In 2005, the MAE-USP team stumbled upon a burial unit that has since been re-analyzed using innovative techniques.
The hypothesis that the Southern Jê's predecessors caused the disappearance of sambaquis-built communities along the Santa Catarina state coast for over 5,000 years has been rejected by archaeological research conducted near Laguna.
The history of ancient sambaqui builders in Santa Catarina has been reconstructed by Brazilian researchers, who have found that they were not replaced by the sambaqui, contrary to previous beliefs.
With the assistance of FAPESP, researchers from the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at the University of So Paulo (MAE-USP) are working on a significant revision to a portion of human settlement along the Brazilian coastline.
The PLOS ONE article reports that researchers from Santa Catarina state, South Brazil, and other countries have revealed that the sambaqui builders of Galheta IV were not replaced by ancestors of the Southern Jê, as previously believed.
The article describes sambaquis as middens, or "discrete debris" that is used for burial, shelter, and marking territory. They are made up of layers of shellfish debris, human and animal bones, the remains of plants and hearths, stone or bone utensils, and other refuse.
The midden builders, also known as sambaquieiros, did not interact with the proto-Jê populations, as suggested by André Strauss, the penultimate author of the article. Their pottery and funerary practices were unique to the area, and the sambaquieiros were descendants of those who lived there.
The belief that one ethnicDesign of Spain has replaced the other may also have arisen from the pre-existing evidence of sites like Galheta IV; where the potsherds found recall the pottery of ancestral South Jê Indigenous peoples Kaingang and Lakln-Xokleng.
The reason for the lack of sambaqui construction is unclear, according to Jéssica Mendes Cardoso, the initial Worcestershire graduate student. She conducted the research for her doctoral thesis at MAE-USP and the University of Toulouse in France.
Between 2005 and 2007, the skeletons of four individuals were exhumed and the material was re-analyzed by Cardoso using the results of a test conducted by MAE-USP and GRUPEP at the University of Southern Santa Catarina. Cardoso determined that fish and seafood were the majority of the group's diet and suggested that they were not presque-finite, unlike the funerary practice practiced by Southern proto-Jê populations.
She delved into the faunal remains, which are enriched with details about animals, and particularly about fish, which are typical of sambaquis. Unlike other locations, this one also contained bones of marine birds such as albatrosses and penguins, and mammals like a fur seal.
According to Cardoso, the animals were consuming them at different times during their migration or may have been kept at the location, and were thus part of their burial ritual.
The site's construction and use were estimated to have occurred between 1,300 and 500 years ago, as per the latest dating data, surpassing the estimated time period of 1,170-900 years ago.
The archeological site's pottery analysis reveals that the proto-Jê could have been a cultural influence rather than a unique feat. Furthermore, 131 out of 190 potsherds found were large enough to be examined and analyzed.
Fabiana Merencio, a PhD candidate at MAE-USP with a FAPESP scholarship, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), as the pottery remains found in the Santa Catarina uplands are the oldest in the state, dating back 1,300 years. These pottery remains differ from those found in the Santa Catarina uplands by roughly 1,000 years, showing similarities in shape and decoration.
According to Strauss, the discovery on the coast, as opposed to sambaquis, provides a new perspective on human materiality that involves pottery and explains the connections between living beings.
MAE-USP professor Ximena Villagran is leading a new project sponsored by FAPESP to conduct research on a new site in the region.
A multi-proxy study of the late shellmound occupation in southern Brazil at the Galheta IV archaeological site is being analyzed and published in the PLOS ONE journal on March 21, 2024. The journal is available at http://www.journal.pone.0300684.