An unprecedented initiative provided information about the Brazilian archaeological sites, where are the remnants of the populations that inhabited the national territory at other times. In all, 27,974 sites were mapped across the country, and the data available allow comparative image analysis from 1985 to 2023.
The Mapbiomas Project-Coverage and Use of Land in Archaeological Sites in Brazil (1985-2023) gathered the registered and georeferenced information by the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) and made it public, with free access.
“The crossing and making available of these data open to the public helps to understand where these sites are located, whether it is in an area impacted by human activities or not, and can also point to an increase in anthropic activities in some region and the extension of this increase, which can generate a warning,” explains Thiago Berlanga Trindade, IPHAN registration and data registration service.
From the analysis of these data, Mapbiomas researchers concluded that there has been a reversal in the coverage and use of land close to 100 meters from archaeological sites in recent decades: by 2023, more than half of these memory spaces are in areas marked by recent human interventions, which increases the risks to preservation.
Currently, almost half of these places, 49.6%, are in deforested areas and occupied by human uses such as pasture, agriculture and urban areas. In 1985 this percentage was only 41.5%, and most, 53.5% were in areas of native vegetation, such as forests, savannas and natural fields.
40 years ago, the forests were predominant around these historical places, 43.2% of the surrounding area. Already in 2023, agriculture occupies the largest portion, representing 43.1% of soil use around archaeological sites.
According to the scientific coordinator of Mapbiomas, Julia Shimbo, it was often the human activity itself that revealed the presence of these archaeological sites, identified through research, infrastructure works or after deforestation.
“Despite the historical human occupation of these sites, we can now analyze the changes and impacts of recent occupation on these areas,” he says.
Biomes
In absolute numbers, the Amazon is the biome with the largest amount of archaeological sites. There are 10,197, more than one third of the national total. Caatinga has 7,004 points with remnants of human presence in other times, the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest also stand out with the presence respectively of 4,914 and 4,832 of these places. Pampa and Pantanal have registered respectively, 904 and 123.
When the researchers analyzed human activities around the archaeological sites by biome, they found that the Atlantic Forest recorded a higher proportion of sites in anthropic areas, with 63% under these conditions. In the Amazon 47.5%in 2023, they were already in anthropized areas, while in 1985 there were only 19%.
“When an archaeological site is located in an anthropized area, a series of concerns about its preservation and conservation should be observed, and this survey can point to the places where we should pay more attention, or treat it in a priority,” says Berlanga.
States
The statement by states also pointed out in which federative units are the historical findings in Brazil, with Bahia recording 2,718 registered archaeological sites, Paraná with 2,363 of these places and mine general with 2,029.
In the analysis of land use in the vicinity of historical sites in the states, Acre leads with 89.2% of places in its territory with human activities in the surrounding area. Rio de Janeiro (76.1%) and Espírito Santo (75.4%) appear next in these conditions.
Already the sites of Roraima, Piauí and Amapá were the ones that proportionally had native vegetation nearby, with 87.6%, 78.7% and 69.4% of original coverage respectively.
Experts survey at the construction site of Metro Linha 6, in São Paulo, where an archaeological site was found, appointed as Saracura Vai-Vai Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil
Logging
Deforestation alerts were also applied to data for the period between 2019 and 2024. In this analysis, 122 archaeological sites were in area with deforestation alerts during this period. Of this total, most were in the Caatinga (29) biomes, the Atlantic Forest (31) and the Amazon (17).
For researcher Marcos Rosa, technical coordinator of Mapbiomas, crossing these data allows the recent process of human occupation to cause damage or destroy the story contained in these spaces. He explains that, from these data, it is already possible to determine that “almost two thirds [79 sítios arqueológicos] They are in deforested areas for the expansion of agricultural areas. In Rio Grande do Norte, there are 13 of the 19 archaeological sites on deforestation alerts related to the expansion of sustainable energy projects [solares ou eólicas]”He analyzes.
Given the data, UFSC scientist and professor Marina Hirota, who also collaborated with the study, warns. “The growth of anthropic activities around the sites reinforces the importance of conservation policies and management of Brazilian archaeological heritage, especially in the face of increasing pressures on biomes,” he concludes.
This content was originally published in human intervention grows around archaeological sites in Brazil on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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