Marajoara culture


The Marajoara or Marajó culture was a pre-Columbian era society that flourished on Marajó island at the mouth of the Amazon River. In a survey, Charles C. Mann suggests the culture appeared to flourish between 800 AD and 1400 AD, based on archeological studies. Researchers have documented that there was human activity at these sites as early as 1000 BC. The culture seems to have persisted into the colonial era.

Background

Archeologists have found sophisticated pottery in their excavations on the island. These pieces are large, and elaborately painted and incised with representations of plants and animals. These provided the first evidence that a complex society had existed on Marajó. Evidence of mound building further suggests that well-populated, complex and sophisticated settlements developed on this island, as only such settlements were believed capable of such extended projects as major earthworks.
The extent, level of complexity, and resource interactions of the Marajoara culture have been disputed. Working in the 1950s in some of her earliest research, American Betty Meggers suggested that the society migrated from the Andes and settled on the island. Many researchers believed that the Andes were populated by Paleoindian migrants from North America who gradually moved south after being hunters on the plains.
In the 1980s, another American archeologist, Anna Curtenius Roosevelt, led excavations and geophysical surveys of the mound Teso dos Bichos. She concluded that the society that constructed the mounds originated on the island itself.
The pre-Columbian culture of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population as large as 100,000 people. The Native Americans of the Amazon rain forest may have used their method of developing and working in Terra preta to make the land suitable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support large populations and complex social formations such as chiefdoms.

Origin of the mounds

Rossetti et al proposed that the archaeological settlements associated with isolated or compound mounds were "systematically developed on top of extensive elevated surfaces formed due to natural sedimentary processes".
Thus, the large Marajoara mounds or tesos are not entirely manmade. Rather, the inhabitants took advantage of the natural, preexisting elevated surfaces and added on top of those to build their earthworks. This interpretation suggests less cumulative labor investment in the construction of the mounds.

"Several mounds on Marajo Island and several in Bolivia have yielded radiocarbon dates as early as 1000 to 300 BC in early levels, suggesting that the first mounds of the tradition were built in the Formative, the period when horticulture appears to become widespread for the first time."

The earliest phase of human activity on Marajo Island is known as the 'Ananatuba phase'.

Agriculture and economy

Plant remains on Marajo Island show a subsistence pattern that relied heavily on small seed crops, as well as small fish, which were either cultivated or protected by indigenous peoples. Many of the carbonized seed remains have not yet been identified, though they seem to be herbaceous and derived from local grasses. Trees such as the açai and tucuma palms also provided important supplements in the Marajo diet, as well being used for manufacturing items such as baskets or canoes. Evidence from human remains show that Marajo peoples limited their consumption of starchy root crops like manioc; rather, the heavy wear patterns of teeth suggest a diet based predominantly on seed crops, tree fruits, and fish. Since small fish make up the majority of biomass fauna and there are relatively few terrestrial animals, it follows that pre-historic peoples focused on the abundant populations of small fish. The method for catching fish was likely very similar to present-day techniques, which involves stunning fish with the poisonous liana plant and collecting them as they float to the surface. This method of mass harvesting is not as useful in the rainy season as it is during the dry months when fish are trapped in receding streams or ponds.
The agricultural technology at Marajo is limited to, primarily, stone axes that were introduced in the Marajoara Phase. Other stone artifacts include griddles found at Teso Dos Bichos during Roosevelt’s excavations, although these are very rare. Their rarity is another marker of the absence of root crops from the diet at Marajo.
Earthen mounds, unlike lithic artifacts, are abundant. They were used for cemetery purposes as well as for habitation, as the low-lying areas are prone to flooding in the rainy season. Mounds may have served a defensive purpose too. Pre-historic peoples of Marajo Island may have also constructed ramps, canals, ponds, and drained fields found near earthworks mounds, but most of the evidence has likely been buried by sediment in seasonal floods.
Evidence for trade networks at Marajo is found mostly in lithics, because the island has no local source of suitable igneous or metamorphic rock. None of the lithic artifacts have been sourced, although they are primarily made from a green, microcrystalline mafic rock. Such greenstones are typically more associated with Mesoamerica, a possible point of origin for Marajo’s imported stone.
An increased complexity of ceremonial wares and uniformity of utilitarian wares occurred with the Marajoara phase, suggesting ceramic manufacture became a specialized industry at this time. Sometime into the Marajoara phase, however, there was a decline in characteristics that indicate specialization of ceramics.

Architecture

The skeletal remains preserve very well in burial urns, which were covered with a clayey soil **.
Travelers in the 1800s noted both the presence of mounds and the beauty of the ceramics found inside them or exposed on their sides. Museums in Europe and the United States began to collect some of the larger and more beautiful pieces, the largest of which are funerary urns. Buried in house floors constructed on the tops of the mounds, the elaborately decorated urns contain the remains of significant individuals. When the individuals died, the flesh was cleared from their bones and the remains were placed in the urns, which were then topped with a bowl or platter.
In addition to the urns, ceramic artifacts include plates, bowls, vases, and tangas.