AHRC-FAPESP MoU Human-Environment Relationships in pre-Columbian Amazonia (HERCA)

过去人类与环境关系的动态是当今考古学中最相关的问题之一。前哥伦布时期（1492年前）亚马逊河流域为人类与环境相互作用的长期争论提供了一个案例研究。在光谱的一端，有人认为亚马逊河流域是一个基本上原始的荒野，塑造了人类历史，而另一端则认为亚马逊河流域已经被人类数千年的土地使用完全变成了一个驯化的景观。最近在哥伦布发现美洲大陆之前的大型景观工程项目-巨大的居住土丘、环形沟渠、堤道和运河-方面的突破性发现，推翻了环境制约因素将亚马孙地区的文化发展限制在简单的半游牧、狩猎-采集生活方式的模式，就像今天的土著人民所做的那样。然而，这些复杂的（分层的）社会出现和衰落的过程及其与环境的关系仍然没有得到解决。这种不确定性源于缺乏考古数据和缺乏对人类与环境相互作用的调查至关重要的跨学科合作。因此，该项目汇集了一个国际，多学科的研究团队，整合考古和环境方法和数据，以解决我们的总体研究目标：为了确定分层社会的出现和消亡之间的关系，粮食采购战略，和环境条件，哥伦比亚亚马逊。我们专注于西南亚马逊的三个研究领域，这些领域提供了一个独特的机会来研究不同社会的出现和消亡。环境条件-森林覆盖、土壤质量和水灾/旱灾风险。将采用以下技术：1。考古发掘将揭示跨越8，000多年的人类占领历史，而对陶器、人骨和土壤的实验室分析将提供对饮食、食品加工、文化习俗和土地利用的见解。2.对附近湖泊/河道沉积物和土壤中的古代木炭、花粉和植物遗骸进行显微分析，将揭示森林和稀树草原的资源管理;例如，使用火和选择具有经济意义的物种，如果树和棕榈树。3.将重建自然景观和河流网络的演变历史，以确定洪水状况的变化如何影响占领历史和土地利用。4.上述数据将与附近洞穴石笋的年度分辨率气候记录进行比较，以确定文化/土地使用变化与气候变化之间的潜在联系。5.为了整合这些不同的证据，并了解它们在时间上的关系，必须有安全的年表，我们将主要通过放射性碳测年来实现。如今，亚马逊河流域的城市和农村社区对文化遗产和特性越来越感兴趣。因此，我们将与特立尼达（我们玻利维亚研究地区之一的省会）的一家博物馆合作，通过采用最佳做法来开发刺激性、互动性的博物馆展品和附带的小册子，将我们的项目成果传达给广大公众，从而提高其教育价值。我们亦会探讨在考古研究区中心的农村兴建生态博物馆的可能性。通过以这种方式与城市和农村社区接触，我们希望通过促进土著人民，土地所有者和保护主义者之间土地使用冲突的更广泛的社会政治问题，为长期影响奠定基础。通过我们的项目网站和项目结束后在玻利维亚和巴西主要城市拉巴斯和圣保罗的博物馆举办的展览，将产生更广泛的国际影响。

The dynamics of past human-environment relationships is one of the most relevant issues in archaeology today. Pre-Columbian (pre-1492) Amazonia provides a case study of a long-standing debate into human-environment interactions. At one end of the spectrum are those who view Amazonia as a largely pristine wilderness which has shaped human history, while at the other are those who argue that Amazonia has been utterly transformed into a domesticated landscape by millennia of human land use. Recent ground-breaking discoveries of vast, pre-Columbian landscape engineering projects -- monumental habitation mounds, ring ditches, causeways and canals -- overturn the paradigm that environmental constraints limited cultural development in Amazonia to simple semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyles, as practiced by indigenous peoples today. However, the processes by which these complex (stratified) societies emerged and declined, and their relationships with the environment, remain unresolved. This uncertainty stems from a paucity of archaeological data and a lack of the inter-disciplinary collaboration essential for investigation of human-environment interactions. This project therefore assembles an international, multi-disciplinary research team to integrate archaeological and environmental approaches and data to address our overarching research aim: To determine the relationships between the emergence and demise of stratified societies, food procurement strategies, and environmental conditions in Pre-Columbian Amazonia.We focus on three study areas in SW Amazonia which provide a unique opportunity to examine the emergence and demise of different societies across a broad spectrum of environmental conditions -- in terms of forest cover, soil quality, and flood/drought risk. The following techniques will be employed:1. Archaeological excavations will reveal human occupation histories spanning over 8,000 years, while laboratory-based analyses of pottery, human bones, and soils will provide insights into diet, food processing, cultural practices, and land use. 2. Microscopic analyses of ancient charcoal, pollen, and plant remains from nearby lake/channel sediments and soils will reveal forest and savanna resource management; e.g. use of fire and selection of economically important species such as fruit trees and palms. 3. The evolutionary history of the physical landscape and river networks will be reconstructed to determine how changes in flood regime influenced occupation history and land use. 4. The above data will be compared with annual-resolution climate records from nearby cave stalagmites to determine potential linkages between cultural/land-use change and climate change. 5. To integrate these different lines of evidence, and understand their relationships through time, it is essential to have secure chronologies, which we will achieve predominantly through radiocarbon dating. There is increasing interest in cultural heritage and identity among present-day urban and rural Amazonian communities. We will therefore engage with a museum in Trinidad (the provincial capital of one of our Bolivian study areas) to improve its educational value by incorporating best practice to develop stimulating, interactive museum exhibits and accompanying booklets that can convey our project findings to a wide public audience. We will also explore the potential for building eco-museums in rural villages in the heart of our archaeological study areas. By engaging with urban and rural communities in this way, we hope to lay the foundation for longer-term impact by contributing to the wider socio-political issue of land-use conflict between indigenous peoples, landowners, and conservationists. Broader, international impact will be achieved via our project website and end-of-project exhibitions in museums of the major Bolivian and Brazilian cities of La Paz and Sao Paulo.