New perspectives for the study of pre-colonial societies in Central Western Brazil: the spatial analysis of Guará 1 Site (GO-NI-IOO), Goiás.

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of an intra-site spatial analysis of an open air ceramic site of the Uru tradition, Guará 1 (GO-NI-IOO) situated in south central Goiás state. The results of multivariate statistics have shown significant differences of material culture in discrete settlement spaces. The variability of lithic and ceramic artifacts among residential units have been interpreted as an internal hierarchy related to social and economic aspects, such as implement production and redistribution as well as food processing and consumption. Such intra-site analysis, even if predominantly based on a full covered surface collection, shows the potential of this procedure for further studies which may focus on the internal and external dynamics of pre-colonial ceramic agriculturalists of central Brazil.