Mariano Bonomo

The main objective of this project is to contribute to the understanding of the human role in the long-term environment transformation of the Pantanal during the Holocene in the region that divides two of the most important river basins of the world: the Amazon and the Paran’-Plata. The Pantanal is the largest wetland of the world: a paramount location of natural and cultural diversity in the heart of South America. On one hand, we will collect and analyze paleoenvironmental data (pollen, charcoal, phytolith, sediments) to characterize the dynamics of environmental change in the Pantanal, including the ‘tropicalization’ process and formation of the Pantanal wetlands in the Upper Paraguay River in Brazil. On the other hand, we will analyze archaeological data (e.g., chronometric dates, pottery, lithics, faunal and botanic remains) that enable insights into how human populations have dealt with ongoing climate changes. By considering paleoenvironmental and archaeological evidence, we aim to understand how humans transformed this dynamic landscape, ranging from the introduction of non-native plants to anthropogenic earthwork constructions. To undertake this objective, we are going to excavate the Bananalzinho Bororo and Mata Escura archeological mounds in the Taiam’ Ecological Station in the Pantanal of C’ceres.