Schmitz 1991).

Greater expectations

The early Formative cultures of south-eastern Uruguay are beginning to unravel the existence of a unique, independent and a more complex cultural trajectory than previously thought for the La Plata Basin. The unexpected cultural sequence at Los Ajos reveals an early expression of cultural complexity never before registered in this region of lowland South America, which clashes with the long-held view that this region was inhabited by marginal, small groups of simple, highly mobile hunter-gatherers that had not experienced significant changes since the beginning of the Holocene (Meggers and Evans 1978; Steward 1946) and endorses previous views (Andrade and Lopez 2001; Bracco et al. 2000a; Lopez 2001).



658 Jose Iriarte

Contemporary with the first urban societies that emerged on the desert coast of Peru (Solis et al. 2001) and the development of the Amazonian Formative (Heckenberger 2005), the social changes experienced by the early Formative peoples in south-eastern Uruguay in the midst of a changing mid-Holocene environment did not take place in a vacuum. At the moment, it is difficult to assess the role that local developments and interregional interactions played in the emergence of early Formative societies in the La Plata Basin. No doubt, as we learn more about the mid and late Holocene cultural developments in the La Plata basin, we will come to realize that interactions at a broad geographical scale with contemporary developments, such as the Preceramic mound-building cultures of the Pantanal (Schmitz et al. 1998), the pit-house villages of the Itarare/Taquara Tradition of the southern Brazilian Highlands (Beber 2005; Schmitz 2002), the sambaqui shell-middens of the southern Atlantic coast of Brazil (Andrade and Lopez 2001; DeBlasis et al. 1998), and possibly the ring villages of southern fringes of Amazonia (Wust and Barreto 1999), must have played a major role in shaping the emergence of these societies.

The research presented in this paper not only shows how flawed is the concept of marginal area by exposing the potential of grasslands and wetlands for pre-Hispanic cultural development (Stahl 2004), but is also starting to reveal a diversity of different pathways towards social complexity taken by early Formative people in the region. The evidence from Los Ajos has provided a basis for the interpretation of the rise of early Formative communities in the La Plata basin, which will now allow for a broader consideration of the role that dynamic human-environment interactions, imported cultivars and social conditions played in the emergence of early complex societies in the La Plata Basin.

Acknowledgements

Research at Los Ajos was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Kentucky Graduate School. I also received support from the Comision Nacional de Arqueologia, Ministerio de Education y Cultura, Uruguay and the Rotary Club of Lascano, Rocha, Uruguay. Sean Goddard from the University of Exeter drafted Figures 1 and 3. My work at Los Ajos benefited from the advice and insightful comments suggested over the years by my Ph.D. advisory committee including Jim Brown, George Crothers, Tom Dillehay, Richard Jefferies, Tassos Karathanasis, Dolores Piperno, Chris Pool, and Sissel Schroeder. Tom Dillehay helped me conceptualize early Formative societies in broad anthropological terms and also pushed me to think beyond the confines of Uruguay and South America. I am also particularly grateful to Oscar Marozzi. The occupational history of Los Ajos came into sharper focus during our long discussions over many mates while digging at Los Ajos. I should also like to acknowledge Roberto Bracco, Leonel Cabrera, and Jose Lopez for their pioneering and continued work in south-eastern Uruguay; it is upon their foundations that this paper stands. All statements made herein, however, are my own responsibility.

Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, [email protected]




Notes

1 A bulk sediment sample extracted with a bucket auger from an unspecified context in the basal area of Cerro de la Viuda was radiocarbon dated to 5,420 ±260 (URU014) (Bracco and Ures 1999). More work is needed at the site to prove its association with a cultural context.

2 When evaluating the PRONAPA in hindsight, it must be remembered that it was a pioneering and ambitious undertaking which tried to explore and study Brazil's 8,500,000km2 territory with only a small handful of archaeologists. In Rio Grande do Sul state, the work of PRONAPA represented the first reconnaissance of an archaeologically unknown region, generated the first chronological scheme for the area, provided us with the first systematic description of sites and artifacts in the region, and broadened our understanding of past human-environment relations.

3 Recent multiproxy paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the region by Bracco and his collaborators (2005) should be regarded with considerable caution since the changes in the Poaceae phytolith percentages that they used to infer broader climatic reconstruction in terms of temperature and humidity for the mid and late Holocene may simply be reflecting the dynamic nature of the Laguna Negra salt marsh during the mid-Holocene highstands and not climatic changes (see Iriarte 2006: 28-9).

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Jose Iriarte is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter. He is an archaeologist and palaeoethnobotanist whose principal research interests are the development of early plant food production and the rise of Formative societies in the Americas. He received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Kentucky and has conducted archaeological research in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Mexico. He is currently continuing his investigations of early agriculture and emergent complexity in the Parana River Basin (Misiones, Argentina).



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