The POPARU project
and the archaeological area
of Foz do Chapecó
The Prehistoric settlements in the Upper Uruguay River Valley (POPARU) project is led by Antoine Lourdeau (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France), Mirian Carbonera (Universidade Comunitaria de la Region de Chapecó, Brazil) and Marcos César Pereira Santos (Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil). It involves recurrent fieldwork since 2013 in the archaeological region known as "Foz do Chapecó", on the banks of the Uruguay River, in the west of the state of Santa Catarina and the north-west of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
For a long time, archaeological evidence in the region prior to the last millennium and a half was limited mainly to a few finds in the municipality of Itapiranga dating from around 9,000 years BC. These were roughly stratigraphically contextualized flaked stones discovered by João Alfredo Rohr between 1966 and 1968. In the early 2000s, the Foz do Chapecó hydroelectric dam was built some 60 km upstream in a loop of the Uruguay River. Preventive archaeological research carried out by Scientia Consultoria Científica revealed unsuspected archaeological potential. In addition to the rich remains of the valley's last Amerindian occupants, associated with the Tupiguarani archaeological tradition, three archaeological sites yielded occupation levels dating back to the early Holocene (between 9,500 and 8,000 years BC), with a flaked industry previously unknown in Brazilian prehistory, including blade production.
Given these encouraging initial results, and the importance of the Uruguay River valley for understanding the prehistoric settlements of southern Brazil and the Rio de la Plata basin, we decided to follow up this preventive archaeology research with a programmed excavation of the Foz do Chapecó sites as part of the POPARU project.
Two of these sites are currently being excavated: Linha Policial 7 and Uruguai 1.
This research confirms and amplifies the local archaeological sequence. The earliest known occupations date back to 12,000 years BC. Between 10,500 and 9,500 years ago, archaeological data are abundant on both sides of the Uruguay River. These correspond to repeated short-lived open-air occupations, perhaps for fishing activities. The techniques and tools used were remarkably varied. It is from this archaeological complex that the blade artefacts reported in previous studies originate. Several other occupations followed from the Early Holocene to the Late Holocene, between 8,000 and 3,000 years ago. These are currently being thoroughly excavated and studied in detail. Finally, at the time when the first European ships reached the coast, in the 16th century AD, a large indigenous community was living in Foz do Chapecó, associated by its ceramic production with the Tupiguarani archaeological tradition. They gathered in vast villages along the river and buried their dead in the surrounding area, either in large ceramic vases or directly in the ground.
