Estudo do material cerâmica do sítio Pa-Jo-23: Ilha da Ponta - Ilha de Marajó

Abstract

Between 1962 and 1965, the Goeldi Museum's Archaeology Department conducted archaeological surveys in the southeast of Marajó Island, extending the knowledge of the island's prehistoric human occupation to this region. The site PA-JO-23: Ilha da Ponta, was one of the sites excavated then and showed contemporaneity between the Mangueiras and Marajoara phases. Since complete data about the ceramic material from this site was never published, our work consisted in the analysis of this pottery and the evaluation of the results provided by the type-variety classification method used at the time. The material used in this research consisted of field reports, published articles, and the ceramic fragments that were analyzed and classified in the laboratory. The analysis showed that the ceramic types related to the Mangueiras and Marajoara phases were present in this site, which implies the questioning of the previous model regarding the diachronic succession of the rainforest phases, since, according to Meggers & Danon (1988) these two phases should have been separated by about a thousand years. The identification, also, of fragments that could be classified as belonging to other phases, shows the fragility of the typology built on characteristics linked to the coloration of the core of the fragments. The predominant existence of brushed decoration on fragments that show marked differences in the core shows that other variables must be taken into consideration in determining cultural differences.