Terra preta de índio e as populações do presente: a herança que chega até o quintal

Abstract

The present study aimed to verify the influence of past human occupation on plant species composition of areas currently occupied and managed with homegardens in Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE). ADE are anthropogenic soils and archaeological sites by definition. Thus, it is possible to classify the archaeological context of ADE patches, depending on the existing material remains: there are archaeological sites where only one set of artifacts are associated with a ceramic tradition, related or not to the same human occupation, and there are archaeological sites that stratigraficaly have more than one ceramic tradition, thus demonstrating different forms or periods of occupancy. Floristic inventories were conducted in 46 homegardens on ADE in five riverine communities along the lower Urubu River in Central Amazonia and we identified the spontaneous species native to the Americas and cultivated species native to Amazonia. Twenty-two homegardens were surveyed at single tradition archaeological sites and 24 homegardens were surveyed in three sites that have strata from more than one ceramic tradition. Soils, distances between homegardens, sizes of homegardens, communities and archaeological contexts were used as explanatory variables to test their influence on floristic composition. For cultivated species, archaeological context was the variable that best explained the floristic composition of the homegardens, but for spontaneous species floristic composition was more related to the communities. We conclude that the archaeological context of homegardens on ADE influences their floristic compositions. Local communities on sites with more than one occupation have homegardens with more variable floristic compositions.