Fish Proxies Monte Castelo (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Holocene, 2020
Monte Castelo, an archeological shell mound located on the southwestern periphery of the Amazon basin, is an artificial forest island occupied from the Middle to late-Holocene, and it contains one of the longest, continuous sequences of human occupation anywhere in the basin. Analysis of fish remains investigates fluctuations in the fish communities that are markers of changes in the paleoenvironment. The 8112 taxonomically identified remains document diagnostic taxa that are drought-tolerant (armoured catfishes, swamp-eels and tiger fishes) and from swampy environments, indicating probable occupation during low-waters periods. The results from Monte Castelo contrasts with the use of shell mounds as refuges from high-water season floods, a dominant hypothesis. A considerable shift in the nature of the fish spectrum occurred around 4000 BP with increased diversity; the number of taxa jumps from 18 to 48. The Middle Holocene occupations, from 6000 to 4000 BP, reflect long-term stabili...
Recent evidence suggests the existence of Pre-Hispanic fisheries in savanna areas of the Amazon basin. How these fisheries may have functioned is still poorly known. Although many studies have drawn attention to how Pre-Hispanic inhabitants of these savannas managed to deal with excess water, little attention has been paid to understanding how large and permanent populations were sustained during long periods of drought. In the Llanos de Mojos, one of the largest savannas in South America, the landscape is greatly affected by the impacts of annual, seasonal flooding and inundations, alternating with a dry period that can last 4–6 months. The fishing practices in this area were studied on the basis of analysis of more than 17,000 fish remains recovered at Loma Salvatierra, a monumental mound located in an interfluvial area 50 km from the Mamore´ River and occupied between 500 and 1400 AD. In Loma Salvatierra, a network of circular walled ponds connected to a system of canals has been identified, raising questions about a possible use of these structures for fishing. The exceptional conservation of the bone material has enabled precise taxonomic identification of more than 35 taxa, the richest fish spectrum thus far documented in the Mojos region. The dominant fish, swamp-eels (Synbranchus spp.), armored catfishes (Hoplosternum spp.), lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa), and tiger-fish (Hoplias malabaricus) are characteristic of shallow and stagnant waters. Our work documents the first zooarchaeological evidence of a dryland, interfluvial fishing system in the Bolivian Amazon that incorporates distinct species and fishing practices, demonstrating that these regions contain year round resources. Research is taking its first steps toward understanding landscape modifications, fish environments, and specific cultural technologies employed on this and other lowland neotropical savannas that differ from those for fishing in open waters and rivers.
The unique functioning of a pre-Columbian Amazonian floodplain fishery
Scientific reports, 2018
Archaeology provides few examples of large-scale fisheries at the frontier between catching and farming of fish. We analysed the spatial organization of earthen embankments to infer the functioning of a landscape-level pre-Columbian Amazonian fishery that was based on capture of out-migrating fish after reproduction in seasonal floodplains. Long earthen weirs cross floodplains. We showed that weirs bear successive V-shaped features (termed 'Vs' for the sake of brevity) pointing downstream for outflowing water and that ponds are associated with Vs, the V often forming the pond's downstream wall. How Vs channelled fish into ponds cannot be explained simply by hydraulics, because Vs surprisingly lack fishways, where, in other weirs, traps capture fish borne by current flowing through these gaps. We suggest that when water was still high enough to flow over the weir, out-migrating bottom-hugging fish followed current downstream into Vs. Finding deeper, slower-moving water, t...
Variations of the Amazonian rainforest environment: a sedimentological record covering 30,000 years
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2001
Two cores (CSS 2 and CSS 10) were collected from two lakes situated in the Carajas area (6835 0 S, 49830 0 W) that show different stages of silting up. The results of geochemical and petrographic organic analyses, backed up by 14 C radiometric dating, lead to a reconstruction of the variations in the hydrological regime of these lakes over the last 30,000 years. Evidence is revealed for a period of drying up, characterized by a sedimentary hiatus between 22,000 and 13,000 14 C years BP, followed by a period of re®lling between 13,000 and 11,000 14 C years BP. (15,400±12,900 cal years BP). The latter interval is primarily characterized by a mainly clastic sedimentary input rich in quartz, kaolinite and iron hydroxides, leading on to the authigenic formation of siderite. This type of sedimentation implies the erosion of the small catchment basin during periods of transition between arid and humid climatic regimes. From 8000 to 4000 14 C years BP (8900±4500 cal years BP), as well as from 2700 to 1500 14 C years BP (2780±1360 cal years BP), special hydrological conditions prevailed. They are characterized in the sedimentary record by the presence of micro-laminae containing wood charcoal interlayered with sponge spicule material. This interlamination re¯ects the rapid alternation of dry and humid periods. A comparison with the results obtained by pollen analysis shows that sedimentological indicators, once ®ltered for strictly local effects, can provide a full record of the regionalscale variations in the environment. q .br (A. Sifeddine). A. Sifeddine et al. / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 168 (2001) 221±235
Amazonian Wetland Domestication: A Spatial Analysis of Pre-Columbian Fish Weirs in Lowland Bolivia
University of Central Florida, Department of Anthropology, 2023
Recent archaeological studies show that pre-Columbian communities began modifying Southwestern Amazonia approximately 3,500 years ago. In lowland Bolivia, a recently mapped network of fish weirs in West Central Llanos de Mojos (WCM) demonstrates how ancient Mojeño groups built artificial earthworks to harness seasonal flooding and catch fish. In the eastern region of Baures, a similar complex of fish weirs has been studied since the 1990s, generating questions about how this system may function in a different hydrological and anthropogenic setting. Similarly, previous research within WCM has focused on the fields and forest islands that pre-Columbian populations built to elevate themselves and their crops from the floodwaters that consume the landscape. However, water is still a necessity for communities, and the dry season beginning in early summer can leave the landscape in a state of drought. This begs the question, were inhabitants also participating in large-scale environmental transformations to domesticate wetlands and increase their duration and scale? This proceeds from the assumption that weirs were not only interacting with water to catch fish but controlling its flow and accumulation to expand wetland habitats and resources more broadly. Using a combination of spatial data and statistical analysis, this study defines potential wetlands within the region, distinguished by two unique patterns of fish weirs, stacks and networks. Results indicate that these wetlands have the capacity to affect water flow and accumulation for over 600 m2 of land but maintain differences in their sizes and relationships to major bodies of water and nearby anthropogenic features.
Holocene environmental changes in the central Amazon Basin inferred from Lago Calado (Brazil)
Palaeogeography, …, 2001
Holocene environments have been reconstructed by sedimentological, mineralogical geochemical and high resolution pollen analysis of a 1190 cm-long core from Lago Calado near Manaus in Central Amazonia. The sediment core, dated by eight AMSradiocarbon dates, has a basal age of 8330^50 14 C yr bp and documents the landscape development from a river valley before 8280 14 C yr bp to a lake environment. This change is related to the rise of the Central Amazonian water level, controlled by the postglacial sea-level rise. Pollen analytical results show the formation of a local Mauritia palm-swamp along the river margin between 8280 and 7700 14 C yr bp. At that time, highly diverse terra ®rme (un¯ooded upland) Amazon rainforest and poorly developed va Ârzea/igapo  (inundated) forests along the river characterized the vegetation. The expansion of va Ârzea/igapo  forests and a strong presence of aquatic plants started at 7700 14 C yr bp, re¯ecting the rise of the Amazonian water level and the formation of the Lago Calado. The occurrence of abundant Poaceae and Cyperaceae pollen in the lake sediments since 7770 14 C yr bp, suggest both the local colonization of un¯ooded mud banks around the lake margin and the formation of ooding meadows. Open exposed un¯ooded mud areas, periodically colonized by herbs, are related to seasonal Amazonian high and low water stands. In respect to the abundance of Poaceae pollen during the early and mid Holocene, these open areas must have been large, suggesting brief annual high and extensive annual low Amazonian water stands. After 4070 14 C yr bp the proportion of va Ârzea/igapo  forest areas was larger than before. Herbs were less abundant, probably due to the smaller area of un¯ooded mud banks. The Amazonian water levels must have been higher and the period of the annual high water stands was probably longer than before. Since 2080 14 C yr bp, the largest proportion of va Ârzea/igapo forests is recorded, re¯ecting the highest Amazonian water level. Herbs were rare, suggesting that open un¯ooded mud areas around the lake were relatively small. This may perhaps also indicate that the seasonal period of the Amazonian high water level was the longest since 2080 14 C yr bp. The increase of Cecropia, Poaceae and Alternanthera during the last 150 yr, suggests stronger human impact on the local vegetation. Changes to higher Amazonian water levels are related to the rise of the Atlantic sea-level. Relatively short annual high water levels during the early Holocene and relatively long annual high water levels since 4070 and especially since 2080 14 C yr bp, can be interpreted as a climate change from a drier early Holocene (with lower annual rainfall rates and longer dry periods) until 4070 14 C yr bp to a wetter late Holocene.
Scripta Geologica
Wesselingh, FP, Kaandorp, RJG, Vonhof, HB, Räsänen, ME, Renema, W. & Gingras, M. The nature of aquatic landscapes in the Miocene of western Amazonia: an integrated palaeontological and geochemical approach. Scripta Geologica, ...
New sedimentological and palynological data from the Tertiary sediments in the Upper Amazon River area suggest that these sediments are fluvio-lacustrine deposits of Middle to Late Miocene age. They were generated as a result of the uplift of the Eastern Cordillera (Andes) and constitute possibly the oldest relics of the Amazon River system. The palaeoenvironment in which these sediments were deposited is characterized by extensive wetlands environments formed by swamps, shallow lakes, crevasse splay channels and crevasse-delta lakes where the channel environment is poorly represented. The palaeovegetation was dominated by palms (e.g. Mauritia and Grimsdalea), riverine taxa (e.g. Bombacaceae, Amanoa and Alchornea), ferns and fern allies (e.g. Polypodiaceae and Selaginellaceae), floating meadows (Gramineae) and aquatic taxa (Ceratopteris, Botryococcus and Azofla). The relative abundance of Gramineae and the occurrence of Andean-type pollen taxa is related to the Andean origin of the fluvial system. The varzeas of the present Upper Amazon River flood-basin are probably the best analogue for the Middle to Late Miocene environment. Intervals rich in marine palynomorphs, mangrove pollen, brackish tolerant molluscs and ostracods, and ichnofossils of the Thalassinoides-Teichichnus association suggest that the palaeoenvironment was characterized by brackish conditions and marine influence. These marine incursions are possibly related to the Langhian and the Serravallian global sea-level rise. Although in the Middle Miocene a global cooling is known to have occurred, no indicators of a cooler climate have been observed in the Miocene palynoflora of the Upper Amazon River area. Finally, four new sporomorph species are described belonging to the form-genera
Neotropical Ichthyology, 2013
The analysis of the distribution patterns presented by examples of freshwater fishes restricted to headwater habitat: the anostomid Leporinus octomaculatus, the characins Jubiaba acanthogaster, Oligosarcus perdido, Moenkhausia cosmops, Knodus chapadae, Planaltina sp., the loricariid Hypostomus cochliodon, and the auchenipterid Centromochlus sp. provided evidences of a relatively recent shared history between the highlands of the upper rio Paraguay and adjoining upland drainage basins. Restricted to headwater of the uplands in the upper rio Paraguay and adjoining basins, these species provide biological evidence of the former extension of the central Brazilian plateau before the origin of the Pantanal Wetland. Disjunction took place due to an ecological barrier to these rheophilic taxa represented tectonic subsidence related to the origin of the Pantanal Wetland. Molecular analysis of Jubiaba acanthogaster revealed that the sample from the upper rio Xingu basin are the sister-group of a clade that includes samples from the upper rio Arinos (upper rio Tapajós) plus the upper rio Paraguay basin, supporting the assumption that the origin of the upper rio Paraguay basin causing vicariance between this basin and the upper rio Tapajós is the least vicariant event in the evolutionary history of the group.
Amazonian paleoecological histories: one hill, three watersheds
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2004
Data from the Hill of Six Lakes, in the northwestern Brazilian Amazon region, provide three records of paleoclimatic and vegetation change in lowland Amazonia that span the last 170,000 years. Three lakes, Verde, Pata and Dragäo, which occupy separate watersheds on the hill, provide the most detailed image yet obtained of ice-age conditions in lowland Amazonia. Welldated sedimentary records for fossil palynological, charcoal, cation, and pigment, data are presented.