Integrating archaeology and palaeoecology to understand Jê landscapes in southern Brazil

Cárdenas, M. L., Robinson, M., Corteletti, R., Ulguim, P., Gregório de Souza, J., Iriarte, J., Mayle, F. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9208-0519, Scunderlick Eloy de Farias, D. and DeBlasis, P. (2015) Integrating archaeology and palaeoecology to understand Jê landscapes in southern Brazil. Antiquity Project Gallery, 348.

Abstract/Summary

Around AD 1000, the southern Brazilian highlands witnessed a convergence of phenomena: climatic change, the abrupt expansion of Araucaria forest and the appearance of large pit-houses and monumental mound and enclosure complexes, which signal fundamental socio-political and ideological change amongst southern proto-Jê (SPJ) groups. These developments raise intriguing questions regarding the relationships between people, vegetation and climate over the last 2000 years.