Microarchaeological analysis of Amazonian arqueosediments: soil micromorphology, FTIR and µFTIR

Abstract

Archaeological research on the occupation of the Amazon shows that the activities of ancient indigenous populations contributed significantly to the establishment of the forest biome. Besides the intense management and domestication of various plant species, these populations also altered the landscape by increasing the productivity of the forest soils and constructing monumental structures. This Ph.D. project studies the archaeological sediments from four sites in the Brazilian Amazon, belonging to different landscapes, contexts, and chronologies using a geoarchaeological and microarchaeological approach (e.g. two terra preta sites, a geoglyph, and a shell mound). The proposed internship abroad will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Francesco Berna, from Simon Fraser University (Canada), and has the objective to obtain training in soil micromorphology and complementary techniques, such as Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry - FTIR and micro FTIR. The analyses performed during the internship will help to interpret the natural and anthropic formation processes of the studied archaeological sites and increase the possibilities for future collaborations with notable research centers.