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Roosevelt said the recent hype regarding the “garden cities” in Ecuador is “annoying”, as it is not a new discovery and it ignores older research from Latin American archaeologists. Erudite and witty, Roosevelt is the first to acknowledge that she did not do it alone. Too many before her remained ignored for far too long.
Anna Roosevelt spoke with Mongabay by video on Dec. 1, 2023, and Jan. 15, 2024. The conversation was edited for clarity and brevity.Through my mother. She loved archaeology. Her parents were from Missouri but had moved to the U.S. Southwest because they had tuberculosis. At the time, there was no way to treat the disease. If possible, people would just move to a drier climate. So, my mother grew up in Arizona and New Mexico, where she often went around with this doctor who liked archaeology.
At the time, many people said you could not study plant remains, as the wet conditions of the tropical forest could not preserve them. But I knew that could not be true. Carbonized plant remains are almost indestructible. I went there and asked if anyone knew about the rock art. Fifteen minutes later, someone appeared and led me to Monte Alegre sites, including the Painted Rock Cave and its painted wall designs. From the stratigraphy, I immediately realized the cave was not too disturbed inside. The deposit below the entrance held lots of lithic fragments, but there was pottery at the top, so I thought I could get a sequence. I applied to the National Endowment for Humanities and got a grant to dig there.
A large-stemmed point and palm-wood harpoon foreshaft found by miners at Curupité in 1986. Image courtesy of Anna Roosevelt. Mongabay: When archaeologists talk about pottery or ceramics, often the term “The Formative Stage” pops up. Could you briefly explain what it means? And how does it relate to the Amazon?What archaeologists call ‘the Formative’ — not the most appealing term, I admit — refers to the later stages in the cultural evolution of the New World, roughly dating from 2,000 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. It was the era when people generally settled down and farmed.