Abstract
A long held view about the occupation of southern proto-Jê pit house villages of the southern Brazilian highlands is that these sites represent cycles of long-term abandonment and reoccupation. However, this assumption is based on an insufficient number of radiocarbon dates for individual pit houses. To address this problem, we conducted a programme of comprehensive AMS radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling at the deeply stratified oversized pit House 1, Baggio I site (Cal. A.D. 1395–1650), Campo Belo do Sul, Santa Catarina state, Brazil. The stratigraphy of House 1 revealed an unparalleled sequence of twelve well preserved floors evidencing a major change in occupation dynamics including five completely burnt collapsed roofs. The results of the radiocarbon dating allowed us to understand for the first time the occupation dynamics of an oversized pit house in the southern Brazilian highlands. The Bayesian model demonstrates that House 1 was occupied for over two centuries with no evidence of major periods of abandonment, calling into question previous models of long-term abandonment. In addition, the House 1 sequence allowed us to tie transformations in ceramic style and lithic technology to an absolute chronology. Finally, we can provide new evidence that the emergence of oversized domestic structures is a relatively recent phenomenon among the southern proto-Jê. As monumental pit houses start to be built, small pit houses continue to be inhabited, evidencing emerging disparities in domestic architecture after AD 1000. Our research shows the importance of programmes of intensive dating of individual structures to understand occupation dynamics and site permanence, and challenges long held assumptions that the southern Brazilian highlands were home to marginal cultures in the context of lowland South America.
Highlights
Archaeologists have for a long time debated the degree of permanence in the pit house villages of the southern Brazilian highlands [1,2,3]
Our programme of comprehensive dating of House 1, with the subsequent Bayesian modelling of the radiocarbon dates, provided the first solid stratigraphic and chronological evidence for continuous occupation of an oversized pit house in the southern Brazilian highlands
We have demonstrated that House 1 was occupied for for over two centuries with no major hiatus, contradicting previous models that postulated that the pit house villages of the southern proto-Jê groups were the result of long cycles of abandonment and short-term reoccupations
Summary
Archaeologists have for a long time debated the degree of permanence in the pit house villages of the southern Brazilian highlands [1,2,3]. A frequent assumption is that these sites are the result of cycles of short-term occupations separated by long periods of abandonment [1, 2]. Such portrayals, emphasising high mobility and low population levels, adhere to a long-held view that this area was marginal in the context of lowland South America [4] and fail to adequately evaluate the degree of social complexity among these societies in the pre-Columbian past. Most of the discussions about site permanence in the southern Brazilian highlands were based on single dates for selected strata of isolated pit house structures in different sites [1, 2, 5]. We obtained a corpus of eleven AMS radiocarbon dates, which were modelled through Bayesian statistics, allowing us for the first time to time those changes within a well-defined chronology for a single structure
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
