Plants, landscape and diet: archaeobotany and paleoecology of Mound Builders in southern Brazil

Abstract

Cerritos are mound archaeological sites, composed predominantly of soil, that occur in the Pampa biome between southern Brazil, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina, between ca 5 thousand and 0.2 thousand BP. Recent research has demonstrated that the construction of these mounds is associated with environmental management strategies in the creation of domesticated landscapes and human niches. Regarding the role of plants, the evidence points to practices of domestication and management of wild plant resources. In the southern region of Brazil, comprising the hydrographic basin of Lagoas Patos and Mirim, the archaeobotany of cerritos is quite incipient, with direct evidence on the use of plants in the diet being practically unknown. Given this scenario, this research seeks to understand the plant food production system of the Mound Builders, as well as the impact and legacy of plant management on the forest structure by indigenous populations during the Late Holocene. To this end, archaeobotanical data will be produced from the analysis of sediments from four archaeological sites in the Lagoa dos Patos and Mirim Hydrographic Basin, sites PSG-02 and PSGLF-02 in the Canal São Gonçalo region, and sites Taim 11 and 14 in the region from Taim Ecological Station. Paleoecological data will also be analyzed from bottom sediment samples from two lagoons close to the sites, Lagoa do Fragata and Lagoa do Nicola, respectively. The expectation is to contribute to the advancement of archaeobotanical research in the region and to the debate that touches on the historical ecology of the South American lowlands.