Journal papers

Maezumi, S.Y., B.S. Whitney, F.E. Mayle, J.G. De Souza, J. Iriarte. (in press) Reassessing climate and pre-Columbian drivers of paleofire activity in the Bolivian Amazon. Quaternary International. Available online 14 December 2017. Carson, J., Mayle, F. E., Whitney, B., Iriarte, J. and Soto, D. (in press). Pre-Columbian ring ditch construction and land use on a […]

Conferences

Alves, D. T.* (2014). Plant food Consumption and the origin of Amazonian Dark Earth in the Lower Tapajós region. 9th Sesquiannual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. Gothenburg, Jun. 26-29. Alves, D. T.* (2015). What plants people ate in Ancient Amazonia? Archaeobotanical research at the Lower Tapajós River-Brazil. University of Exeter Postgraduate Research […]

Fieldwork bites

Fieldwork Bolivia 2016 Fieldwork Bolivia 2016 Areal Survey Fieldwork Bolivia 2016 Coring Laguna Versalles Fieldwork Brazil 2014 Preparing platform at Laguna Jacare Coring at Laguna Mangueizales II Jan describing soil profile at Maguari Collecting plant voucher specimens at the INPA Herbarium

José Iriarte

Professor José Iriarte is an environmental archaeologist and archaeobotanist with a specialism in phytolith and starch grain analyses. He has a strong track record of research into human-environment interactions, the emergence of complex societies and the development of agricultural economies in lowland South and Central America. He has extensive experience in directing and participating in […]

Denise P. Schaan

As a specialist in Amazonian archaeology, Dr Denise Schaan is best known for her innovative research on Marajó Island at the mouth of the Amazon River, and more recently for her leading role in the Western Amazonia geoglyph research. Both studies have attracted worldwide attention. Together with Per Stenborg, she has directed the Cultivated Wilderness […]

Lautaro Hilbert

Lautaro Hilbert is a biologist with a Masters in Zooarchaeology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in Brazil. Currently a PhD candidate in Paleobotany in the Archaeology department of the University of Exeter, UK, Lautaro’s focus is primarily on phytolith studies. He seeks to understand the plant management and dietary […]

Izaias Brasil

Izaias Brasil, who has a Masters in Botany and Plant Ecology, lives in Acre in Brazil, 300 km from the border with Bolivia and Peru. He has worked for ten years conducting floristic and forest inventories in south western Amazonia. In the last few years this work has contributed to land management initiatives and the […]

Luiz Aragao

Dr Luiz Aragão is the leader of the TREES lab. He has a background in Environmental Sciences from the State University of North Fluminense in Brazil, with a PhD in Remote Sensing from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (2004). Dr Aragão was a visiting student at the University of Edinburgh, UK (2003), and a […]

Edmar Almeida de Oliveira

Edmar Almeida is a Biologist with a Masters in Ecology and Conservation from the University of Mato Grosso States (UNEMAT), Nova Xavantina campus. He is currently a PhD candidate on the Biodiversity and Biotechnology post-graduate programme in Bionorte. He studies Amazonian plant biodiversity, specialising in the effects of historic disturbance and soil pyrogenic carbon on […]

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Brazil Amazon: Drone to scan for ancient Amazonia

European Research Council project ‘Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations (PAST)’ launched at AAAs in San Jose.

Drones to scan Brazil’s Amazon forest

Another interview with Prof Jose Iriarte about the background, aims and implementation of the PAST project.

Humans and the Amazon: A 13,000-Year Coexistence

Prof Jose Iriarte talks about the PAST project and his efforts to understand human activity in and influence on the Amazon region for the last 13 millennia.

Unmanned aircraft developed in São Carlos will help monitor the Amazon forest

A video report(in Portuguese) by the Brazilian television about the drone of the PAST project, which will monitor large forested areas in order to reveal the influence ofpre-Columbian societies on landscapes and vegetation.

Climate change may have had a huge impact on ancient South American civilisations

Lead scientist discussing the human-environment relationships of ancient South American societies before the European Arrival in a workshop hosted by the PAST project.

The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest

A new article reviews what scientist so far know about the plant domestication and landscape transformation in Amazonia during the Late Holocene.

Institutions & Sponsors