Ancient Villages In Amazonia

Using a helicopter-based lidar mapping tool, an international team of scientists led by University of Exeter archaeologists has discovered a network of mound villages in the south-eastern portion of Acre State, Brazil, dating back to 1300-1700 CE.

Detail of a circular mound village called Dona Maria with ‘twin’ village. Image credit: Iriarte et al., doi: 10.5334/jcaa.45.

Detail of a circular mound village called Dona Maria with ‘twin’ village. Image credit: Iriarte et al., doi: 10.5334/jcaa.45.

Lidar provides a new opportunity to locate and document earthen sites in forested parts of Amazonia characterized by dense vegetation,” said Professor Jose Iriarte, an archaeologist and archaeobotanist at the University of Exeter.

“It can also document the smallest surficial earthen features in the recently opened pasture areas.”

Professor Iriarte and his colleagues used a lidar sensor integrated into an MD 500 helicopter to document architectural features below the forest canopy, revealing a more complex and spatially organised landscape than previously thought.

They documented over 35 ancient mound villages and dozens of roads, with many more predicted to still be hidden below the unexplored jungle.

The villages were composed of 3 to 32 mounds arranged in a circle, the diameter of which ranged from 40 m to 153 m with the area enclosed by the central plaza ranging from 0.12 to 1.8 ha.

“The circular mound villages are connected across the wider landscape through paired sunken roads with high banks that radiate from the village circle like the marks of a clock or the rays of the Sun,” the researchers explained.

“The villages have both minor roads and principal roads, which were deeper and wider with higher banks.”

“Most villages have paired cardinally orientated principal roads, two leaving in a northward direction and two leaving in a southward direction.”

“The straight roads often connect one village to another, creating a network of communities over many kilometers.”

Circular mound villages: (a) Fazenda Boa Esperança, (b) Karina, (c) Estrela do Norte I. Scale bar - 50 m. Image credit: Iriarte et al., doi: 10.5334/jcaa.45.

Circular mound villages: (a) Fazenda Boa Esperança, (b) Karina, (c) Estrela do Norte I. Scale bar – 50 m. Image credit: Iriarte et al., doi: 10.5334/jcaa.45.

“Lidar has allowed us to detect these villages, and their features such as roads, which wasn’t possible before because most are not visible within the best satellite data available,” Professor Iriarte said.

“The technology helps to show diverse and complex construction history of this part of the Amazon.”

The findings show that after the abandonment of the large geometrically patterned ceremonial earthworks, around 950 CE, a new culture arose with communities living in mounded villages with highly defined concepts of social and architectural space.

“The distinctive and consistent arrangement of the circular villages suggests the ancient Acreans had very specific social models for the way they organized their communities, potentially organizing their dwellings to represent the Native American cosmos,” the scientists said.

“This is further evidence the rainforest has long-been occupied by indigenous communities, whose cultures rose, fell, transformed, and rose again, long before Europeans made an impact in the Americas.”

The team’s paper was published in the Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology.

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J. Iriarte et al. 2020. Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 3 (1): 151-169; doi: 10.5334/jcaa.45

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