Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Catena journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/catena Archaeoanthrosol formation in the Brazilian semiarid José João Lelis Leal de Souza a, ⁎ , Bartolomeu Israel de Souza b , Rafael Albuquerque Xavier c , Anderson Almeida Pacheco d , Luiz Carlos Ruiz Pessenda e , Edson dos Santos Brito f a Soil Science Department, Federal University of Viçosa. Professor Peter Henry Rolfs Ave., Viçosa-MG 36570-900, Brazil b Geosciences Department, Federal University of Paraíba. Governador Antônio Mariz Ave, João Pessoa-PB 58051-900, Brazil c Geography Department, State University of Paraíba. 351 Baraúnas St., Campina Grande-PB, 58429-500, Brazil d Renova Foundation, 671 Getúlio Vargas Ave., Funcionários. Belo Horizonte-MG, 30112-020, Brazil e Agriculture Nuclear Energy Center, University of São Paulo. 303 Centenário Ave., Piracicaba - SP, 13400-970, Brazil f Geography Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Joaquim Gregório St., Penedo. Caicó-RN, 59300-000, Brazil ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Anthrosols Caatinga Dry forest South America ABSTRACT Multiple waves of dispersion populated South America throughout the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The oldest rock art and artifacts in Caatinga are dated from 10,000 BP. Besides that, there is no register of ancient activities in soils in Caatinga. Four pedons were taken, described and classifed in sites with a high number of artifacts littering the surface and/or rock art. Five more pedons were described to represent soil without an- thropic infuence. Soils are shallow and transition between horizons was predominantly clear or abrupt. Anthrosols in Caatinga have value and chroma similar to the anthropic horizons described in Amazonian dark earths. The pedons are strongly acid to slightly alkaline and predominantly have base saturation above 50% in all horizons. Anthrosols in Caatinga have up to 6 and 544 times, respectively, more soil organic carbon and phosphorus compared to adjacent soils without anthropic infuence. Besides illite and kaolinite, apatite and calcite compose the clay and silt fractions and confrm the human infuence in soil formation. Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating indicate that Anthrosols in Caatinga are contemporaneous to the majority of Amazonian dark earths. 1. Introduction Humans migrated along South America about 15,500 years ago before present (BP) (Cramon-taubadel et al., 2017) and produced evi- dences of occupation in wet tropical and subtropical biomes, as the Amazonia rainforest (Clement et al., 2015), Atlantic rainforest (Araujo et al., 2017), Brazilian cerrado (Souza et al., 2016), pampas region (Dubois and Politis, 2017) and others. These humans did not only hunt animals but transported plants and intentionally or accidentally burned areas, which altered the vegetable composition of local habitats (Dillehay, 2008; Hecht, 2003; Levis et al., 2017; Neves et al., 2004a,b; Roosevelt, 2000). Ancient human communities can be traceable by soil properties. In Brazil, activities of indigenous populations in the pre-Columbian era created high fertile soils in the Amazon rainforest. These soils are classifed as Anthrosols and commonly they are called Amazonian Dark Earth due to their singular properties (German, 2003; Sombroek, 1966). Anthrosols are described as profoundly modifed soils by human ac- tivities (IUSS Working Group WRB, 2014). Addition of organic or mineral material, charcoal or household wastes, or irrigation and cul- tivation through time produce soils with high fertility, black or dark brown color, strong grade structure and granular type, fragments of ceramic, higher organic carbon, and higher P and Ca contents than the surrounding pristine soils (Cunha et al., 2007). Caatinga is the largest dry forest fragment in South America. It re- mains suggested that humans occupied Caatinga at 9,670 years BP (Alvim, 2008). Despite abundant non-dated paintings in caves and boulders in the Brazilian Northeastern (Azevedo Netto and Oliveira, 2015), there is no register of ancient activities in soils. Caatinga is the largest unit of seasonally dry forest biome in the Neotropics (DRYFLOR et al., 2016). Amazonia and Caatinga soils difer considerably in terms of depth, mineralogy, texture and water availability. These diferences can modify the interactions between soil processes and the conditions of human artifacts, especially those of organic origin (bones, charcoal, ash, shells, etc.), which are used as pedological indicators of ancient human occupation. The hypothesis of the study is that ancient an- thropic activities, like these in Amazonian dark earths, were installed and promoted favorable contrasting physic-chemical characteristics https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104603 Received 24 November 2019; Received in revised form 5 March 2020; Accepted 9 April 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jjlelis@ufv.br, jjlelis@gmail.com (J.J.L.L. de Souza), xavierra@uol.com.br (R.A. Xavier), pessenda@cena.usp.br (L.C.R. Pessenda). Catena 193 (2020) 104603 0341-8162/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T