Lithic Landscapes and Early Inhabitants in Southeastern Brazil: First Perspectives from a Case Study in Dourado, São Paulo State

ABSTRACT

Lithic landscapes are formed by minerals and rocks suitable for human purposes and also by the knowledge and transformations involved in their use. The Dourado region, located in the basaltic hills of central São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil, offers the possibility to study lithic landscapes explored and transformed by hunter-gatherers since at least ca. 12,640 cal yr BP. This article evaluates the available silicified sandstone sources and the way people used some of those, through a survey conducted around the Bastos site. A macroscopic and a thin-section study of source samples, as well as a technological analysis of surface artifacts, were performed. We report a lithic landscape characterized by extractions on silicified sandstone outcrops and clasts of very good-to-excellent knapping quality, and the by-products of initial technological activities. Implications for terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene human use of lithic landscapes of eastern South America are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Lithic landscapes
• geoarchaeology
• early peopling of southeastern Brazil
• Bastos site

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ted Goebel for inviting us to present the paper in the “Learning the lithic landscape … ” session of the 11th International Symposium of Knappable Materials, held in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in November 2017, in this special issue of PaleoAmerica. We thank Dr Bruce Bradley for help and comments during the survey, Dr Ximena Villagrán for granting access to LabMicro (Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology), Dr Francisco Ladeira for observations on the thin-sections, and Rafael de Sá for giving us access to the geological map included in a modified version in Figure 3. We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments which substantially improved this paper. Authors especially thank Mr Ricardo A. Bastos, Mrs Maria Helena Monteiro Bastos, Mr Moacyr Toledo Jr, and Mr Alberto V. Resegue for the logistic support for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Nicolás Batalla is a PhD student at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. His research interests include geoarchaeology, formation processes of the archaeological record, lithic landscapes, and the organization of lithic technology.

Letícia C. Correa is a PhD student at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her research interests include lithic technology, GIS, and early occupation of southeastern Brazil.

Astolfo G. M. Araujo is a geologist and archaeologist, Professor at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Brazil, and Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK. His research interests include geoarchaeology, formation processes of the archaeological record, and the early occupation of eastern South America.

ORCID

Nicolás Batalla http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2075-5633

Letícia C. Correa http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5059-3359

Astolfo G. M. Araujo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0349-1226

Notes

1 All radiocarbon dates were calibrated using the calibration curve CalPal2007_HULU (Weninger, Jöris, and Danzeglocke 2012).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [Grant Number 001]; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo: [Grant Number 2016/23584-6].