07/01/2024 – 17:16
An indigenous cemetery with 45 skeletons that may have been buried up to 10,000 years ago was discovered during the construction of a residential condominium under the Minha Casa Minha Vida program, in São Luís, capital of Maranhão. Remains of funerary urns, bones, stone tools and decorated shells, totaling more than 100,000 pieces and fragments, were also collected at the site. The discovery, which could shed new light on Brazilian prehistory, should be officially announced by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan) this Monday, 8th.
The find took place in a place known as Chácara Rosane, in the Vicente Fialho neighborhood, where the construction company MRV builds sets of buildings financed by the federal housing program. Prospecting began in 2019 and is part of the work's environmental licensing process. The company W Lage Consultoria Científica was hired to carry out the archaeological assessment under the supervision of Iphan. Prospecting continues and, every day, new finds are revealed.
Many pieces, the majority made up of ceramic fragments, have not yet been accounted for, according to archaeologist Wellington Lage, responsible for the rescue. “It is intriguing to note that in this volume of fragments, pieces from different cultures and periods are mixed, ranging from the ancient Mina type ceramics – the most rudimentary –, through the Tupi, Amazonian, to the Tupinambá, already at the moment of contact with the European”, he said.
Sambaquis
He emphasizes that this information is still just a hypothesis, as most of the pieces are still under study. From the arrangement of the skeletons on the ground, at depths ranging from 60 centimeters to 2.10 meters, Lage deduces that there were four occupations at the site at different times. “Most of the burials are at levels below packages of shells (sambaquis), which suggests a pre-sambaquieira occupation,” he added.
Middens are formed mainly by the accumulation of marine mollusk shells, on which primitive populations fed. Other studies have already indicated that the sambaquieiro people inhabited São Luís Island more than 6 thousand years ago. The bone structures found now may be older. “What we have so far are dates obtained by analyzing the sediment placed immediately next to the skull of the first two individuals, using the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (LOE) method, which determines the age at which the sediment was last exposed to solar radiation. time,” said Lage.
In the case of the first skeleton, the result indicated a probable age of the material between 8,245 and 10,465 years. For the second skull, the time period was between 7,120 and 9,240 years. The remaining skeletons will still undergo analysis. A preliminary observation showed that the adult individuals were short, around 1.5 m tall, and had stocky bodies. The collected material is being deposited in a technical reserve at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), in São Luís, the legal institution that guards this archaeological heritage.
The site's land is close to the coast of São Luís. On site, MRV builds four condominium buildings with a total of 1,600 apartments. Brazilian legislation requires that large projects have an environmental license and, especially when they involve earth moving, it is necessary to research possible archaeological sites. An interministerial ordinance from 2015 determines that Iphan must comment on cultural assets that may be affected by the works, which is done through surveys in the area.
As soon as work began, the first evidence of an archaeological site appeared, with the location of fragments of decorated pottery. Then, pieces of funerary urns and the first bones appeared. The large amount of material impressed Lage. “Due to the quantity and variety of material and individuals highlighted, the Chácara Rosane site will be the fundamental piece to help understand the formation, types of occupation and historicity regarding the first human groups that occupied São Luís Island”, he said.
The land had already been mentioned in work carried out in 1991 by researchers Olavo Correia Lima and Olir Correia Lima Arozo, who reported the evidence of a “human fossil (an adult man), with remains of the jaw with articulated teeth and secondary burial, belonging to to the Tupi-Guarani culture”. In 2019, when the prospecting process began, the W Lage team went into the field knowing the possible existence of other elements. “The fieldwork is unknowns that we try to unravel. In a situation like this, it becomes impossible to determine an exact date for the completion of the work, as it depends on what the land still has to reveal to us”, said Lage.
Work must respect recovery of finds
The finds do not prevent MRV from continuing with the real estate development project, but the works must respect the schedule for removing the finds. After recording and first studying the material on site, the pieces are removed and taken to the UFM technical reserve, a place where they can be analyzed and preserved. “After the field work, there are laboratory and office practices, that is, the research does not end when it ends in the field”, explained the archaeologist.
In the case of this project, as determined by Iphan, the company is building a curation and storage center at the university to house the new collection. UFM has an archeology laboratory and its research groups will also study the material taken from the site.
MRV reported having provided all the necessary structure to preserve the integrity of the finds, isolating areas, providing air-conditioned rooms and producing tailored packaging for the most sensitive pieces.
In a statement, Iphan said that it is closely monitoring and evaluating the findings at the Chácara Rosane site, through its technical team. “We are in the analysis phase and plan to issue an official note on Monday the 8th to provide more specific details on the matter,” he said.
#Archaeological #site #skeletons #thousand #years #discovered #work
