In a regional sector bounded by the modern towns of Laguna, Tubarao, and Jaguaruna, early reconnaissance by Rohr (1984) and more recent systematic inventory have outlined a settlement system encompassing 420 km2, over 60 sambaquis, and 96 radiocarbon dates between 4500 and 1500 BP (DeBlasis et al. 2004; Eastoe et al. 2002; Fish et al. 2000) (Figure 18.2). An innovative related study by A. Kneip (2004) shows that sambaqui locations as much as 10 km inland today formerly had access to open bays, before the slow, regular lowering of sea level by about 2 m over the last five thousand years. The previous bay and barrier island ecosystems would have been even more favorable than the still very productive but now more fully enclosed lagoons. Clusters of massive shell mounds are associated with current principal lagoons. Initial mounds had appeared in most of these locales by approximately 5000 BP; dates from later mounds end a few centuries after 2000 BP. An intensively dated mound (Jaboticabeira II) in one cluster was built continuously for almost eight hundred years (Fish et al. 2000). Another (Carniga I) has dates suggesting relatively continuous construction for one thousand years or more (Hurt 1974). In several other cases, a few, more isolated dates from the same mound suggest an even longer time-span, but it is unclear whether the building process was continuous or episodic. In any case, huge sambaquis containing burials persisted in the same locales for more than 3,500 years. The ongoing construction of monumental mounds implies a social system that not only was relatively sedentary but that also continued to imprint its enduring cultural perspective on coastal landscapes.
Excavations at Jaboticabeira II in the vicinity of the Camacho lagoon (Figure 18.3) clarify and add critical details to the results of previous research on monumental sam-baquis and their mortuary contents in this region and elsewhere (Fish et al. 2000; DeBlasis 2005). A mid-sized mound among its neighbors, Jaboticabeira II is over 8 m high, covers 90,000 m2, and has a volume of approximately 320,000 m3. As with most sambaquis of such size, it was heavily mined for modern construction materials prior to legal protection, leaving behind cavities with near-vertical walls throughout the mound. Long profiles documenting about 250 m2 of these cuts reveal the repetition of many smaller, internally mounded sequences beginning about 2500 BP. Thicker shell layers are interspersed with thin, dark layers rich in charcoal, burned fish bone, and other organic materials. Careful sampling to test the entire mound attests that the formation processes involved in these sequences are cumulatively responsible for the construction of the mound as a whole.
With few exceptions, burials are grouped into discrete funerary areas that recur throughout the height and breadth of Jaboticabeira II, originating on the thin, dark layers. These funerary areas are interpreted as the designated burial locations for specific affinity groups, whose membership was based on kinship, territorial affiliation, or other social
Figure 18.2. Location of sambaquis along the coast of Brazil. Enlargement of the Camacho Study Area in Santa Catarina. Note the association of sambaquis with lagoons. (Maria Dulce Gaspar)
Principles. A horizontal excavation of 36 m2 within a funerary area confirmed that the corresponding dark layers are successive occupation surfaces, sometimes with localized shell pavements and always with numerous postholes in the vicinity of the burials. Posts encircled some burial pits and similarly demarcated whole funerary areas. Additional posts may have supported miniature structures over graves (as in ethnographic practices), suspended offerings, marked the graves, or served still other purposes.
Bodies usually were interred in shallow pits closely accommodating the tightly flexed remains and offerings, but there are rare instances of extended burials. Multiple burials,
Figure 18.3. Excavations at Jaboticabeira II, Santa Catarina. The horizontal exposure is 36 m2. (Maria Dulce Caspar)
Frequently a combination of adult and child, were common. Secondary burials were the rule, with bodies apparently prepared by desiccation and wrapping elsewhere before transport to the site. Because of this prior preparation, all those who died over some interval may have been transported at a prescribed time and interred by the affinity group with coordinated and communal ceremony. Treatments of the bodies were not consistently performed but included covering with red pigment, removal of few specific bones, and the addition of a few bones from other individuals. Typical artifact offerings, when present, were utilitarian items of shell, bone, and stone; shell and bone jewelry; small sets of rounded pebbles; and sometimes, large stone objects placed near the head.
During the interment ceremonies, and also during later visits to the grave, hearths surrounding and overlying the burial pits were lit and large quantities of food were consumed. The debris of fires and feasting is responsible for the dark color and organic composition of the occupation layers in funerary areas. Fish species are predominant among food refuse, but land and sea mammals and birds (for example, armadillo, tapir, monkey, whale, dolphin, penguin, duck) also occur, often as intentional placements. Complete fish and other intact faunal remains on occupation surfaces around graves and in graves suggest food offerings (Klokler 2001). Although fish bone is abundant across the surfaces and in grave fill, the highest concentrations usually occur immediately above the burials, conforming to expectations for mortuary feasts.
After some specified period, an affinity group ceased to add burials to its funerary area and it was then “closed” and covered by heaped shell. The appreciable quantities of shell mounded over occupation surfaces required procurement elsewhere and transport to the site. Ensuing funerary areas were established on subsequent surfaces atop previous shell
Deposits in an extended process of both horizontal and vertical accretion. The ritual program of burial, feasting, and mounding of shell over a former funerary area was re-enacted over centuries, incrementally giving rise to the ultimate huge volume and monumental appearance of the sambaqui (Fish et al. 2000).
The western part of Jaboticabeira II is capped by up to 2.5 m of “black earth” deposits that cover many other sambaquis in the same manner. In this dark earthen cap, the same general stratigraphic structure as before was maintained, but shell is a minor and localized component; burned fish bone and charcoal are abundant. Both lithic and bone artifacts appear to be more common than in the lower shell layers, although they do not occur in configurations denoting activity areas. Burials continued and are even more concentrated. This final dark earthen phase dates approximately between 2000 and 1700 BP, both here and at another sambaqui in a neighboring cluster. Because of the continuity in mortuary function, researchers consider the whole of Jaboticabeira II to be a long-standing (about 800 years, from 2500 to 1700 BP) communal funerary structure or cemetery (Fish et al. 2000).
The monumental sambaquis enclose impressive numbers of bodies. Preliminary estimates extrapolated from the large profile sample at Jaboticabeira II conservatively indicate around 0.137 burials per m3, for a total of nearly 43,000 people interred in this mound over 800 years (Fish et al. 2000). Burial rate estimates per m3 from three previously excavated sites with sufficient quantified information (Beck 1972; Castro Faria 1952; Mendonga de Souza 1995; Hurt 1974; Bryan 1993; see Fish et al. 2000 for this comparison) produce equally high or even higher burial totals. These demographic figures, even if rough estimates, are indicative of relatively sizable and stable populations in a delimited surrounding area rather than the traditionally presumed “bands of nomadic shellfish collectors.” As most of the huge sambaquis in the region appear to have served funerary purposes, a substantial overall population density is indicated. During the interval of active burial, each of these monumental sambaquis would have represented the cemetery for a prescribed hinterland territory (perhaps analogous to the named fishing communities today). The presence of multiple contemporary sambaquis in the same regional sector suggests territorial circumscription and related economic intensification, based on rich lagoon resources and some possible cultivation in later times.
The towering sambaquis built around the productive Camacho lagoon for almost 3,500 years bespeak conditions conducive to sedentism and population growth. GIS analysis of visibility among mounds based on height and positioning shows the lagoon as the center and probable focus of intense boat interactions, as well as a common space and collective provisioning territory (A. Kneip 2004). Net fishing techniques point to strong social interchanges among communities around the lagoon [Note 3].
World History
