Pre-Columbian land use and its modern legacy in the Purus-Madeira Interfluve, Central Amazonia Submitted by Regina Gonda to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology In September 2018 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Regina Gonda 2018 i ii ABSTRACT To combat environmental degradation and change, it is imperative that the rainforests are protected and sustainable land use practices are developed in Amazonia. A better understanding of the role of humans in shaping Amazonian environments and the extent to which the forests have been resilient to anthropogenic disturbance is critical to determining the current state of these ecosystems. This research provides the first reconstruction of late pre-Columbian to early post-Columbian land use and its environmental legacy in the Purus-Madeira Interfluve, Central Amazonia. Soil profile samples were collected across a transect approximately 600 km in length between Manaus and Humaitá, covering a large ecological gradient from dense canopy forests to open canopy forests, as well as dry, upland areas (terra firme) and small riverine settings. Archaeobotanical phytolith and terrestrial palaeoecological samples were analysed from four contexts: (i) primary forests; (ii) oligarchic forests dominated by economically useful trees in the terra firme rainforest on natural soils; (iii) an anthropogenic forest with Brazil nut trees on anthropogenic soil; and (iv) a previously undocumented archaeological site next to the Brazil nut stand. The outcome of this study provides evidence that the extent of the pre- Columbian environmental impact was larger than previously thought, and this shows that humans managed these forests in various ways to varying intensities. The data therefore helps to identify the long-term role of human- environment interactions in Central Amazonia and provides valuable information for future environmental and land use regulation policies. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS What a journey this was. When I finished my MSc, I planned to do PhD research on a desert, probably in Jordan, as I had spent a summer excavating there during my master's program. Who could have imagined that I would end up doing my PhD in the world’s largest rainforest? I have experienced and learned so much during these years, and they have undoubtedly also been the most challenging years of my life. But, now that I am sitting in the PGR office writing this acknowledgement and reflecting back on the past four years, I know that I am actually very fortunate. I have had the opportunity to travel to some incredible places, meet some amazing and inspiring people, gain knowledge and confidence in archaeology and terrestrial palaeoecology, and pick up valuable skills. I am thus forever grateful to the people and organisations who have helped me along my PhD journey, and who have contributed in many ways to the making of this thesis. My PhD project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations (PAST) project, coordinated by José Iriarte and Denise Schaan. My sincere thanks go to my lead supervisor, José Iriarte, for giving me the opportunity, training me, helping me to formulate my research design, and supporting me during these four years. Your enthusiasm for your subject and “everything is possible” attitude have been truly inspirational for me. I would also like to thank my second supervisor, Dunia H. Urrego, who helped me with the research design, statistics, kept me on track, and was constantly supporting me in general. Your positive and solution-oriented mind-set always reminded me that there is an answer for every problem. Lilian Rebellato kindly agreed to lead the application for the IPHAN permit to carry out the archaeological research. Umberto Lombardo of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, was a huge help in interpreting my terrestrial palaeoecology data. Jonas Gregorio de Souza generously gave his time to make the GIS maps included in this study. The team of the PAST project, especially Yoshi Maezumi, Mark Robinson, Jonas Gregorio de Souza, and Sarah Elliott, not only taught me a lot about ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS archaeology, palaeoecology, and archaeobotany but became my friends. I would especially like to mention Yoshi here, my “roomie”, who is one of the brightest young researchers I have ever met and has become one of my best friends. Thank you for constantly encouraging, supporting, and inspiring me. Doing fieldwork in the Amazon Rainforest was an incredible experience, but I could not have done it without the enormous amount of help I received from many people and organisations. First of all, I would like to thank Charles Clement of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) for welcoming me to INPA and advising me on my fieldwork. Charles also discussed the fieldwork findings and organised for the soil samples to be shipped from Manaus to São Paulo and Exeter. My PhD project was initially based on and inspired by the work of INPA’s Carolina Levis on anthropogenic forests in Amazonia. Both Carolina and Flavia Costa (also at INPA) helped me greatly by discussing my plans for field research and designing the project. I could not have organised everything for my fieldwork in Manaus so smoothly without having met Lóránd Jelényi, who has becone a great friend of mine. Lóránd helped me with bureaucracy, renting a car, buying equipment and food in Manaus, and he also found my field assistants. He and his family were just all-round fun to be with and made my short stay in Manaus unforgettable. Izaias Brazil, the PAST project’s field botany expert, helped greatly with executing the modern vegetation inventories. My field assistants, Irmão, Veca, and Diego, not only worked hard on the test pits in the rainforest, but they also built shelters, hunted, caught fish, and generally looked after me. It has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life to live on a traditional Amazonian houseboat, play with pink river dolphins, survey the landscape along the Igapó- Açu River, and discover my first archaeological site. I would like to thank the Igapó-Açu community for their hospitality, as well as all the local people along the BR-319 road who gave us shelter and food during our journey. I would also like to thank Paulo Eduardo de Oliveira for welcoming me to his lab in the Institute of Geosciences at the University of São Paulo for six weeks, so that I could begin processing my soil samples. I would like to acknowledge Jenny Watling who has been following my PhD journey from the beginning, made me feel at home in São Paulo, and has been a great friend since we first met. In addition to Jenny, all the PGR students I met in São Paulo made my stay in the city very memorable. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Aside from those already listed, I am also grateful to a number of colleagues with whom I had interesting discussions in relation to this work. I should mention here Daiana Travassos, Lautaro Max Hilbert, Andre Junqueira, Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, Phil Riris, Eduardo Machicado, Sanna Saunaluoma, and Rafael Milheira, amongst others. My PhD experience would not have been complete without the special PGR community at the Department of Archaeology in Exeter: Malene Lauritsen, Alice la Porta (my PhD buddy from day one), Felipe do Nascimento Rodrigues, Dóra Szabó, Belinda Tibbetts, Emily Johnson, Matt Knight, Ethan Greenwood, Adrian Oyander Rodriguez, Theresa Kamper, Katie Edwards Bonnett, Leah Moradi, Jemma Singleton, Brice Girbal, Carlos Salgado Ceballos, and many others with whom I enjoyed beers or just had a chat in the corridor. You all contributed to the success of this project. My best Hungarian friends for more than 15 years, Emese Polgár and Ágnes Takács-Hajnal, have always cheered me on. I miss you ladies a lot, and I am grateful for having you in my life. In addition to family and friends, I received invaluable help from the Exeter University’s Wellbeing Centre during the hardest time of my life after my father passed away earlier this year. I would not be writing this acknowledgement today if I did not have a supporting and loving family. I would like to acknowledge the support of my close and extended family: my mother, my late father, my brother, my godparents, my cousins, and my late grandmother. I dedicate this thesis to my mother, Zsuzsanna, who is the strongest woman I know, and my late father, András, who was always fascinated by nature and adventure and would have been beyond proud of me if he had the opportunity to see me submit this thesis. I also dedicate this thesis to my late grandmother, Gizella, who we lost just a couple of weeks before I handed in this thesis. You and Dad taught me to love the land and grow our own food, and thus you planted that little seed in my heart that in the end evolved into this thesis studying land use in the past and its legacy. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... ii CONTENTS ..................................................................................................