Long-Term Resilience of Late Holocene Coastal Subsistence System in Southeastern South America

André Carlo Colonese,Veronica Wesolowski,Matthew Collins,Oliver Edward Craig,Michael Eustace,Claudia Regina Plens,Colin Smith,Levy Figuti,Sabine Eggers,Alexandre Lucquin,Y Hancock,Alice Mora,Paulo Deblasis,Andy Gledhill,Raquel De Almeida Rocha Ponzoni,Deisi Scunderlick Eloy De Farias,Michael D Petraglia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093854

Abstract

Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil.

Highlights

The Brazilian coast encompasses a wide range of tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems that have sustained human populations from the middle Holocene to the present day
Maritime adaptations sustained South American pre-Columbian populations since the late Pleistocene [101] and stable isotope studies reveal the crucial role of aquatic resources to several
We demonstrate the strong dependence of marine animal resources, despite the decline of monumental shell mound building and the arrival of a new subsistence strategy at,1,500 cal BP, involving domesticated plants and pottery technology, from inland areas

Summary

Introduction

The Brazilian coast encompasses a wide range of tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems that have sustained human populations from the middle Holocene to the present day. The large shell mounds, or sambaquis, are a distinctive feature of this coastline, testament to large-scale exploitation of marine resources, from ,8,000 to ,1,000 calibrated years before present (cal BP). The exploitation of aquatic (mostly marine) resources was an important subsistence activity at these sites [2] and must have drawn people to the coast. Sambaquis containing freshwater and land snail shells are found along the courses of rivers and their distribution penetrates some distances inland. These ‘‘Riverine sambaquis’’ are the same age or even older than their coastal analogues

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Conclusion