Dissertation: Community Organization and Cultural Complexity in the Early Formative Cultures of Southeastern Uruguay

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Under the direction of Dr. Thomas Dillehay Mr. Jose Iriarte will collect data for his doctoral dissertation.. He will conduct archaeological excavation at the site of EMA, located on the Atlantic coastal plain of Uruguay. Preliminary field research has revealed that the site dates to the Early Formative period and encompasses ca. 50 ha bearing more than 70 mounds located on a flat spur which projects into extensive wetlands. The majority of the mounds are low flat and circular, between .5 and 1.5 m in height with a diameter ranging between 15 and 30 m. The accretional nature of these mounds results from the incidental accumulation of midden refuse and does not suggest any intentional construction episodes or deliberate shaping. They are arranged in a semicircular shape around a central open space resembling the village layout characteristic of many ethnographic and prehistoric Amazon groups. Mr. Iriarte will carry out an excavation program with the goal of defining how settlement space is partitioned in mound and off-mound areas. He wishes to discover the nature of activities conducted in different areas and how these relate to the organization of the community. He will examine deep mound deposits by trench transect and conduct systematic interval transect sampling in the shallow deposits which characterize off mound areas. Faunal and floral remains will provide insight into subsistence and ceramic seriation in conjunction with thermoluminescent and radiocarbon dating will allow absolute dating of individual features.The Early Formative period marks the transition from hunting and gathering to a settled village way of life. While long-held assumptions suggest that the prehistoric cultures of southeastern Uruguay remained marginal hunter-gatherers organized in simple, small and highly mobile bands until recent times, EMA and similar sites argue otherwise. The multi-mound sites indicate a decrease in residential mobility and ceremonial mounded architecture suggests community planning. Sites such as EMA are aggregated in highly productive wetland areas and this suggests both intensification and the exploitation of new environments and species. Maize, squash, beans and possibly cultivated tubers were added to the diet. This general type of transition occurred, independently, in many parts of the world and archaeologists wish to understand the processes responsible for this change. Mr. Iriarte argues that the single tightly defined developmental trajectory postulated by many theorists does not exist but rather that significant variation can be observed in the archaeological record. This project helps to define the limits of such variability. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training a promising young scientist.