Wiktoria Sagan

Multi-proxy research into pre-colonial raised fields of Amapá, Brazil

Raised fields systems of the Neotropical humid lowlands are one of the major types of archaeological evidence of Amerindian landscape modification. They are defined as extensive pre-colonial complexes of earthen platforms employed in past agricultural practices, distributed across multiple seasonally flooded regions of South America. Their presence, age, and morphology raise significant questions with direct implications on current understandings of pre-Columbian societies: Was their main function to facilitate water drainage or improve soil nutrients? How were they maintained and what was the variety of crops cultivated? Were raised fields capable of providing long-term support for large and complex societies? How extensively did people modify the environment of the Amazon in the pre-Columbian period? To answer these questions the project will undertake fieldwork, including landscape survey and sampling of selected raised fields. Laboratory analysis of collected samples will involve radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeological (physio-chemical study and soil/sediment micromorphology), archaeobotanical (macrobotanical and phytolith), and artefactual analyses. The results of this project will widen our understanding over field design, upkeep, and exploitation by pre-Columbian peoples, nuancing the role they played in regional subsistence, economy, and society. This bears significance on current understandings of people-landscape history and ecological legacies in the broader Amazon biome, challenging several baseline assumptions employed in conservation policy.

Education

• BA, Archaeology, University College London 2018
• MSc, Environmental Archaeology, University College London 2019

Sagan, W., M. Arroyo-Kalin and S. Rostain (2021). Raise it up and wash it all away: Micromorphological and sedimentological analysis of pre-colonial raised fields from Grand Macoua and Savanna Bois Diable, French Guiana. Poster presented at: 9th Developing International Geoarchaeology Conference, Faro.