The Amazon Basin is now recognized as a cradle of cultural and
technological innovation in the ancient Americas. It was there that
the hemisphere's earliest known ceramics (ca. 5000 b.c.) were
produced. Located at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil,
Marajo Island was home to one of the region's most populous and
sophisticated ancient societies (a.d. 300-1300). Island chiefdoms
built impressive mounds to support multifamily longhouses,
ceremonial spaces, and cemeteries, and constructed channels, dams,
and weirs to trap huge quantities of fish as the annual floodwaters
receded. Aquaculture, rather than agriculture, provided the primary
source of subsistence for the Marajo people. Their beautifully
decorated ceramics reveal the skill and artistry of Amazonian
potters and the complexity of their cosmology.
Lavishly illustrated, this volume presents ceramics from the
Denver Art Museum, Barbier-Mueller Museums of Geneva and Barcelona,
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
American Museum of Natural History, and private collections.
Included are boldly painted burial urns, delicately incised
figures, intricately carved and painted jars, bowls, and plates,
and unique circular ceramic stools. Margaret Young-Sanchez and
Denise Pahl Schaan's essays describe Marajo culture, ceramics, and
funerary practices. Maps and photographs round out this important
contribution to South American art history and archaeology.
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