Persistent Early to Middle Holocene Tropical Foraging in Southwestern Amazonia

Overview

Journal Sci Adv

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2019 Apr 30

PMID 31032413

Citations 6

Authors

Jose M Capriles

Umberto Lombardo

Blaine Maley

Carlos Zuna

Heinz Veit

Douglas J Kennett

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Amazon witnessed the emergence of complex societies after 2500 years ago that altered tropical landscapes through intensive agriculture and managed aquatic systems. However, very little is known about the context and conditions that preceded these social and environmental transformations. Here, we demonstrate that forest islands in the Llanos de Moxos of southwestern Amazonia contain human burials and represent the earliest settlements in the region between 10,600 and 4000 years ago. These archaeological sites and their contents represent the earliest evidence of communities that experienced conditions conducive to engaging with food production such as environmental stability, resource disturbance, and increased territoriality in the Amazonian tropical lowlands.

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