Sambaquis do litoral carioca

Resumo

- Abstract:

This work is a study of archaeologie resting places, specially those of the "kitchen midden" type, original from the sea coast of Rio de Janeiro city State of Guanabara, Brazil, South America.

After the historical and bibliographical survey, the author describes more or less thirty spots, located, mainly in Sepetiba bay.

Almost all of the resting-place are low, placed near rivers or dikes water courses. They were piled up on land elevations (most of the time on top of potter's clay or the most elevated spots of mangroves, banks of sand or on levelling of crystal rocks).

They are generally constituted of a superficial surface of black ground (0,10 to 0,30 m) and a surface of earth and mollusk shells, which in general don't reach the thickness of one meter.

There the macro-fauna was mainly represented by mollusk, specially Ostrea sp. and Phacoides pectinatus. Furthermore it was represented by crustaceans fragments, fish residues (including back-bones of big fishes), scarcely fragments of birds and mammal banes. There was coal and a lot of lithic material (pebbles, quartz spinters, stones having concavities, imprecisely worn-out stones, polish er unpolished stone axes, etc.). Sometimes we noticed, various stones, big ones, next to the other, together with coal, material which looket as if it were ash and kitchen left-over (ovens for sure).

Some animal banes were used by natives for the manufacturing, specially arrow heads; shark teeth and some mammals for necklaces, they were generally bored; fish backbones were also adapted and bored, for the same usage. Very exceptional worked shells were also collected.

In same resting places we found ceramics.

The burials existed in various levels; from the top to 1. 25 m. Almost all of the time in a fetal position. It is also to be noticed the usual appearing of coal, red dyers, some utensils, specially lithic ones, and rare1y parts of ceramics.

Through the collected material it was possible to make a survey of alveolar-dental pathology, by the study of about 1300 teeth.