Extensive Networks of Megalithic Monuments at the North Bank of the Mouth of the Amazon River

Abstract

Ritual practices and landscape modifications have long been central themes in the study of the late pre-colonial Amazonian occupation. The debate focused on how, on the one hand, the intensification of rituals and, on the other hand, the increase in landscape changes are related to increases in socio-political inequalities, population growth, territoriality and ideology. Such changes are often correlated with evidence of the transformation of small-scale societies into more complex social formations, sometimes referred to as “chiefdoms”.The coastal region of Amapá was the site of the development of archaeological cultures characterized not only by highly decorated ceramics (often with the plastic representation of humans and animals), but also by the construction of megalithic structures.New prospections and excavations carried out in these structures give us a very good opportunity to understand the relationship between ritual practices, monument construction and cultural change in this region of the Amazon during late prehistory.This article presents a synthesis of practices related to the construction and use of megalithic monuments in the region. I try to show the extreme complexity of ritual practices, adding new information about social formations in the late prehistoric period in the region.