Ochres from rituals of prehistoric human funerals at the Toca do Enoque site, Piauí, Brazil

Abstract

The archaeological site known as Toca do Enoque (geographical coordinates, 09 • 14 65.3 S 43 • 55 62.5 W) is a rock shelter located in the Serra das Andorinhas (Serra das Confusões National Park), rural area of the city of Guaribas, state of Piauí, Brazil. Several rupestrian paintings (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs along with some pure graphisms), predominantly in red, are found on the sandstone walls. Charcoals, lithic materials, necklaces with teeth, animal bones, gastropod shells, ochres and human skeletons (dated from 6,220 ± 40 to 6,610 ± 40 years before present, BP) were identified in recent excavations in this shelter. Red and yellow ochre samples were collected from prehistoric funeral structures and L. C. Duarte Cavalcante et al. Fig. 1 Map of the Parque Nacional Serra das Confusões and Toca do Enoque site analyzed with powder X-ray diffractometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 57 Fe transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy at 298 K and 80 K. Mössbauer data indicate that the red ochre do contain predominantly hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) whereas goethite (α-FeOOH) is the major mineral in the yellow ochre.

Rupestrian Paintings from the Archaeological Area of Piripiri, Piauí, Brazil: A Current Overview

“…The archaeometry has been used as an important tool for the analysis of several types of ancient materials of archaeological sites from Piauí and the 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used as a non-destructive nuclear technique and decisively fundamental on the chemical-mineralogical characterization of ferruginous species of these materials [10,14,16,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Tafonomia funerária na Serra das Confusões: os processos de formação dos depósitos mortuários na Toca do Enoque, Holoceno médio, Nordeste do Brasil

“…Os primeiros resultados das escavações foram publicados em Guidon e Luz (2009) e na tese de doutorado de Luz (2014). Também foram publicadas outras informações sobre a análise arqueométrica do ocre vermelho e amarelo nos sepultamentos (Cavalcante et al, 2011); a fauna e os adornos de ossos e dentes animais usados como enxoval funerário nos sepultamentos (Faure et al, 2011(Faure et al, , 2013; as análises bioantropológicas de três esqueletos (Cunha 2014); e a comparação entre dois métodos de datação usados no sítio: radiocarbono ( 14 C) e espectroscopia por ressonância do spin eletrônico (ESR) (Kinoshita et al, 2016).…”