Do you know the oldest archaeological site in Brazil? Or which one is closest to where you live? This information is available on the Brazilian Radiocarbon Database website (brc14database.com.br). Designed by a team led by Lucas Bueno, an archaeologist from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the website provides access to 3,769 datings from 1,249 Brazilian archaeological sites recorded in the National Registry of Archaeological Sites (CNSA). Online since 2021, it allows users to collaborate to update information. Bueno and his colleagues completed the CNSA records with information from 459 documents (scientific articles, theses, and dissertations) on the location of the sites and the age of the materials found there. An interactive map allows users to access information about each site, with the number of artifacts dated and the oldest and most recent dates. The oldest are from Abrigo do Morro Furado in Bahia and Boqueirão da Pedra Furada in Piauí, with both sites dated at around 40,000 years old. “A quick comparison between the number of sites for which we have been able to gather data on radiocarbon dating so far and the number of sites recorded in the CNSA gives a sense of how much is still to be done,” the authors said in a scientific article describing the project (Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará Bulletin, 2023).
RepublishArchaeology
Brazilian archaeological sites online
6,000-year-old rock carvings in Pedra do Ingá, Paraíba
Claudio JJ / Wikimedia commons
