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A glimpse into shell mound builders’ diet during mid-to-late Holocene on Marajó island

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Abstract

Shell mounds are anthropic intentional constructions produced by pre-Columbian fishing/gathering communities. They are generally composed of a primary layer of mollusc carapaces, fish bones and, in some cases, human burials. Our case study is the Tucumã shell mound located on western Marajó island. The site has two occupation components comprising the sequential formation of anthrosols: the shell mound layers buried under an Amazonian Dark Earth soil. We carried out phytolith analysis on a total of 37 samples to address the plant component of the Tucumã shell mound builders’ subsistence strategies. Our results reveal the impact on the vegetation composition and plant dietary preferences throughout the occupation. Exceptionally, our research revealed the presence of domesticates such as maize (Zea mays) and squash (Cucurbita sp.) at ca. 4,000 year bp presenting the earliest evidence of these plants in the Marajó archipelago.

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(adapted from Hilbert 2017); image generated using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Inc. 2019

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Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the European Research Council project ‘Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations’ (ERC-CoG 616179) to J.I. L.H. and E.G.N. are funded by The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) project ‘Human-Environment Relationships in pre-Columbian Amazonia’ (2020/02485-5; 2019/07794-9). D.T.A. is funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) project ‘Cultural Forests and territoriality in the Pre-Columbian Amazon Coast’ (422288/2021-7). We thank Denise Schaan for her support at different stages of this work.

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  1. Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 1466 - Butantã, São Paulo, 05508-070, SP, Brazil

    Lautaro Hilbert & Eduardo Góes Neves

  2. Department of Archaeology, Federal University of Pará, R. Augusto Corrêa, 01 - Guamá, Belém, 66075-110, PA, Brazil

    Daiana Travassos Alves

  3. Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK

    José Iriarte

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  1. Lautaro Hilbert
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  2. Daiana Travassos Alves
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Contributions

L.H. designed the research. L.H. and D.T.A. conducted the archaeological excavation. L.H. carried out the phytolith analysis. L.H. and D.T.A. wrote the paper with help of E.G.N and J.I.

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Correspondence to Lautaro Hilbert.

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Hilbert, L., Alves, D.T., Neves, E.G. et al. A glimpse into shell mound builders’ diet during mid-to-late Holocene on Marajó island. Veget Hist Archaeobot (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00930-4

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