A03_07

Developing a chronology for pre-Columbian Amazonia through the HERCA project

Becerra-Valdivia L¹, Bronk Ramsey C¹

¹Oxford Radiocarbon Acceleration Unit, Oxford, United Kingdom

Pre-Columbian (pre CE 1492) Amazonia is typically believed to have been sparsely inhabited by hunter-gatherers largely constrained by their environment. Increased research, however, shows evidence for sedentarism, stratification, and a long history of landscape manipulation. This includes the construction of monumental structures in large (>100 ha), urban settlements (1); canal and causeway networks (2); and plant domestication dating to the early/mid Holocene (3). Aimed at better understanding these societies and their relationship with the environment, ‘Human-Environment Relationships in pre-Columbian Amazonia’ (HERCA) is an interdisciplinary project that integrates archaeological and paleoecological data through the lens of time. Chronometric research, based at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, includes the creation of highly resolved human-occupation and paleoenvironmental sequences, the integration of chronometric and contextual information through Bayesian modelling, and data management. Here we present current research results and the newly built HERCA Database. The latter, currently holding >500 unique records, allows for the storage/management of multi-proxy data and associated materials. Investigations to be discussed include the development of key archaeological and paleoecological chronologies in the region, and the commencement of monumental construction in Brazil and Bolivia.

1.           Prümers et al., Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature (2022). doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04780-4.

2.           Lombardo & Prümers, Pre-Columbian human occupation patterns in the eastern plains of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazonia. J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 1875–1885 (2010).

3.           Watling, et al., Direct archaeological evidence for Southwestern Amazonia as an early plant domestication and food production centre. PLoS One 13, e0199868 (2018).