Slash-and-burn is the dominant strategy for plant cultivation in rural Amazonia yet its antiquity in pre-Colonial times is unclear. Ascertaining both its antiquity and differences compared to modern swidden cultivation can significantly expand current understandings of the extent to which Amazonian rainforests were modified by human populations in the past, e.g.: Were pre-colonial plant cultivation systems extensive or intensive? How were they transformed by the introduction of new tools / new cultivars? How much of the landscape was managed through agroforestry strategies? How did this impact past human demography? This PhD project will apply geoarchaeological/archaeobotanical methods to document the variability of anthropogenic soil modification and plant cultivation practices associated with indigenous settlement in the NW Amazon. Techniques to be employed include soil micromorphology, taxonomic identification of plant macro / micro remains, geochemical characterisation, isotope analysis, luminescence profiling, magnetic susceptibility, and/or particle size analysis.
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