This grant permits Dr. Roosevelt and her colleagues to continue their archaeological investigations on Marajo Island located at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Previous work by Dr. Roosevelt and other investigators has revealed a long prehistoric sequence. Dr. Roosevelt will focus on the impressive Marajoara Phase mound which dates between 500 and 1300 AD. The team will investigate structures and chronology at the site and sample nearby cemeteries in preparation for excavation. On the basis of these the team hopes not only to obtain more precise dates for the site, but also to provide detailed reconstructions of subsistence practices, social organization and demography. It is unclear how this large prehistoric Amazonian group subsisted, whether it had a chieftan system of organization and whether this level of complexity present at Marajo Island developed locally or results from migration of peoples from elsewhere. This project should help to answer these questions. Although humans have inhabited tropical South America for a long time, prehistoric adaptations to this tropical environment are not well understood because tropical vegetation makes sites hard to locate and humid conditions do not favor preservation of organic remains. The sites at Marajo Island are rich and should yield valuable scientific data.
