Análise tipológica dos resquícios materiais líticos encontrados na gruta do Pequiá

Abstract

This Sub-Project, a complementary part of the Archaeological Studies Program "The Presence of Hunter-Gatherers in the Brazilian Prehistoric Amazon: New Areas". It focuses on the lithic material culture collected during excavations at Gruta do pequiá, situated on plateau N5 of Serra Norte de Carajás (southeastern Pará). Our goal is the typological analysis of the lithic material collected, according to the same methodology applied in the previous analyses of the remains collected from the Guarita and Rato Caves, in the same geographical region (MAGALHÃES, 2005). The typological analysis of the lithic material from Gruta Pequiá will be of great importance to complement the archeological studies carried out in Carajás. We can see this from Pedro Paulo Funari, when quoting Robert Etienne when he says that "Typology is not the goal of archeological research (...), but an instrument of synchronic and diachronic ordering of the material, aiming to reconstruct the structuring and transformations of these artifacts in a significant sociological context". In other words, although typology should not be considered the goal of archaeological research, it is still a vital tool for obtaining data about the material remains of sites. Through such analyses, the archaeologist can verify non-casual constancies or recurrences that allow him to reconstruct artifactual sequences, consumption patterns, space occupations, and even interrelations between peoples. The typological analysis of the lithics found at the Pequiá cave site is partial, since a complete analysis of these lithic remains is not necessary in order to contemplate what the main project proposes, and also because there are analyses from the Guarita and Rato caves, in the same environmental context and with the same general characteristics. The material analyzed, consisting of 5,641 pieces, corresponds to that collected from the excavation of the so-called Layer I. We intend, next, to analyze the other two remaining layers, 2 and 3, continuing the typological work.