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

过去人类-环境关系的动态变化是当今考古学中最相关的问题之一。前哥伦布时代(1492年前)的亚马逊提供了一个关于人类与环境相互作用的长期争论的案例研究。一种观点认为亚马逊是一片塑造了人类历史的原始荒野，而另一种观点认为，由于几千年的人类土地利用，亚马逊已经完全变成了一片驯化的景观。最近开创性地发现了哥伦布时代以前的大型景观工程项目--巨大的居民丘、环形沟渠、堤道和运河--颠覆了环境限制将亚马逊地区的文化发展限制在简单的半游牧、狩猎采集的生活方式的范例，就像今天土著人民所实行的那样。然而，这些复杂的(分层的)社会产生和衰落的过程及其与环境的关系仍未解决。这种不确定性源于考古学数据的匮乏，以及对人类与环境相互作用的调查所必需的跨学科合作的缺乏。因此，该项目组建了一个国际、多学科的研究团队，以整合考古学和环境方法和数据，以实现我们的总体研究目标：确定分层社会的出现和消亡、食物采购策略和哥伦布前亚马逊地区环境条件之间的关系。我们专注于亚马逊西南部的三个研究区域，这三个区域提供了一个独特的机会，在广泛的环境条件下--森林覆盖、土壤质量和洪水/干旱风险--检查不同社会的出现和消亡。将采用以下技术：1.考古发掘将揭示人类8000多年的占领历史，而基于实验室的陶器、人骨和土壤分析将提供对饮食、食品加工、文化习俗和土地使用的洞察。2.对附近湖泊/河道沉积物和土壤中的古代木炭、花粉和植物遗骸的微观分析将揭示森林和稀树草原资源管理；例如，火的使用和对重要经济物种的选择，如果树和棕榈树。3.将重建自然景观和河网的演化史，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相比较，以确定文化/土地利用变化与气候变化之间的潜在联系。5.为了综合这些不同的证据线，并了解它们随时间的关系，必须有可靠的年表，我们将主要通过放射性碳测年来实现这一点。今天的亚马孙城乡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(我们的一个玻利维亚研究区的省会)的一家博物馆合作，通过采用最佳做法来提高其教育价值，开发激动人心的互动博物馆展品和随附的小册子，向广大公众传达我们的项目成果。我们还将探索在考古研究区中心的农村建立生态博物馆的潜力。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、土地所有者和自然资源保护者之间更广泛的土地使用冲突的社会政治问题，为更长期的影响奠定基础。通过我们的项目网站和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项目结束展览，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.