Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:31:51.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Martti Pärssinen ,
Denise Schaan  and
Alceu Ranzi
Martti Pärssinen
Affiliation:
Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia, c/o General Arrando, 5, bajo izq., 28010 Madrid, Spain (Email: [email protected])
Denise Schaan
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Pará – IFCH, Rua Augusto Correa, 1, 66075-110 – Belém, Pará, Brazil (Email: [email protected])
Alceu Ranzi
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Paleontologia, Campus da Universidade Federal do Acre. 69915-000 – Rio Branco, Brazil (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The combination of land cleared of its rainforest for grazing and satellite survey have revealed a sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society in the upper Amazon Basin on the east side of the Andes. This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. Introducing us to this new civilisation, the authors show that the ‘geoglyph culture’ stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands. They also suggest that we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it.

Keywords

Amazoniapre-ColumbianAcre RiverPurús RiverAndesmonumentalityearthworksgeoglyphs
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 322 , December 2009 , pp. 1084 - 1095
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

Access options

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

References

Arnold, D. E. & Prettol, K. E.. 1988. Aboriginal earthworks near the mouth of the Beni, Bolivia. Journal of Field Archaeology 15: 457–65.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. 1960. Slash-and-burn agriculture: a closer look at its implications for settlement patterns, in Wallace, A. (ed.) Men and cultures: 229–34. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. 1970. A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169: 733–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carneiro, R. 1981. The chiefdom: precursor of the state, in Jones, G. D. & Kautz, R. R. (ed.) The transition to statehood in the new world: 37–79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. 1987. Further reflections on resource concentration and its role in the rise of the state, in Manzanilla, L. (ed.) Studies in the Neolithic and urban revolutions (British Archaeological Reports International Series 349): 245–60. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Chandless, W. 1866. Apontamentos sobre o Rio Aquiry affluente do Rio Purus, in Brasil. Ministerio da Agricultura. Comercio e Obras Publicas. Relatorio apresentado na quarta sessão da decima segunda legislatura pelo Ministro e Secretario dos Negocios da Agricultura, Comercio e Obras Publicas Dr. Antonio Francisco de Paula Sousa. Anexo: 1–6. Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Perseverança.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. 1966. The aboriginal cultural geography of llanos de Mojos of Bolivia. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Erickson, C. 1980. Sistemas agrícolas prehispánicos en los Llanos de Mojos. América Indígena 15(4): 731–55.Google Scholar
Erickson, C. 2000. An artificial landscape-scale fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 408: 190–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heckenberger, M. J. 2005. The ecology of power. Culture, place, and personhood in the southern Amazon AD 1000-2000. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heckenberger, M., Kuikuro, A., Kuikuro, U., Russel, J., Schmidt, M., Fausto, C., & Franchetto, B.. 2003. Amazonia 1492: pristine forest or cultural parkland? Science 301: 1710–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heckenberger, M. J., Petersen, J. B. & Neves, E. G.. 1999. Village size and permanence in Amazonia: two archaeological examples from Brazil. Latin American Antiquity 10(4): 353–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckenberger, M., Russell, J. C., Fausto, C., Toney, J. R., Schmidt, M. J., Pereira, E., Franchetto, B., Kuikuro, A.. 2008. Pre-Columbian urbanism, anthropogenic landscapes, and the future of the Amazon. Science 321: 1214–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lathrap, D. 1968. The hunting economies of the tropical forest zone of South America: an attempt at historical perspective, in Lee, R. & de Vore, I. (ed.) Man the hunter. Chicago (IL): Aldine.Google Scholar
Lathrap, D. 1970. The upper Amazon. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Meggers, B. 1954. Environmental limitations of the development of culture. American Anthropologist 56: 801–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lathrap, D. 1971. Amazonia, man and culture in counterfeit paradise. Chicago (IL): Aldine Arherton.Google Scholar
Lathrap, D. 1991. Cultural evolution in Amazonia, in Rambo, A. T. & Gillogly, K. (ed.) Profiles in cultural evolution: papers from a conference in honor of Elman R. Service (University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers 85): 191–216. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Lathrap, D. 1995. Amazonia on the eve of European contact: ethnohistorical, ecological, and anthropological perspectives. Revista de Arqueologia Americana 8: 91–115.Google Scholar
Oberg, K. 1955. Types of social structure among the lowland tribes of South and Central America. American Anthropologist 57: 472–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pärssinen, M., Ranzi, A., Saunaluoma, S. & Siiriäinen, A.. 2003. Geometrically patterned ancient earthworks in the Rio Branco Region of Acre, Brazil, in Pärssinen, M. & Korpisaari, A. (ed.) Western Amazonia - Amazônia ocidental (Renvall Institute Publications 14): 97–133. Helsinki: Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Porras, P. 1987. Investigaciones arqueolgicas a Las Faldas de Sangay. Quito: Libri Mundi.Google Scholar
Ranzi, A. 2003. Geoglifos: Patrimônio cultural do Acre, in Pärssinen, M. & Korpisaari, A. (ed.) Western Amazonia - Amazônia ocidental (Renvall Institute Publications 14): 135–72. Helsinki: Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Ranzi, A., Feres, R. & Brown, F.. 2007. Internet software programs aid in search for Amazonian geoglyphs. EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 88(21), DOI: 10.1029/2007EO210003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, A. 1980. Parmana: prehistoric maize and manioc subsistence along the Amazon and Orinoco. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, A. 1991. Mound builders of the Amazon. Geophysical archaeology in Marajó Island, Brazil. San Diego (CA): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Roosevelt, A. 1993. The rise and fall of the Amazon chiefdoms. L'Homme 33(2-4): 255–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, A. 1999. The development of prehistoric complex societies: Amazonia: a tropical forest, in Bacus, E. A. & Lecero, L. J. (ed.) Complex polities in the ancient tropical world: 13–33.Google Scholar
Salazar, E. 1998. De Vuelta a Sangay: Investigaciones arqueolgicas en el alto Upano, Amazonia Ecuatoriana. Bulletin de l'Institut Francais des Etudes Andines 27: 213-40Google Scholar
Saunaluoma, S. & Korhonen, J. 2003. Informe preliminar de las investigaciones arqueológicas realizadas em la región de Riberalta, Bolívia, em 2002, in Siiriäinen, A. & Korpisaari, A. (ed.) Reports of the Finnish-Bolivian Archaeological Project in the Bolivian Amazon II : 55–71. Helsinki: Department of Archaeology, University of Helsinki & Unidad Nacional de Arquelogía de Bolivia.Google Scholar
Schaan, D. 2004. The Camutins chiefdom: rise and development of complex societies on Marajó Island, Brazilian Amazon. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Schaan, D. 2008. The non-agricultural chiefdoms of Marajo Island, in Silverman, H. & Isbell, W. (ed.) Handbook of South American archaeology: 339–57. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaan, D., Pärssinen, M., Ranzi, A. & Piccoli, J.. 2007. Geoglifos da Amazônia Ocidental: Evidência de Complexidade Social entre Povos da Terra Firme. Revista de Arqueologia 20: 67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidl, U. (1554) 1962. Viaje al Río de la Plata (1534-1554), in Gaibrois, M. Ballesteros (ed.) Viajes por América del Sur II (Bibliotheca Indiana 3-4): 267–329. Madrid: Aguilar.Google Scholar
Staden, H. (1557) 1962. Verdadera historia, descripción de un pais de salvajes desnudos, feroces y canibales situado en el Nuevo mundo América, in Gaibrois, M. Ballesteros (ed.) Viajes por América del Sur II (Bibliotheca Indiana 3-4): 199–266. Madrid: Aguilar.Google Scholar
Steward, J. 1948. Culture areas of the tropical forest, in Steward, J. (ed.) Handbook of South American Indians. Volume 3: the tropical forest tribes (Smithsonian Institute Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143): 883–99. Washington (D. C.): Smithsonian Institute.Google Scholar
Wüst, I. & Barreto, C.. 1999. The ring villages of central Brazil: a challenge for Amazonian archaeology. Latin American Antiquity 10(1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar