What do we know about the sambaqui builders? Short review of the archaelogy of the southeastern coast of Brazil, from the first sambaquis to the arrival of Jê pottery

Abstract

From 1990 to the year of 2012 more than a hundred and fifty papers were written on the prehistory of the southeast coast of Brazil. Most of these works refer to the sambaqui  (shell mound) sites, while another portion to the so called “coastal campsites”, with or without ceramics, that characterize the recent prehistory of the coast. Within such a wide volume of work, how much do we actually know about the evolution of the human occupation of the coast and the characteristics of the groups that there inhabited before the massive migration of the Guarani groups? This paper aims to synthesize the most relevant information produced in the last twenty years on the prehistory of the southeast coast and to suggest new hypothesis on old questions related with the peopling of the coast and the “disappearance” of the sambaqui  builders.