Landscape Transformation, Mounded Villages and Adopted Cultigens: The Rise of Early

Formative Communities in South-Eastern Uruguay

Author(s): Jos Iriarte
Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 38, No. 4, Debates in "World Archaeology" (Dec., 2006), pp.
644-663
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40024061 .
Accessed: 13/04/2013 12:32
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World
Archaeology.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape
transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens:
the rise of
early
Formative
communities in south-eastern
Uruguay
Jose Iriarte
Abstract
New research in lowland South America is
beginning
to reveal a
diversity
of
complex
cultural
trajectories
in a
region
that was
long-considered marginal
with
respect
to Andean and Mesoamerican
civilizations. This
paper
summarizes new
archaeological, palaeoecological
and archaebotanical data
from Los
Ajos site,
south-eastern
Uruguay, showing
that a
changing
and
increasingly dry
mid-
Holocene climate was associated with
significant
cultural
transformations, including early village
formation,
the
adoption
of a mixed
economy
and the construction of the earliest
public
architecture
known for the area.
Collectively,
this evidence indicates an
early
and
unexpected development
of
social
complexity
that had not heretofore been recorded in this area of South America. Human-
environment
interactions,
social
processes
related to the
development
of
early village
life and the role
of
early public
architecture are discussed with reference to the
emergence
of
early
Formative
communities in the
region.
Keywords
Early Formative; middle-range societies, public architecture; Uruguay;
La Plata
Basin; agriculture.
Introduction
Research on the
emergence
and internal
dynamics
of
middle-range
societies in South
America has concentrated
mainly
on Andean coastal and
highland valleys (Burger 1995;
Moseley 2001;
Solis et al.
2001),
and more
recently
in the lowland forest and riverine
regions
of Amazonia
(Heckenberger
et al.
1999;
Lehman et al.
2003;
Roosevelt
1999).
Historically
viewed as a
marginal
area when
compared
to the Andean and Mesoamerican
chiefdoms and
states,
the La Plata basin and its
adjacent
littoral
region
is a
large
and little
explored
area that is
beginning
to reveal an
early
and
long sequence
of
unique
and
RRoutledqe
World
Archaeology
Vol.
38(4):
644-663 Debates in World
Archaeology
Tay.ors.Franciscroup
2006
Taylor
& Francis ISSN 0043-8243
print/
1470- 1375 online
DOI:
10.1080/00438240600963262
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
645
complex
cultural
trajectories. Multidisciplinary investigations
at the Los
Ajos
archae-
ological
mound
complex
in the wetlands of south-eastern
Uruguay
run counter to the
traditional view that the La Plata basin was inhabited
by simple groups
of hunters and
gatherers
for much of the
pre-Hispanic
era
(Meggers
and Evans
1978;
Steward
1946).
The
renewed
community-focused archaeological program
at Los
Ajos
showed that
large
Preceramic mound
complexes
in the
region
were not the result of
random,
successive
short-term
occupations
of mobile
hunter-gatherers (Schmitz
et al.
1991)
nor the burial
mounds or monuments of
complex hunter-gatherers
as
previously proposed (Bracco
et al.
2000a;
Gianotti
2000; Lopez 2001),
but
well-planned plaza villages
built
by people
who
practised
a mixed
economy.
In this
paper,
I
present
new
archaeological, palaeoecological
and botanical data
indicating
that
during
an
increasingly dry mid-Holocene,
at around
4190
BP,
Los
Ajos
became a
permanent
circular
plaza village
and its inhabitants
adopted
the earliest cultivars known in southern South America
including
maize
(Zea mays L.)
and
squash (Cucurbita spp.). During
the
following
Ceramic Mound Period
(between
around
3000 and 500
BP)
Los
Ajos experienced
the formalization and
spatial
differentiation of
communal
spaces through
the
development
of elaborated mounded architecture around
the central
plaza area,
whose architectural
plan
reveals an
early
and distinct form of civic-
ceremonial architectural tradition for South America.
Furthermore,
the
presence
of at
least four other mound
complexes
in the
region
with
closely comparable
dates and
similarity
in their overall
plan
to Los
Ajos suggests
that these mound
complexes
had been
integrated
at a
regional
level since Preceramic times
(see Fig.
lb and Table
1) (Bracco
and
Ures
1999;
Iriarte et al.
2004; Lopez 2001).
Brief
history
of
archaeological investigations
in the
region
The
mound-building pre-Hispanic
cultures
dating
back to c. 4000 BP are
generally
referred
to as 'Constructors de Cerritos' in
Uruguay
and are divided into the Umbu
(Archaic
Preceramic)
and Vieira
(Ceramic)
traditions in southern Brazil.
They
extend
along
the
coastal and inland wetlands and
grasslands
that occur in the Atlantic coast between
around 28 and 36S
(Bracco
et al.
2000a;
Schmitz et al.
1991) (Fig. la).
The
study region,
the southern sector of the
Laguna
Merin basin
(Fig. lb),
is characterized
by
a
patchwork
of
closely packed
environments
including wetlands,
wet
prairies, grasslands, riparian
forests, large
stands of Butia
palms
and the Atlantic ocean coast. It has a
subtropical
humid climate with
high average temperatures
of 21.5C
during
the summer and low
average temperatures
of 10.8C
during
the winter. Total annual rainfall
averages
1 123mm
(PROBIDES 2000).
The 'Constructors de Cerritos' are divided into two main
periods:
a
Preceramic Mound Period
(hereafter PMP),
which
begins
around 4190 BP and ends with
the
appearance
of ceramics in the
region
around 3000
BP;
and a Ceramic Mound Period
(hereafter CMP),
which extends from around 3000 BP to the Contact Period
(Bracco
et al.
2000a;
Iriarte
2003; Lopez 2001) (Fig. 2).1
Archaeological
research in
Uruguay
and Brazil has been
permeated by
theoretical and
methodological approaches
that have
hampered
researchers from
obtaining
the
information needed to examine the
processes
involved in the
development
of these
early
Formative societies.
During
the 1960s and
1970s,
the aim of the National
Programme
of
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
646 Jose Iriarte
Figure
I A Location of 'Constructores de Cerritos' studied
regions
in the south-eastern
portion
of the
La Plata Basin and its
adjacent
littoral zone.
Figure
IB
Map
of south-eastern
Uruguay showing
archaeological
sites: 1. Los
Ajos;
2. Estancia Mai
Abrigo;
3. Puntas de San
Luis;
4. Isla
Larga;
5. Los
Indios;
6.
Potrerillo;
7. Craneo Marcado.
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
647
Table 1 Radiocarbon dates from Los
Ajos
and other sites with Preceramic mound
components
from
Uruguay
Provenience
Arbitrary
Lab Dated Conventional
2-Sigma
(site) depth (cm)
number material 14C
yr
BP cal.
yr
BP*
Los
Ajos
TBN
Trench,
sector 7 160-165 Beta- 158278 charcoal
1,050
40
1,050-920
(AMS)
sector 6 190-195 Beta-158281 charcoal
1,660
+ 40
1,690-1,660
(AMS)
Mound Delta 205-210 Beta-158277 charcoal
2,960
+ 120
3,400-2,740
Mound
Gamma,
sector
1/D
210-215 Beta-158279 charcoal
3,460
100
3,980-3,470**
sector
6/C
270-275 Beta- 158280 charcoal
4,190 40 4,840-4,580
(AMS)
Mound
Alfa,
Layer
III 280-285 URU 0052 charcoal
3,350
+ 90
3,830-3,380**
285-290 URU 0033 charcoal
3,870
+ 280
5,030-5,010
and
4,990-3,550**
295-300 URU 0034 charcoal
3,690
270
4,830-3,370**
340-345 URU 0089 charcoal
3,950
80
4,580-4,160
345-355 URU 0088 charcoal
3,750
+ 140
4,520-4,470
and
4,450-3,710**
Punt as de San Luis
Mound II
Layer
II URU 009 charcoal
3,550
+ 60
3,980-3,680**
Layer
III URU 009 charcoal
3,650
50
4,100-3,840**
Layer
III URU 010 charcoal
3,730
100
4,410-3,830**
Isla
Larga
Mound I 260-270 URU013 charcoal
3,660
+ 120
4,380-3,670**
URU014 charcoal
3,630
+ 60
4,100-3,820**
Potrerillo
Mound I basal level URU 083 charcoal
3,790
90
4,420-3,900**
URU 165 charcoal
3,820
+ 100
4,510-4,480
and
4,440-3,910**
Arroyo Yaguari
Lemos
Mound 27
UE02/level
11 Ua 18817 charcoal 3250 + 40 3569-3379
Yaguari
SI 6496 charcoal 3170

150 2962-3722**
Note: "Calibrations based on Stuiver et al.
1998; **C13/C12
ratio estimated
Archaeological Investigations
in Brazil
(PRONAPA)
was to
develop
a
chronological
framework for the
yet
unstudied south-eastern sector of the La Plata Basin
by applying
ceramic sedation
(Meggers
and Evans
1969)
and lithic
typologies (Schmitz 1978, 1987).
Their
classificatory-historical approach
focused on
obtaining representative samples
from
limited test
units,
which allowed them to build
chronological relationships
of lithic and
ceramic
phases
but limited their
ability
to
study
intra-site
spatial relationships. Although
the
presence
of
large
and numerous mound
complexes
can be surmised from the
regional
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
648 Jose Iriarte
Figure
2
Chronological
chart for south-eastern Brazil and
Uruguay.
archaeological maps
of PRONAPA
publications
in the inland freshwater wetlands of the
state of Rio Grande do Sul and
Uruguay,
these
investigators
often reduced the unit of
archaeological analysis
and
interpretation
to the
study
of individual
mounds,
which
prevented
them from
studying community patterns (Cope
1991: 214-
15;
Prieto et al. 1970:
map 2; Ruthschilling
1989:
map 3).2
PRONAPA
archaeologists interpreted
mound sites as the result of successive short-term
occupations
of
hunters, gatherers
and fishers that moved
seasonally
to
exploit locally
rich
environments
(Brochado 1984;
Schmitz et al.
1991).
The habitation nature of the mounds
was inferred based on the identification of
post-moulds,
hearths and the
presence
of
domestic debris
resulting
from food
preparation,
tool manufacture and
maintenance,
in
conjunction
with occasional
findings
of human burials. These researchers see
continuity
between the Archaic Umbu Tradition
(8000-2500 bp)
of
generalized hunter-gatherers
and
the Preceramic Mound
occupations (Schmitz 1987). They
also envision a direct connection
between the CMP
(Vieria Tradition)
and the historic Charrua and Minuano
groups.
The
lifeways
of these
profoundly
transformed historic
groups
were often
projected
into the
past
and used as direct
ethnographic analogues
to
interpret
the
archaeological
record
(Becker 1990; Cope 1991;
Schmitz et al.
1991). Agriculture
and
cultigens
were
thought
to
have been
brought by
the Amazonian
Tupi-Guarani immigrants during
the late Holocene
(Schmitz 1991).
It is
hardly surprising
that this
interpretative
framework fitted
comfortably
with the
long-held assumption
that this
region
was inhabited
by marginal
hunter-gatherers (Meggers
and Evans
1978;
Steward
1946).
In the
mid-1980s,
the
Archaeological Salvage Programme
of the
Laguna
Merin Basin
(CRALM) began systematic archaeological
fieldwork in
Uruguay.
Initial excavations on
small
two-paired
mound
sites,
which
yielded complex arrays
of CMP
multiple burials,
led
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
649
these researchers to characterize these sites as ceremonial
and/or mortuary
in nature
(Cabrera
et al.
1989)
and
typified
these societies as
complex hunter-gatherers adapted
to a
resource-rich wetland environment
(Lopez
and Bracco
1994).
While this
early
research
recognized
the
presence
of
large
mound
complexes
and their
high degree
of
similarity
in
ground plan,
as well as the
presence
of an extensive off-mound area associated with the
mounds, they generally
overlooked the
importance
of
conducting
work to articulate
mound and off-mound contexts to reveal
community organization. However,
this renewed
work in the
region
set the tone for more advanced studies on mound construction
techniques, analysis
of
mortuary practices,
faunal
analysis,
as well as lithic and ceramic
technology (see papers
in Beovide et al.
2004;
Consens et al.
1995;
Duran and Bracco
2000;
Gianotti
2000; Lopez
and Sans
1999;
MEC
2001).
Unlike PRONAPA
researchers,
Cabrera
(1992) pointed
out that there was a
rupture
between the 'Constructors de Cerritos' and the historic Charnia and Minuano
groups,
which resulted from the dramatic transformations that historic
groups experienced
due to
the dissemination of
European diseases,
the
Spanish military campaigns
of
extermination,
the
Portuguese
slave-hunters and the introduction of cattle. These transformations
severely
reduced their numbers and forced them to
change
their traditional
lifeways
significantly.
More
recently,
a re-examination of the earlier chronicles and the
analysis
of
new ethnohistorical documents are
beginning
to show that the
groups
that inhabited the
area were more
sedentary, displayed
a more
complex sociopolitical organization
and
practised
food
production (Bracco 2004;
Cabrera
2000).
In the
early 1990s,
new
investigations
in the
upper
freshwater wetlands of India Muerta
documented the
presence
of numerous
large
and
spatially
elaborated mound
complexes
and established the
beginning
of the PMP around 4000 BP
(Bracco 1993). My
own
preliminary
research in the area demonstrated that the wetlands of India Muerta
display
some of the
largest
and
spatially
most
complex
sites in the
region (Iriarte
et al.
2001).
Mound sites are circumscribed to wetland
floodplains
situated in ecotonal areas
characterized
by
a mosaic of
wetlands,
wet
prairies, grasslands, riparian
forests and
palm
groves. They
showed a dual distribution
pattern.
Small sites
(one
to three
mounds)
generally
occur in the wetland
floodplains positioned
on
top
of the most
prominent
levees
following
the courses of streams and
exhibiting
a
linear/curvilinear pattern.
In
contrast,
in
the more stable locations of the
landscape,
like flattened
spurs adjacent
to wetland
floodplains,
which are secure from
flooding
and have immediate access to the rich-resource
and fertile
wetlands,
mound sites are
large,
numerous and
spatially complex covering up
to
60ha. These sites contain varied mounded architecture
geometrically arranged
in circular
(e.g.
Estancia Mai
Abrigo), elliptical (e.g. Damonte)
and horseshoe formats
(e.g.
Los
Ajos)
surrounding
a central communal
space accompanied by
vast outer
sectors,
which
generally
exhibit more
disperse
and less
formally integrated
mounded architecture
(Bracco 1993;
Bracco et al.
2000b; Dillehay 1995;
Iriarte
2003;
Iriarte et al.
2001) (Fig. 3).
New research at Los Indios mound
complex (Fig. lb)
and the Craneo Marcado mound
(Lopez 2000, 2001; Lopez
and Gianotti
1998;
Pintos
2000)
has led the excavators to
interpret
the
beginning
of mound
building
as a
major breakthrough
in the
history
of the
hunter-gatherers
of the
region
marked
by
the monumentalization of the
landscape.
According
to these
researchers,
mounds are ceremonial in nature and were built
through
discrete and
separate
construction
stages using
refuse and sediments extracted from
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
650 Jose Iriarte
Figure
3 Distribution of mound sites in the India Muerta wetlands in the southern sector of
Laguna
Merin.
surrounding
soils. Within a
landscape archaeology approach (Bradley 1998;
Criado
1993),
these
investigators
have
interpreted
mounds
variously
as monuments for the dead
(Pintos
2000),
ceremonial
spaces and/or
territorial markers
(Gianotti 2000; Lopez 2001; Lopez
and Gianotti
1998),
while the
adjacent
off-mound areas are
generally interpreted
as the
living quarters
of these
populations.
Despite
these advances in the
archaeology
of the Constructores de
Cerritos,
some
important questions
crucial to
understanding
the nature of Los
Ajos,
and
by
extension the
large
multi-mound sites in the
area,
remain unanswered. Are these
large, formally
laid out
mound
complexes
the result of a succession of
randomly placed,
short-term
occupations
by
mobile
hunter-gatherers?
Are
they
burial mounds or monuments? Or are
they
well-
planned villages incorporating public spaces?
What is the
occupational history
of these
sites? More
importantly,
what kind of subsistence did these societies
practise
and what was
the nature and
dynamics
of the societies that built these
complex
mound sites? To address
these
questions,
I carried out a
multidisciplinary community-focused archaeological
investigation
at Los
Ajos site,
which is described below.
Excavations at Los
Ajos
Los
Ajos
is located in a flattened
spur
of the Sierra de Los
Ajos,
which overlooks the
wetlands of India Muerta. The first excavations at Los
Ajos by
Bracco consisted of a block
excavation in Mound
Alfa,
a test unit in Mound Beta and a few
opportunistic
test units in
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
651
off-mound areas. This work established the mid-Holocene
age
of the earthen mounds in
the area. The Preceramic Mound Period
(PMP) component
at Los
Ajos yielded
five dates
between 3950 and 3350 BP
(4580
and 3380 cal.
BP) (Bracco 1993;
Bracco and Ures
1999).
To reveal settlement
patterns,
our renewed
community-focused
excavation
programme
consisted of the
placement
of a block excavation in Mound
Gamma,
a test unit in Mound
Delta,
two trench transects
articulating
mound and off-mound areas and a 50m
systematic
interval transect
sampling strategy
of test units to
target
off-mound areas
totalling
an
excavated area of 305m2. Our work showed that Los
Ajos,
which covers about 12
ha,
is
one of the
largest
and most
formally
laid out sites in the
study
area
(Fig. 4a).
Its Inner
Precinct includes six
flat-topped, quadrangular platform
mounds
(called 6, Alfa, Delta,
Gamma,
4 and
7) closely arranged
in a horseshoe formation and with a
height
above
ground
level of 1.75 to 2.5m
(Fig. 4).
Two
dome-shaped
mounds
(called
Beta and
8)
frame
the
central,
oval
plaza
with a size of 75 x 50m. The formal and
compact
inner
precinct
contrasts with more
dispersed
and
informally arranged peripheral sectors,
which include
two
crescent-shaped
rises
(named
TBN and
TBS),
five circular and three
elongated
lower
dome-shaped mounds,
borrow
pits
and a vast off-mound area
bearing
subsurface
occupational
refuse. The TBN
crescent-shaped
rise
(14-25m
wide and 0.40-0. 80m
tall)
extends over 150m
surrounding
Mounds Alfa and Delta. At its
base,
it becomes
wider
prolonging
to the north east and
forming
a rounded
elongation facing
Mound
13. The
TBS,
a lower
(15-35cm)
and narrower
(4-8m) arc-shaped rise,
encircles Mounds
5, 8,
and 9.
The Preceramic Mound Period
Our research indicates that a series of
major
social and economic
changes
took
place
at
Los
Ajos during
the PMP. The broad
contemporaneity
of radiocarbon
dates,
artefact
Figure
4 A Los
Ajos
site
planimetric
and
topographical map. Figure
4B The inner
precinct (modified
from Iriarte et al.
2004).
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
652 Jose Iriarte
content and similarities in Preceramic Mound
Component (PMC) stratigraphy among
mounds
Alfa,
Delta and Gamma
suggest
that the Los
Ajos
inhabitants
began
to live in a
circular household-based
community, partitioning
the site into discrete domestic and
public
areas characterized
by
the
placement
of residential units around a central
plaza
area.
Eight
dates from Los
Ajos place
the PMC
occupation
between c. 4190 and 2960 BP.
The two oldest dates from the basal levels of the PMC at Mound Gamma and Alfa
suggest
that
mound-building began
between around 4190 and 3950 BP
(4840-4160
cal.
BP) (Iriarte
2003;
Iriarte et al.
2004).
Excavation at Mound Gamma indicates that it
grew
as a result of
multiple overlapping
of domestic
occupations
where a wide
range
of activities associated with food
preparation,
consumption,
stone tool
production
and maintenance took
place.
The PMC
Layer
4 is
characterized
by
an
85cm-thick, compact, very
dark brown
silty
loam
organic
sediment
consisting
of
relatively
undifferentiated
deposits composed
of lithic
debitage
and
tools,
small
fragments
of charred
bone,
ash and soot
lenses,
and small
pieces
of burned
clay
(Fig. 5).
The combined
analysis
of
stratigraphy, features,
artefact and ecofact
composition
and horizontal
spatial
distribution of lithic
debitage density
indicates
that, during
the
PMC,
Mound Gamma was a residential area that
grew through
the
gradual
accumulation
of
occupational
refuse.
Despite
intensive hand excavation and the
large
block excavation
placed
in the center of the
mound,
no house features were identified.
However,
lithic
debitage
horizontal
density
trends show a consistent
pattern
characterized
by
the
presence
of a central area of low
density
and a
periphery exhibiting higher
artifact
density.
The
central zone of the mound is
interpreted
as a
regularly
maintained habitation
space
and
the
periphery
as a zone where trash was
deposited (Iriarte 2003).
The central
plaza area,
located around the domestic accretional
mounds,
is
characterized
by
low artefact densities and a lack of
anthropogenically
altered soil
accumulations. Thin
occupational
refuse
(10-20cm)
was
deposited
in the TBN and TBS
crescent-shaped
rises. The
systematic
interval transect
sampling
in the off-mound areas
documented a vast outer area of subsurface domestic debris which does not show
accumulation of
anthropogenic
soils.
Figure
5
Stratigraphy
of Mound Gamma
(modified
from Iriarte et al.
2004).
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
653
The lithic
assemblage
indicates that tool
manufacture,
use and maintenance took
place
at
Los
Ajos.
Local raw
materials, mainly rhyolite
and
quartz,
were
brought
to the
site,
where
all
stages
of lithic reduction are
represented, including
core
reduction,
tool
manufacture,
use and
maintenance/rejuvenation.
The tool
assemblage
is characterized
by
a
generalized,
non-specific assemblage
that includes a broad
range
of different
tool-types displaying
a
wide
variety
of
edge angles including flake-knives, end-scrapers, wedges, notches, point/
borers and hafted bifaces
indicating
that Mound Gamma was a domestic area where a wide
range
of activities were carried out
(Iriarte 2003;
Iriarte and Marozzi in
press).
Plant and animal remains at Los
Ajos
indicate that PMP
people adopted
a mixed
economy shortly
after
they began
to live in more
permanent villages.
Medium to
large-sized
mammals like deer
(Ozoterus
bezoarticus and Mazama
gouazubira)
and
semi-aquatic
rodents such as otter
(Myocastor coypus)
and
capybara {Hidrochoerus hydrochaeris)
dominate the bone
assemblage.
Other medium to small-sized
mammals, including
small
rodents such as rat-otter
{Holochilus brasilensis), 'aperea' (Cavia sp.)
and mouse
(Cricetidae),
in addition to
opposums (Didelphis
alventris and Lutreolina
crassiculata)
and
armadillos
(Dasypus sp.
and
Euphractus sexintus),
are also
present. Reptiles
like lizard
(Tupinambis merianae)
and turtle
(Chelonia),
birds such as Greater Rhea
(Rhea Americana),
dove
(Zenaida auriculata)
and Great
grebe (Podiceps major)
and freshwater fish were also
recovered in minor
quantities.
A
large part
of the bone
assemblage consisting
of distinctive
spiral fractures,
bone
splinters
and charred bones
exhibiting
cut marks indicate that
processing
and
consumption
of medium and
large
mammals took
place
in Mound Gamma
during
the PMC
(Iriarte 2003). Phytolith
and starch
grain analyses
documented
seeds,
leaves and roots from a
variety
of wild and domesticated
species marking
the earliest
occurrence of at least two domesticated
crops
in the
region:
corn
(Zea mays)
and
squash
(Cucurbita spp.) shortly
after 4190 BP
(Iriarte
in
press;
Iriarte et al.
2004).
The close
association between
large
mound
complexes
and the most fertile
agricultural
lands in the
region suggest
that PMP
people practised
flood-recessional
farming. During
the
spring
and
summer
months, organic
soils are
exposed
on the wetland
margins.
These
superficial peat
horizons are
highly fertile,
hold moisture and are
easy
to till.
Furthermore,
the floodwater of
the
nearby
Cebollati River
periodically
inundates the area and
replenishes
the soils with
nutrients,
which makes the India Muerta wetlands an ideal locale for the
practice
of wetland
margin
seasonal
farming (Iriarte 2003;
Iriarte et al.
2004;
Juan Montana
pers.
comm.
2000).
Our associated
palaeoecological
data indicate that the
major
cultural transformations that
occurred
during
the PMP were associated with
significant
climatic
changes (Iriarte 2006;
Iriarte et al.
2004).
The mid-Holocene between c. 6620 and 4020
(7580-7440
to 4570-4410 cal.
BP)
was a
period
of
significant
climate fluctuation marked
by increasing aridity.
At around
4020 BP a maximum
drying episode occurred,
as evidenced
by
a massive
spike
of
Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae coupled
with a
sharp drop
in wetland
species.
The
maximum
drying episode
that took
place
around 4020 BP
probably
caused a decrease in
the surface water
recharge
to the inland wetlands and
waterways,
which resulted in the
desiccation of
grasslands.
This caused
increasing diminishing
returns from
grasslands,
deepening
the resource
gradient
between wetlands and
grasslands. Although
reduced in
extent,
wetlands became attractive
places
for
pre-Hispanic populations by providing
abundant,
now more
highly
circumscribed
plant
and animal resources and a stable source of
water. The Los
Ajos
site indicates
that, during
this
period,
local
populations
did not
disperse
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
654 Jose Iriarte
(e.g. disaggregate
into smaller
groups
and increased
mobility)
or
out-migrate
to other
regions
but
opted
for
orienting
their settlement towards the
upper
freshwater wetlands where
they
established more
permanent
communities. Increased sedentism
appears
to have been a
response
to local resource abundance in wetland areas in the face of
regional
resource
scarcity
produced by
the
drying
trend of the mid-Holocene
(Iriarte
et al.
2004).3
The
making
of
early
Formative communities: the Los
Ajos plaza village
The Los
Ajos plaza village
materialized a series of social
processes
that unfolded
during
the PMC. When these
populations
became less mobile and
began
to
aggregate
more
frequently
in
larger communities,
the
problems
associated with
forming
and
remaining
in
large groups
for
longer periods
of time surfaced. The
incorporation
of a central and
communal
space may
have
played
a crucial role as a social
integrative facility (sensu
Adler
and Wilshusen
1990), representing
the formalization of a wider social field of interaction
that transcended the household
sphere.
Plazas are an
early prototype
of
public
architecture that lies at the root of
complex
societies in the Americas
(Lathrap
et al.
1977). Embodying
shared
public space, they
constitute a threshold in terms of the
appropriation
and the transformation of social
spaces,
which take
through
time
particular
sets of
meanings
and connotations in the social
realm. Plazas not
only represent
the
tangible
formalization of
group-level integration, but,
as
prominent
and fixed
constructions, they perpetuate
and sediment these relations in
place (Dillehay 1992a; Moseley 2001;
Sassaman and
Heckenberger 2004).
It is in this new
arena that communities diffuse tensions and
promote
social cohesion. There
they
also
express, negotiate
and reaffirm their identities and
goals through
the
practice
of ritual
activities,
such as
meetings
of
sodalities,
initiation
rites, group-sponsored
activities
(e.g.
dances or
feasts)
and multi-
village
ceremonial activities.
Circular
plaza villages gravitate
towards the central
plaza
which embraces the
community
as a whole.
They
have been
interpreted
as
representing unity
and
egalitarian societies,
where
the whole
community
can
participate
in a democratic fashion.
They
denote
equal
access to
public
activities and ritual
performances
as
long
as houses are
equidistant
from the central
public
area
(Gron 1991;
Gross
1979). However,
it should not be
forgotten
that
plazas
also
mark social differences
along
lines of
gender, age
and
lineages.
In Amazonian and Central
Brazilian
groups (e.g. Heckenberger 2005; Hornborg 1988;
Levi-Strauss
1963;
Turner
1996),
plazas
materialize a series of ranked
oppositions
between an
inner, public, sacred,
male
domain versus an
outer, domestic, profane,
female
space.
Plaza
villages
also
embody
inherent
structural
contradictions,
which
carry
the seeds of
incipient
social
differentiation;
a
development that,
as we will see
below, may
have taken
place during
the
subsequent
CMC.
The occurrence of other
broadly contemporaneous
PMP mound
complexes (Isla Larga,
Puntas de San
Luis,
Los Indios and
Potrerillo) (Fig. lb,
Table
1)
and other sites with
similarities in overall
ground plan
to Los
Ajos (e.g.
Da
Monte, Campo Alto,
Estancia Mai
Abrigo
and 5
Islas) (Fig. 3) suggest
that these societies were
integrated through pan-tribal
institutions at a
regional
level since Preceramic times. Previous and new research at
Arroyo Yaguari,
Tacuarembo Province
(Fig. la),
is
beginning
to show similar
patterns
(Gianotti 2005;
Sans
1985).
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
655
The
palaeoclimatic
record at Los
Ajos
indicates that after 4000 BP
dry
conditions
ameliorated, returning
to more humid
conditions, resembling
the current climate. At least
in the
long-term,
this climatic
change
did not reverse the social
processes
initiated at Los
Ajos during
the
mid-Holocene,
but seems to have accelerated them. The rich and
abundant wetland resources combined with the
ability
to
manage part
of the food
supply
through
the
adoption
of domesticated
plants may
also have enhanced the
possibilities
of
forming
and
remaining
in
larger groups throughout longer parts
of the
year.
The transformation of the
plaza village:
the Ceramic Mound Period
The inner
precinct
took on new roles in the constitution of the social and ritual life of Los
Ajos during
the Ceramic Mound Period. While
during
the PMC we saw the
appearance
of
a household-based
community
distributed around a central
public space,
the CMC
witnessed the
appearance
of internal site stratification characterized
by
the formalization
and
spatial
differentiation of the inner
precinct
with
respect
to an
outer,
more
dispersed
and less
formally integrated peripheral
area.
Mound Gamma's
Layers
5 and 6 consist of dark brown sediment
bearing
a medium to
high
concentration of
gravel
within a mottled silt loam matrix
(Fig. 5) containing
burned
clay,
charcoal and ash lenses.
Capping episodes consisting
of
gravel
loads remodelled
Mound Gamma from the extant PMP 0.6-0.8m
high, circular, dome-shaped
mound to a
larger, quadrangular,
1.40m
tall, flat-topped, bevelled-edged platform
mound. The
presence
of similar
gravelly layers
in Mound Alfa and Delta indicates that the
remodelling
of mounds was a
generalized practice
at Los
Ajos.
A similar
practice
was
reported
in the
Puntas de San Luis
site,
where ant hill burnt chunks were used as mound construction
materials
during
the CMP to
heighten
and
reshape
mounds
(Bracco
et al.
2000b).
Extensive borrow areas in the
periphery
of the site attest to the scale of mound
building
that occurred
during
this
period. During
this
period,
interments became an
integral
and
recurrent
activity
that took
place only
in mounds. So
far,
excavations in the off-mound
areas have not found
burials, restricting
this
practice
to the mound located in the inner
precinct.
The CMC in Mound Gamma and
Alpha
is characterized
by
the
presence
of
clusters of disarticulated and
fragmented
human bone
clusters,
most of which are
severely
shattered bone
fragments (Bracco 1993;
Iriarte
2003).
The lithic and faunal
assemblage
show minor
changes
with
respect
to the
preceding
PMP. Ceramics are
adopted during
the
CMP and
they closely
resemble the
broadly
defined Viera Tradition
types (Schmitz
et al.
1991). Phytolith
and starch
grains analyses
documented the
presence
of maize and
squash
throughout
this
period.
Mound Gamma reflects
multiple
construction
stages during
the
CMP with
interspersed periods
of use. Around 1660
BP,
the TBN and the TBS crescent-
shaped
rises
experienced
a more substantial accumulation of
occupational refuse,
which
attained 0.80m and 0.35m of
anthropic deposits
in their central
sectors, respectively,
and
indicate a more intense and
permanent occupation
of the site. Subsurface
occupational
refuse distributed over the vast
peripheral
off-mound areas
covering
over 12ha
suggests
a
large
resident
population
for the site
during
the CMC
(Iriarte 2003).
The CMP formal
layout
of the inner
precinct bespeaks formality
and convention. The
horseshoe
arrangement
of
imposing platform mounds,
the TBN and Mound 13
appear
to
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
656 Jose Iriarte
represent
an
integrated
architectural
plan
oriented to the north east that contrasts with the
less
conspicuous
and
informally arranged
south-western
sector, marking
an
asymmetrical
distribution of architecture in the inner
precinct. Through
these
transformations,
the inner
precinct acquired
a
strong public
ritual character.
Formality
is one of the most essential
characteristics of ritual and the
way
it
operates
in
society.
Public ritual communicates
through very specific media,
it follows a set
pattern
and its contents are standardized to the
extent that
they usually
allow little modification
(e.g.
Bell
1997;
Block
1974; Bradley 1998).
Formalism reflects an adherence to restricted modes of
activities,
often viewed
by
participants
as
timeless,
invariant and tradition-laden. Formalized
activity
can also be
important
in the
reproduction
of social
power.
The
apparent
contradictions between
competition
and
cooperation
are not
atypical
of
middle-range
societies
(e.g.
Fowles
2002;
Tuzin
2001).
Social actors and
groups
can
manipulate public
architecture to
legitimize
their
political power drawing
on the fact that architecture is an effective tool for
structuring
the
activities that form social
organization by expressing
or
restricting
relations
among
individuals and
groups (e.g.
Bourdieu
1977;
Giddens
1979).
Formal ceremonial contexts
'create
opportunities
for social
control,
more
complex
architectural
expressions,
social
stratification, exchange,
and centralized
leadership' (Dillehay
1992b:
418)
-
and more so if
these circumstances are
accompanied by population growth, population pressure
on fertile
lands, technological change
and territorialism: all
processes
that
appear
to be
taking place
at a
regional
level in the wetlands of India Muerta
during
the Ceramic Mound Period.
The mounds that are closer to the
plaza
area had
privileged
access to
public
ritual and
political
control. Their
advantageous location,
architectural elaboration and the
segregation
of activities that
they
materialize
suggest
that the members of this
segment
of the
society possibly enjoyed
a somewhat
higher
social
standing
than those
living
in more
peripheral
areas of the site. Platform mounds
may
have served as mnemonic devices to
establish a social
memory
of
place
and
perpetuate asymmetrical relationships by
an
emerging
sector of the
population during
the CMP.
The inner
precinct
of the site also shows a marked dual
spatial asymmetry.
The north-
east sector became more formal and
prominent,
characterized
by
the
steep-sided, relatively
high platform
mounds
presenting large, fairly rectangular
summits framed
by
a
larger,
wider and taller
crescent-shaped rise,
which articulates with
platform
Mound 13. In
contrast,
on the
opposite
south-west end of the inner
precinct,
there is a less
formally
integrated
area characterized
by low, dome-shaped,
circular mounds surrounded
by
a less
prominent
TBS
crescent-shaped
rise. Given the
widespread ethnographic (e.g.
Levi-Strauss
1963; Nimandeju 1946;
Turner
1996)
and
archaeological (e.g. Knight 1990; Netherly
and
Dillehay 1986) presence
of dual
organization
associated with dual architectural
patterns
and
plaza villages
both in South and North
America,
the Los
Ajos ground plan during
the
CMP
may
well
represent
an
expression
of a ranked dual social
organization.
These
patterns
require
clarification
through
further research at Los
Ajos
and other sites in the
region.
Concluding
remarks
The
multidisciplinary investigations
at Los
Ajos
have advanced
previous interpretations
of
cultural
development
in the
region
in
significant ways. First,
the combined
archaeological
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
657
and
palaeoecological
data show that the mid-Holocene was characterized
by significant
climatic and
ecological changes,
and that these
perturbations
were associated with
important
cultural transitions
involving permanent
mounded settlements situated within
resource-rich,
circumscribed wetlands.
Second,
the renewed
community-focused
archae-
ological programme
at Los
Ajos
revealed that Preceramic mound
complexes
are not the
result of
successive,
short-term
occupations by hunter-gatherer-fishers
who moved
seasonally
to
exploit
the rich local environments of this
region (e.g.
Schmitz et al.
1991)
nor the burial mounds or monuments of
complex hunter-gatherers
as
previously proposed
(Gianotti 2000; Lopez
and Bracco
1994; Lopez
and Giannotti
1998). According
to our
alternative
argument,
Los
Ajos
is a
well-planned village incorporating
central
public spaces
built
by people
who
practised
a mixed
economy combining hunting
and
gathering
with food
production.
The domestic use of mounds at Los
Ajos during
the PMP
forming
a
village
is
not in
agreement
with the
monumental/ceremonial
nature of
early mound-building
proposed by
other researchers
(Gianotti 2000; Lopez
and Gianotti
1998;
Pintos
2000).
The
presence
of at least four other Preceramic mound
complexes
with dates
broadly
contemporaneous
and
degrees
of similarities in the overall
plan
of mounded architecture to
Los
Ajos suggest
that south-eastern
Uruguay
was a locus of
early population
concentration
in lowland South America.
Although
most of the
large
mound
complexes
in the
region
display
the recursive
geometrical layout (circular, elliptical
and
horseshoe),
there is also
considerable
variability
not
only
in the formal structure of the
sites,
but also in the
combination,
dimensions and
shapes
of mounds
(Bracco
et al.
2000b;
Gianotti
2000, 2005;
Lopez
and Pintos
2000).
Future work at a
regional
level will be able to
clarify
what is now a
rather
complicated picture
of settlement
variability allowing
a more
precise understanding
of the role that Los
Ajos played
in the
emergence
of
early
Formative societies in the
region.
Third,
the archaeobotanical evidence from Los
Ajos
and other
contemporary
sites in the
region, including
Isla
Larga,
Estancia Mai
Abrigo
and Los
Indios,
indicates that
cultigens
such as
maize, squashes,
Phaseolus beans and
possibly
domesticated tubers
(Canna sp.
and
Calathea
sp.)
were introduced and became
integrated
into local food economies
by
c. 4000
bp
(Iriarte
in
press;
Iriarte et al.
2001;
Iriarte et al.
2004).
These new data
put
into
question
previous interpretations
that
proposed
that the
expansion
and colonization of the
region
by Tupi-Guarani tropical
forest farmers
during
the late Holocene were
responsible
for the
arrival and dissemination of food
production
to the
region (Schmitz 1991).
Greater
expectations
The
early
Formative cultures of south-eastern
Uruguay
are
beginning
to unravel the
existence of a
unique, independent
and a more
complex
cultural
trajectory
than
previously
thought
for the La Plata Basin. The
unexpected
cultural
sequence
at Los
Ajos
reveals an
early expression
of cultural
complexity
never before
registered
in this
region
of lowland
South
America,
which clashes with the
long-held
view that this
region
was inhabited
by
marginal,
small
groups
of
simple, highly
mobile
hunter-gatherers
that had not
experienced
significant changes
since the
beginning
of the Holocene
(Meggers
and Evans
1978;
Steward
1946)
and endorses
previous
views
(Andrade
and
Lopez 2001;
Bracco et al.
2000a; Lopez
2001).
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
658 Jose Iriarte
Contemporary
with the first urban societies that
emerged
on the desert coast of Peru
(Solis
et al.
2001)
and the
development
of the Amazonian Formative
(Heckenberger 2005),
the social
changes experienced by
the
early
Formative
peoples
in south-eastern
Uruguay
in
the midst of a
changing
mid-Holocene environment did not take
place
in a vacuum. At the
moment,
it is difficult to assess the role that local
developments
and
interregional
interactions
played
in the
emergence
of
early
Formative societies in the La Plata Basin. No
doubt,
as we learn more about the mid and late Holocene cultural
developments
in the La
Plata
basin,
we will come to realize that interactions at a broad
geographical
scale with
contemporary developments,
such as the Preceramic
mound-building
cultures of the
Pantanal
(Schmitz
et al.
1998),
the
pit-house villages
of the
Itarare/Taquara
Tradition of
the southern Brazilian
Highlands (Beber 2005;
Schmitz
2002),
the
sambaqui
shell-middens
of the southern Atlantic coast of Brazil
(Andrade
and
Lopez 2001;
DeBlasis et al.
1998),
and
possibly
the
ring villages
of southern
fringes
of Amazonia
(Wust
and Barreto
1999),
must have
played
a
major
role in
shaping
the
emergence
of these societies.
The research
presented
in this
paper
not
only
shows how flawed is the
concept
of
marginal
area
by exposing
the
potential
of
grasslands
and wetlands for
pre-Hispanic
cultural
development (Stahl 2004),
but is also
starting
to reveal a
diversity
of different
pathways
towards social
complexity
taken
by early
Formative
people
in the
region.
The evidence from
Los
Ajos
has
provided
a basis for the
interpretation
of the rise of
early
Formative
communities in the La Plata
basin,
which will now allow for a broader consideration
of the role that
dynamic
human-environment
interactions, imported
cultivars and social
conditions
played
in the
emergence
of
early complex
societies in the La Plata Basin.
Acknowledgements
Research at Los
Ajos
was funded
by grants
from the National Science
Foundation,
Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research,
Smithsonian
Tropical
Research
Institute and the
University
of
Kentucky
Graduate School. I also received
support
from
the Comision Nacional de
Arqueologia,
Ministerio de Education
y Cultura, Uruguay
and
the
Rotary
Club of
Lascano, Rocha, Uruguay.
Sean Goddard from the
University
of
Exeter drafted
Figures
1 and 3.
My
work at Los
Ajos
benefited from the advice and
insightful
comments
suggested
over the
years by my
Ph.D.
advisory
committee
including
Jim
Brown, George Crothers,
Tom
Dillehay,
Richard
Jefferies,
Tassos
Karathanasis,
Dolores
Piperno,
Chris
Pool,
and Sissel Schroeder. Tom
Dillehay helped
me
conceptualize
early
Formative societies in broad
anthropological
terms and also
pushed
me to think
beyond
the confines of
Uruguay
and South America. I am also
particularly grateful
to
Oscar Marozzi. The
occupational history
of Los
Ajos
came into
sharper
focus
during
our
long
discussions over
many
mates while
digging
at Los
Ajos.
I should also like to
acknowledge
Roberto
Bracco,
Leonel
Cabrera,
and Jose
Lopez
for their
pioneering
and
continued work in south-eastern
Uruguay;
it is
upon
their foundations that this
paper
stands. All statements made
herein, however,
are
my
own
responsibility.
Department of Archaeology, University of
Exeter,
J.Iriarte@exeter.ac.uk
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
659
Notes
1 A bulk sediment
sample
extracted with a bucket
auger
from an
unspecified
context in
the basal area of Cerro de la Viuda was radiocarbon dated to
5,420 260 (URU014)
(Bracco
and Ures
1999).
More work is needed at the site to
prove
its association with a
cultural context.
2 When
evaluating
the PRONAPA in
hindsight,
it must be remembered that it was
a
pioneering
and ambitious
undertaking
which tried to
explore
and
study
Brazil's
8,500,000km2 territory
with
only
a small handful of
archaeologists.
In Rio Grande
do Sul
state,
the work of PRONAPA
represented
the first reconnaissance of an
archaeologically
unknown
region, generated
the first
chronological
scheme for the
area, provided
us with the first
systematic description
of sites and artifacts in the
region,
and broadened our
understanding
of
past
human-environment relations.
3 Recent
multiproxy paleoenvironmental
reconstruction in the
region by
Bracco and his
collaborators
(2005)
should be
regarded
with considerable caution since the
changes
in
the Poaceae
phytolith percentages
that
they
used to infer broader climatic reconstruc-
tion in terms of
temperature
and
humidity
for the mid and late Holocene
may simply
be
reflecting
the
dynamic
nature of the
Laguna Negra
salt marsh
during
the mid-Holocene
highstands
and not climatic
changes (see
Iriarte 2006:
28-9).
References
Adler,
M. A. and
Wilshusen,
R. 1990.
Large-scale integrative
facilities in tribal societies: cross-
cultural and southwestern US
examples.
World
Archaeology,
22: 134-46.
Andrade,
T. and
Lopez,
J. M. 2001. La
emergencia
de la
complejidad
cultural entre los cazadores
recolectores de la costa Atlantica meridional Sudamericana. Revista de
Arqueologia Americana,
17:
129-67.
Beber,
M. 2005. O sistema de assentamento
dosgrupos
ceramistas
doplanalto
Sul-Brasilero: O caso da
Tradiqdo Taquara/Itarare.
Sao
Leopoldo,
Brazil: Instituto Anchietano de
Pesquisas,
Documentos
No.
10, pp.
5-125.
Becker,
I. 1990. As
populacoes indigenas
no Rio Grande do Sul vistas
pelo
etno-historia:
os
Kaingang,
os
Charrua/Minuano,
os Guarani. Revista de
Arqueologia Americana,
11:
103-23.
Bell,
C. 1997. Ritual
Perspectives
and Dimensions. New York: Oxford
University
Press.
Beovide, L., Barreto,
I. and
Curbelo,
C. 2004. X
Congreso
Nacional de
Arqueologia Uruguaya.
La
arqueologia
entre los
desafios
del nuevo
siglo.
Montevideo: Sociedad
Uruguaya
de
Arqueologia.
CD-ROM.
Block,
M. 1974.
Symbols, songs,
dance and features of articulation: is
religion
an extreme form of
traditional
authority?
Archives
Europeenes
de
Sociologie, 15(1):
55-81.
Bourdieu,
P. 1977. Outline
of
a
Theory of
Practice.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Bracco,
D. 2004.
Charruas, Guenoas
y
Guaranies: interaccion
y
destruccion:
indigenas
en el Rio de la
Plata. Montevideo: Linardi & Risso.
Bracco,
R. 1993.
Proyecto Arqueologia
de la Cuenca de la
Laguna Merin, unpublished report
presented
to
PROBIDES, Rocha, Uruguay.
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
660 Jose Iriarte
Bracco,
R. and
Ures,
C. 1999. Ritmos
y
dinamica constructiva de las estructuras monticulares: sector
sur de la cuenca de la
Laguna Merin-Uruguay.
In
Arqueologia y Bioantropologia
de las Tierras
Bajas.
(eds
J. M.
Lopez
and M.
Sans).
Montevideo: Universidad de la
Republica,
Facultad de
Humanidades
y Ciencias, pp.
13-33.
Bracco, R., Cabrera,
L. and
Lopez,
J. M. 2000a. La Prehistoria de las Tierras
Bajas
de la Cuenca de
la
Laguna
Merin. In
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas. (eds
A. Duran and R.
Bracco).
Montevideo:
Ministerio de Educacion
y Cultura,
Comision Nacional de
Arqueologia, pp.
13-38.
Bracco, R., Montana, J., Nadal,
O. and
Gancio,
F. 2000b. Tecnicas de construction
y
estructuras
monticulares: termiteros
y
cerritos: desde lo
analogico
a lo estructural. In
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas (eds
A. Duran and R.
Bracco).
Montevideo: Ministerio de Educacion
y Cultura,
Comision
Nacional de
Arqueologia, pp.
285-300.
Bracco, R.,
del
Puerto, L., Inda,
H. and
Castineira,
C. 2005. Mid-late Holocene cultural and
environmental
dynamics
in Eastern
Uruguay. Quaternary International,
132: 37-45.
Bradley,
R. 1998. The
Significance of
Monuments on the
Shaping of
Human
Experience
in Neolithic
and Bronze
Age Europe.
London:
Routledge.
Brochado,
J. P. 1984. An
ecological
model for the
spread
of
pottery
and
agriculture
into eastern
South America.
Unpublished
PhD
dissertation, University
of
Illinois,
Urbana.
Burger,
R. 1995. Chavin and the
Origins of
Andean civilization. London: Thames & Hudson.
Cabrera,
L. 1992. El
indigena y
la
conquista
en la Cuenca de la
Laguna
Merin. In Ediciones del
Quinto Centenario,
Vol.
1,
Estudios
Antropologicos. Montevideo, Uruguay:
Facultad de Humani-
dades
y
Ciencias de la Educacion. Universidad de la
Republica, pp.
97-122.
Cabrera,
L. 2000. Niveles de
integration
socio-cultural alcanzados
por
los Constructores de Cerritos.
In
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas (eds
A. Duran and R.
Bracco).
Montevideo: Ministerio de
Educacion
y Cultura,
Comision Nacional de
Arqueologia, pp.
169-81.
Cabrera, L., Bracco, R., Curbelo, C, Femenias, J., Lopez,
J. and
Martinez,
E. 1989. Primeros
resultados de las
investigaciones arqueologicas
del norte del
Departamento
de
Rocha, Republica
Oriental del
Uruguay. Manuscript
on file. Facultad de Humanidades
y Ciencias,
Universidad de la
Republica. Montevideo, Uruguay.
Consens, M., Curbelo,
C. and
Lopez,
J. 1995.
Arqueologia
en el
Uruguay:
120 Anos
Despues.
Montevideo, Uruguay:
Editorial Surcos.
Cope,
S. M. 1991. A
ocupac.ao pre-Colonial
do sul e sudeste do Rio Grande do Sul. In
Arqueologia
Prehistorica do Rio Grande do Sul
(ed
A.
Kern).
Porto
Alegre,
Brazil: Mercado
Aberto,
pp.
191-211.
Criado
Boado,
F. 1993. Limites
y posibilidades
de la
arqueologia
del
paisaje. Spal,
2: 9-55.
DeBlasis, P., Fish,
S.
K., Gaspar
M. D. and
Fish,
P. R. 1998. Some references for the discussion of
complexity among
the
Sambaqui
mound builders from the southern shores of Brazil. Revista de
Arqueologia Americana,
15: 75-105.
Dillehay,
T. 1992a.
Widening
the socio-economic foundations of Andean civilization:
prototypes
of
early
monumental architecture. Andean
Past,
3: 55-65.
Dillehay,
T. 1992b.
Keeping
outsiders out:
public ceremony,
resource
rights,
and
hierarchy
in
historic and
contemporary Mapuche society.
In Wealth and
Hierarchy
in the Intermediate Area
(ed.
F. W.
Lange). Washington,
DC: Dumbarton
Oaks, pp.
379^22.
Dillehay,
T. 1995.
Speculations
on the
meaning
of
mound-building
cultures in northeast
Uruguay
and southeast Brazil.
Manuscript
on file.
Department
of
Anthropology. University
of
Kentucky.
Duran,
A. and
Bracco,
R. 2000.
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas.
Montevideo: Ministerio de
Educacion
y Cultura,
Comision Nacional de
Arqueologia.
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
661
Fowles,
S. M. 2002. From social
type
to social
process: placing
'tribe' in a historical framework.
In The
Archaeology of
Tribal Societies
(ed.
W. A.
Parkinson).
Ann
Arbor,
MI: International
Monographs
in
Prehistory, Archaeological
Series1
15, pp.
13-33.
Gianotti,
C. 2000.
Monumentalidad, ceremonialismo, y
continuidad ritual. In
Paisajes
Culturales
Sudamericanos: De las Practicas Sociales a las
Representaciones (ed.
C.
Gianotti).
Galicia:
Laboratorio de
Arqueoloxia
de
Paisaxe, Tapa 19, pp.
87-102.
Gianotti,
C. 2005. Desarrollo
metodologico y aplicacion
de nuevas
tecnologias para
la
gestion integral
del
patrimonio arqueologico
en
Uruguay.
Galicia: Laboratorio de
Arqueoloxia
de
Paisaxe, Tapa
36.
Giddens,
A. 1979. Central Problems in Social
Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social
Analysis. Berkeley,
CA:
University
of California Press.
Gron,
O. 1991. Social
Space:
Human
Spatial
Behaviour in
Dwellings
and Settlements. New York:
Coronet.
Gross,
D. R. 1979. A new
approach
to Central Brazilian social
organization.
In Brazil.
Anthropological Perspectives: Essays
in Honor
of
Charles
Wagley (eds
M. L.
Margolis
and
W. E.
Carter).
New York: Columbia
University Press, pp.
321^2.
Heckenberger,
M. J. 2005. The
Ecology of
Power:
Culture, Place,
and Personhood in the Southern
Amazon,
A.D. 1000-2000. New York:
Routledge.
Heckenberger,
M.
J., Petersen,
J. B. and
Neves,
E. G. 1999.
Village
size and
permanence
in
Amazonia: two
archaeological examples
from Brazil. Latin American
Antiquity,
10: 353-76.
Hornborg,
A. 1988. Dualism and
Hierarchy
in Lowland South America:
Trajectories of Indigenous
Social
Organization. Uppsala: Almqvist
& Wiksell International.
Iriarte,
J. 2003. Mid-Holocene
emergent complexity
and
landscape
transformation: the social
construction of
early
Formative communities in
Uruguay,
La Plata Basin.
Unpublished
PhD
dissertation, University
of
Kentucky.
Iriarte,
J. 2006.
Vegetation
and climate
change
since
14,810
14C
yr
BP in southeastern
Uruguay
and
implications
for the rise of
early
Formative societies.
Quaternary Research,
65: 20-32.
Iriarte,
J. in
press. Emerging food-production systems
in the La Plata Basin. In
Rethinking
Agriculture: Archaeological
and
Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives (eds
T.
Deham,
J. Iriarte and
L.
Vrydaghs).
California: Left Coast Press.
Iriarte,
J. and
Marozzi,
O. in
press.
Analisis del material litico del sitio Los
Ajos, Proceedings
of the
XI
Congreso
Nacional de
Arqueologia, Salto, Uruguay.
Iriarte, J., Hoist, I., Lopez,
J. M. and
Cabrera,
L. 2001.
Subtropical
wetland
adaptations
in
Uruguay during
the mid-Holocene: an archaeobotanical
perspective,
In
Enduring
Records: The
Environmental and Cultural
Heritage of
Wetlands
(ed.
B.
Purdy).
Oxford: Oxbow
Books,
pp.
61-70.
Iriarte, J., Hoist, I., Marozzi, O., Listopad, C, Alonso, E., Rinderknecht,
A. and
Montana,
J. 2004.
Evidence for cultivar
adoption
and
emerging complexity during
the mid-Holocene in the La Plata
Basin.
Nature,
432: 614-17.
Knight,
V. J. 1990. Social
organization
and the evolution of
hierarchy
in southeastern chiefdoms.
Journal
of Anthropological Research,
46: 1-23.
Lathrap,
D.
J., Marcos,
J. and
Zeidler,
J. 1977. Real Alto: an ancient ceremonial center.
Archaeology,
30: 2-13.
Lehmann, J., Kern, D., Glaser,
B. and
Woods,
W. 2003. Amazonian Dark Earths:
Origin, Properties,
Management.
New York: Kluwer Academic.
Levi-Strauss,
C. 1963. Do dual
organizations
exist? In Structural
Anthropology.
New York: Basic
Books, pp.
132-63.
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
662 Jose Iriarte
Lopez,
J. M. 2000.
Trabajos
en tierra
y complejidad
cultural en las tierras
bajas
del Rincon de los
Indios. In
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas (eds
A. Duran and R.
Bracco).
Montevideo: Ministerio de
Education
y Cultura,
Comision National de
Arqueologia, pp.
271-84.
Lopez,
J. M. 2001. Las estructuras tumulares
(Cerritos)
del litoral Atlantico
Uruguayo.
Latin
American
Antiquity,
12: 231-55.
Lopez,
J. M. and
Bracco,
R. 1994. Cazadores-recolectores de la Cuenca de la
Laguna
Merin.
Arqueologia Contempordnea,
5: 51-64.
Lopez,
J. M. and
Gianotti,
C. 1998. Construction de
espacios
ceremoniales
publicos
entre los
pobladores prehistoricos
de las tierras
bajas
de
Uruguay:
el estudio de la
organization espacial
en la
localidad
arqueologica
Rincon de los Indios. Revista de
Arqueologia,
11: 87-105.
Lopez,
J. M. and
Pintos,
S. 2000. Distribution
espacial
de estructuras monticulares en la Cuenca de
la
Laguna Negra.
In
Arqueologia
de las Tierras
Bajas (eds
A. Duran and R.
Bracco).
Montevideo:
Ministerio de Education
y Cultura,
Comision Nacional de
Arqueologia, pp.
49-58.
Lopez,
J. M. and
Sans,
M. 1999.
Arqueologia y Bioantropologia
de las Tierras
Bajas.
Montevideo:
Universidad de la
Republica,
Facultad de Humanidades
y
Ciencias.
MEC 2001.
Arqueologia Uruguay
a Hacia el Fin del Milenio. IX
Congreso
Nacional de
Arqueologia
Uruguaya.
Montevideo: Graficos del Sur. Ministerio de Education
y
Cultura.
Meggers,
B. and
Evans,
C. 1969. Como
interpretar
el
lenguaje
de los tiestos.
Washington,
DC:
Smithsonian Institution.
Meggers,
B. J. and
Evans,
C. 1978. Lowland South America and the Antilles. In Ancient Native
Americans
(ed.
J.
Jennings).
San
Francisco,
CA:
Freeman, pp.
543-91.
Moseley,
M. 2001. The Incas and their Ancestors. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Netherly,
P. and
Dillehay,
T. 1986.
Duality
in
public
architecture in the
Upper
Zana
Valley,
Northern Peru. In
Perspectives
on Andean
Prehistory
and
Protohistory (eds
D. Sandweiss and
D.
Kvietok).
New York: Cornell
University,
Latin American Studies
Program, pp.
85-114.
Nimandeju,
C. 1946. The Eastern Timbira.
Berkeley,
CA:
University
of California Press.
Pintos,
S. 2000. Cazadores recolectores
complejos:
monumentalidad en tierra en la cuenca de la
Laguna
de Castillos. In
Paisajes
Culturales Sudamericanos: De las Practicas Sociales a las
Representaciones (ed.
C.
Gianotti).
Galicia: Laboratorio de
Arqueoloxia
de
Paisaxe, Tapa 19,
pp.
75-86.
Prieto, O., Alvarez,
J.
Arbenoiz, J.,
de Los
Santos, A., Vesidi, P., Schmitz,
P. I. and Basile
Becker,
I.
1970.
Informe
Preliminar sobre las
Investigaciones Arqueologicas
en el
Depto.
de Treinta
y
Tres.
R.O.U. Sao
Leopoldo,
Brazil: Instituto Anchietano de
Pesquisas/UNISINOS.
PROBIDES 2000. Plan Director: Reserva de
Biosfera
Banados del Este.
Rocha, Uruguay:
PROBIDES.
Roosevelt,
A. C. 1999. The
maritime, highland,
forest
dynamic
and the
origins
of
complex
culture.
In The
Cambridge History of
Native
Peoples of
the
Americas,
Vol.
3,
South America: Part 1.
(eds
F. Salomon and S. B.
Schwartz). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
264-349.
Ruthschilling,
A. L. 1989.
Pesquisas Arqueologicas
no Baixo Rio
Camaqua.
Sao
Leopoldo,
Brazil:
UNISINOS,
Instituto Anchietano de
Pesquisas,
Documentos 03.
Sans,
M. 1985.
Arqueologia
de la
region
de
Yaguari.
In Estado de las
Investigaciones Arqueologicas
en el
Uruguay.
Montevideo:
CEA,
No.
3, pp.
57-61.
Sassaman,
K. and
Heckenberger,
M. 2004. Roots of the theocratic formative of the Archaic
Southeast. In Hunters-Gatherers in
Theory
and
Archaeology (ed.
G.
Crothers). Carbondale,
IL:
Southern Illinois
University
Press.
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Landscape transformation,
mounded
villages
and
adopted cultigens
663
Schmitz,
P. I. 1978. Industrias Liticas en el Sur de Brasil.
Separata
de Estudos
Leopoldenses.
Brazil:
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos.
Schmitz,
P. I. 1987. Prehistoric hunters and
gatherers
of Brazil. Journal
of
World
Prehistory,
1:
53-126.
Schmitz,
P. I. 1991.
Migrantes
da Amazonia: A Tradicao
Tupiguarani.
In
Arqueologia
Prehistorica do Rio Grande do Sul
(ed.
A.
Kern).
Porto
Alegre,
Brazil: Mercado
Aberto,
pp.
295-330.
Schmitz,
P. I. 2002. Casas Subterraneas nas Terras Altas do Sul do BrasiL Sao
Leopoldo,
Brazil:
Instituto Anchietano de
Pesquisas, Antropologia
No. 58.
Schmitz,
P.
I., Naue,
G. and
Becker,
I. 1991. Os aterros dos
campos
do sul: A
Tradicjio Vieira. In
Arqueologia
Prehistorica do Rio Grande do Sul
(ed.
A.
Kern).
Porto
Alegre,
Brazil: Mercado
Aberto,
pp.
221-251.
Schmitz,
P.
I., Rogge,
J.
H., Rosa,
A. O. and
Beber,
M. V. 1998. Aterros
indigenas
no Pantanal
do Mato Grosso do Sul. Sao
Leopoldo,
Brazil: Instituto Anchietano de
Pesquisas, Antropologia
No. 54.
Solis,
R.
S., Hass,
J. and
Creamer,
W. 2001.
Dating Caral,
a Preceramic site in the
Supe valley
on the
central coast of Peru.
Science,
292: 723-6.
Stahl,
P. 2004. Greater
expectations. Nature,
432: 561-2.
Steward,
J. 1946. Handbook
of
South American
Indians,
Vol.
1,
The
Marginal
Tribes.
Washington,
DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Stuiver, M., Reimer,
P.
J., Bard, E., Beck,
J.
W., Burr,
G.
S., Hughen,
K.
A., Kromer, B.,
McCormac, G.,
van der
Plicht,
J. and
Spurk,
M. 1998. INTCAL98 radiocarbon
age calibration,
24000-0 cal. BP.
Radiocarbon,
40: 1041-83.
Turner,
T. S. 1996. Social
complexity
and recursive
hierarchy
in
indigenous
South American
societies. Journal
of
the Steward
Anthropological Society,
24: 37-59.
Tuzin,
D. 2001. Social
Complexity
in the
Making:
A Case
Study among
the
Arapesh of
New Guinea.
London:
Routledge.
Wust,
I. and
Barreto,
C. 1999. The
ring villages
of central Brazil: a
challenge
for Amazonian
archaeology.
Latin American
Antiquity,
10: 3-23.
Jose Iriarte is a lecturer in the
Department
of
Archaeology, University
of Exeter. He is an
archaeologist
and
palaeoethnobotanist
whose
principal
research interests are the
development
of
early plant
food
production
and the rise of Formative societies in the
Americas. He received his PhD in
anthropology
from the
University
of
Kentucky
and has
conducted
archaeological
research in
Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil,
Peru and Mexico. He is
currently continuing
his
investigations
of
early agriculture
and
emergent complexity
in the
Parana River Basin
(Misiones, Argentina).
This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:32:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions