Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia
Recent research has shown that the entire southern rim of Amazonia was inhabited by earth-building societies involving landscape engineering, landscape domestication and likely low-density urbanism during the Late Holocene. However, the scale, timing, and intensity of human settlement in this region...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journal.caa-international.org/articles/45 |
| _version_ | 1819049863752450048 |
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| author | Jose Iriarte Mark Robinson Jonas de Souza Antonia Damasceno Franciele da Silva Francisco Nakahara Alceu Ranzi Luiz Aragao |
| author_facet | Jose Iriarte Mark Robinson Jonas de Souza Antonia Damasceno Franciele da Silva Francisco Nakahara Alceu Ranzi Luiz Aragao |
| author_sort | Jose Iriarte |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent research has shown that the entire southern rim of Amazonia was inhabited by earth-building societies involving landscape engineering, landscape domestication and likely low-density urbanism during the Late Holocene. However, the scale, timing, and intensity of human settlement in this region remain unknown due to the dearth of archaeological work and the logistical difficulties associated with research in tropical forest environments. A case in point are the newly discovered Mound Villages (AD ~1000–1650) in the SE portion of Acre State, Brazil. Much of recent pioneering work on this new archaeological tradition has mainly focused on the excavation of single mounds within sites with little concern for the architectural layout and regional settlement patterns, thus preventing us from understanding how these societies were organised at the regional level. To address these shortcomings, we carried out the first Lidar survey with a RIEGL VUX-1 UAV Lidar sensor integrated into an MD 500 helicopter. Our novel results documented distinctive architectural features of Circular Mound Villages such as the presence of ranked, paired, cardinally oriented, sunken roads interconnecting villages, the occurrence of a diversity of mound shapes within sites, as well as the exposure the superimposition of villages. Site size distribution analysis showed no apparent signs of settlement hierarchy. At the same time, it revealed that some small groups of villages positioned along streams exhibit regular distances of 2.5–3 km and 5–6 km between sites. Our data show that after the cessation of Geoglyph construction (~AD 950), this region of SW Amazonia was not abandoned, but occupied by a flourishing regional system of Mound Villages. The results continue to call into question traditional views that portray interfluvial areas and the western sector of Amazonia as sparsely inhabited. A brief discussion of our findings in the context with pre-Columbian settlement patterns across other regions of Amazonia is conducted. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T11:38:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f69c4dbbf2894efc80614437efb8aeb0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2514-8362 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T11:38:55Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f69c4dbbf2894efc80614437efb8aeb02022-12-21T19:05:22ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Computer Applications in Archaeology2514-83622020-04-013110.5334/jcaa.4536Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW AmazoniaJose Iriarte0Mark Robinson1Jonas de Souza2Antonia Damasceno3Franciele da Silva4Francisco Nakahara5Alceu Ranzi6Luiz Aragao7University of ExeterUniversity of ExeterUniversitat Pompeu FabraInstituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico NacionalUniversity of ExeterFederal University of ParáFederal University of AcreNational Institute for Space ResearchRecent research has shown that the entire southern rim of Amazonia was inhabited by earth-building societies involving landscape engineering, landscape domestication and likely low-density urbanism during the Late Holocene. However, the scale, timing, and intensity of human settlement in this region remain unknown due to the dearth of archaeological work and the logistical difficulties associated with research in tropical forest environments. A case in point are the newly discovered Mound Villages (AD ~1000–1650) in the SE portion of Acre State, Brazil. Much of recent pioneering work on this new archaeological tradition has mainly focused on the excavation of single mounds within sites with little concern for the architectural layout and regional settlement patterns, thus preventing us from understanding how these societies were organised at the regional level. To address these shortcomings, we carried out the first Lidar survey with a RIEGL VUX-1 UAV Lidar sensor integrated into an MD 500 helicopter. Our novel results documented distinctive architectural features of Circular Mound Villages such as the presence of ranked, paired, cardinally oriented, sunken roads interconnecting villages, the occurrence of a diversity of mound shapes within sites, as well as the exposure the superimposition of villages. Site size distribution analysis showed no apparent signs of settlement hierarchy. At the same time, it revealed that some small groups of villages positioned along streams exhibit regular distances of 2.5–3 km and 5–6 km between sites. Our data show that after the cessation of Geoglyph construction (~AD 950), this region of SW Amazonia was not abandoned, but occupied by a flourishing regional system of Mound Villages. The results continue to call into question traditional views that portray interfluvial areas and the western sector of Amazonia as sparsely inhabited. A brief discussion of our findings in the context with pre-Columbian settlement patterns across other regions of Amazonia is conducted.https://journal.caa-international.org/articles/45amazon archaeologylidarsettlement patternscircular villagesearthworksgeoglyphs |
| spellingShingle | Jose Iriarte Mark Robinson Jonas de Souza Antonia Damasceno Franciele da Silva Francisco Nakahara Alceu Ranzi Luiz Aragao Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology amazon archaeology lidar settlement patterns circular villages earthworks geoglyphs |
| title | Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia |
| title_full | Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia |
| title_fullStr | Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia |
| title_short | Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia |
| title_sort | geometry by design contribution of lidar to the understanding of settlement patterns of the mound villages in sw amazonia |
| topic | amazon archaeology lidar settlement patterns circular villages earthworks geoglyphs |
| url | https://journal.caa-international.org/articles/45 |
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