The Taming of : Natural and Cultural History of a Neotropical Fruit.

Guava ( L., Myrtaceae) is a Neotropical fruit that is widely consumed around the world. However, its evolutionary history and domestication process are unknown.

A "Dirty" Footprint: Macroinvertebrate diversity in Amazonian Anthropic Soils.

Amazonian rainforests, once thought to be pristine wilderness, are increasingly known to have been widely inhabited, modified, and managed prior to European arrival, by human populations with diverse cultural backgrounds. Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are fertile soils found throughout the Amazon Basin, created by pre-Columbian societies with sedentary habits. Much is known about the chemistry of these soils, yet their zoology has been neglected.

A correlation analysis of Light Microscopy and X-ray MicroCT imaging methods applied to archaeological plant remains' morphological attributes visualization.

In this work, several attributes of the internal morphology of drupaceous fruits found in the archaeological site Monte Castelo (Rondonia, Brazil) are analyzed by means of two different imaging methods. The aim is to explore similarities and differences in the visualization and analytical properties of the images obtained via High Resolution Light Microscopy and X-ray micro-computed tomography (X-ray MicroCT) methods. Both provide data about the three-layered pericarp (exo-, meso- and endocarp) of the studied exemplars, defined by cell differentiation, vascularisation, cellular contents, presence of sclerenchyma cells and secretory cavities.

Pre-Hispanic fishing practices in interfluvial Amazonia: Zooarchaeological evidence from managed landscapes on the Llanos de Mojos savanna.

Recent evidence suggests the existence of Pre-Hispanic fisheries in savanna areas of the Amazon basin. How these fisheries may have functioned is still poorly known. Although many studies have drawn attention to how Pre-Hispanic inhabitants of these savannas managed to deal with excess water, little attention has been paid to understanding how large and permanent populations were sustained during long periods of drought.

Publisher Correction: Evidence for mid-Holocene rice domestication in the Americas.

In the HTML version of this Article originally published, Fig. 4 was a duplicate of Fig. 1.

Direct archaeological evidence for Southwestern Amazonia as an early plant domestication and food production centre.

Southwestern Amazonia is considered an early centre of plant domestication in the New World, but most of the evidence for this hypothesis comes from genetic data since systematic archaeological fieldwork in the area is recent. This paper provides first-hand archaeobotanical evidence of food production from early and middle Holocene (ca. 9,000-5000 cal.

Evidence for mid-Holocene rice domestication in the Americas.

The development of agriculture is one of humankind's most pivotal achievements. Questions about plant domestication and the origins of agriculture have engaged scholars for well over a century, with implications for understanding its legacy on global subsistence strategies, plant distribution, population health and the global methane budget. Rice is one of the most important crops to be domesticated globally, with both Asia (Oryza sativa L.