Ancient Amazonia
Ancient Amazonia refers to the rich and complex history of human habitation in the Amazon region, which spans over 2 million square miles along the Amazon River and its tributaries. Contrary to earlier beliefs that the region was unsuitable for dense populations due to poor soil nutrients, archaeological evidence reveals that humans have lived there for nearly 11,000 years, starting as hunter-gatherers during the Pleistocene. Over time, these early inhabitants developed diverse subsistence strategies, including fishing, hunting, and gathering plants, while also creating art, such as cave paintings featuring zoomorphic and human figures.
As civilizations matured, particularly around 5,000 years ago, the introduction of agriculture led to the establishment of villages and more complex societies. By 400 CE, the Marajóara culture thrived on the island of Marajó, known for its intricately decorated pottery and an extensive population. At its peak, ancient Amazonia's population may have reached fifteen million, with a sophisticated social structure and diverse languages spoken among its inhabitants. However, the arrival of European explorers in the sixteenth century brought devastating effects, including disease and warfare, drastically reducing the native population and leading to the decline of these advanced societies. This intricate tapestry of life in ancient Amazonia showcases a dynamic interplay between humans and their environment, offering insights into how these communities adapted and flourished before facing catastrophic changes.
Ancient Amazonia
Related civilizations: Marajóara, Arawak, Carib.
Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.
Locale: Flood plains and intermediate uplands of the Amazon River and its major and minor tributaries along the northern third of South America, east of the Andes but including the eastern piedmont
Amazonia
Amazonia consists of an equatorial and subequatorial region of more than 2 million square miles (5.5 million square kilometers) along the Amazon River and its tributaries. The area contains the largest equatorial and tropical rain forests in the world. Until recently, it was mistakenly believed that the region could not accommodate significant or dense human population because its nutrients are concentrated primarily in the air rather than the soil. However, extensive archaeological data show evidence of longtime human habitation in the region.
Stone tools, cave paintings, and other evidence indicate that the region was consistently inhabited beginning nearly eleven thousand years ago, at the very end of the Pleistocene period. These inhabitants were pre-Amerindian hunter-gatherers. The people of the Early Amazonia period lived along the rivers, some also occupying upland areas. They survived by gathering seeds, palms, and tuberous roots; picking nuts and fruits; fishing; and hunting small aquatic and land animals along with birds and water fowl. They used plants for medicinal and hallucinogenic purposes. Their paintings included fantasized formulaic designs and included zoomorphic and human figures.
About five thousand years ago, human habitation in the area became more complex. More varied and finely made stone tools appeared. The inhabitants of the Middle Amazonia period improved the processing of food and their means of acquiring it, incorporating slash-and-burn agriculture. They cultivated beans and some cereals including maize, rice, and wetland grasses. Villages appeared along the river plains, and the inhabitants made battle instruments that could be used to acquire or defend territory. Red-and-white pottery appeared, and the use of woven fiber materials increased.
Two thousand years ago, considerably greater settlements began to appear. The populations of Late Amazonia were even larger than those of Minoan or Harappān civilizations. Seed crops, fruits, and vegetables were regularly planted, and the gathering and tending of water and land animals further organized. Some of the farming was done on the rich soil of the bottom lands, or várzea (such as the Marajó Varzea), along the flood plains, enriched by silting. Requirements for sufficient proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and calories were abundantly satisfied. Systematic knowledge of medicinal herbs intensified, incorporating ever greater use of different barks, leaves, seeds, and flowers.
The increase in food production and population resulted in intertribal trade. Pottery became larger, more elaborate, and finely decorated. Intricate art and ritual appeared, evidencing greater metaphorical reasoning. Social organization developed, and people’s identities became increasingly defined by labor differentiation. Shamans, or medicine men, had already appeared, and as the elementary hierarchy developed, chiefs emerged to lead tribes. A complex society developed on the island of Marajó, a body of land at the mouth of the Amazon that is larger than Ireland. Marajóara culture flourished for almost nine centuries beginning in 400 c.e. At its height, nearly a million people occupied the island. Their culture is noted for its singularly decorated pottery.
During the Late Amazonia period, the population may have reached fifteen million people, many speaking Tupí-Guaraní languages. Complex social organization occurred from the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil to the middle reaches of the river and into the Ecuadorian and Bolivian Amazon. Sedentary populations along the flood plains practiced root-crop farming, hunted, and fished. In the more remote areas, seminomadic tribes hunted and gathered wild berries, fruits, and nuts, engaging in limited farming. As late as the mid-sixteenth century, explorers observed that villages held tens of thousands of inhabitants. During the ancient period, although the natives’ presence altered the forests, no deforestation occurred.
After 700 c.e.
The history of ancient Amazonia shows a consistent, progressive development. However, exposure to outsiders, primarily the Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, decimated the population. Disease swept away village after village; survivors were then wiped out by warfare and slavery. The approximately one million inhabitants who remained formed the basis of the small, isolated Amerindian settlements characteristic of the modern period. Foreigners wrought an immediate and nearly total holocaust on the ancient peoples of Amazonia. As surreptitious as it was sweeping, this devastation was largely unrecognized until the 1980’s, when archaeological scholarship began to produce evidence supporting it.
Bibliography
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Roosevelt, A. C. Moundbuilders of the Amazon: Geophysical Archeology on Marajó Island. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1991.
Roosevelt, A. C. “Secrets of the Forest: An Anthropologist Reappraises the Past—and Future—of Amazonia.” The Sciences 32, no. 6 (1989): 22-28.
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