Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anthropological Archaeology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa Gardens on the coast: Considerations on food production by Brazilian shellmound builders Rita Scheel-Ybert ⁎ , Célia Boyadjian Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Laboratório de Arqueobotânica e Paisagem, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arqueologia, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Sambaqui Food production Subsistence economy Landscape Archaeology Archaeobotany Coastal Brazil ABSTRACT Shellmounds of different sizes and characteristics mark the landscape along the Southern and Southeastern Brazilian coast, attesting to a multimillennial occupation that is dated from at least 8500 until 1000 calibrated years before present. Their builders are currently recognized as fisher-gatherers, and until quite recently plants were thought to represent only a minor part of their diet. However, evidence of wild and domesticated plant remains obtained from diverse proxies across sites, contexts, and chronologies point to a different scenario. The importance of a variety of tubers, fruits, and seeds, including yam, sweet potato, leren, squash, and maize has been documented. The evidence demonstrates that shellmound builders subsisted in a system of mixed economy, where fishing and gathering were associated with horticulture. They modified the landscape, tended home gardens, and exploited substantial amounts of tuberous crops. This paper discusses the significance of plant remains to a low-level food production system while contextualizing them over the landscape. 1. Introduction The Brazilian coast was intensely occupied by shellmound builders for several millennia. Traditionally, following cultural ecological in- terpretations, these people were seen as nomadic foragers, organized into small shellfish gathering bands who would have shifted their economic system to fishing in more recent times (Heredia et al., 1989). According to this interpretation, shellmounds were considered to be food middens. Important research during the 1990s led to the inter- pretation of people as sedentary “fishers-gatherers-hunters”, and of mounds as loci for dwelling, burying the dead, and accumulating food remains (Gaspar, 1998). Presently, they are largely recognized as se- dentary fisher-gatherers, and mounds are generally interpreted as fu- nerary monuments (DeBlasis et al., 1998, 2007; Gaspar, 2014). Fol- lowing the theoretical trend towards what has been called “complex hunter-gatherers”, some scholars have argued for more complex so- ciocultural patterns (DeBlasis et al., 1998; Lima and Mazz, 1999/2000; Scheel-Ybert et al., 2003; Fish et al., 2013; Lessa and Gaspar, 2014; Gaspar, 2014), but presently the postulation of a heterarchical system seems more widely accepted (DeBlasis et al., 2007; Kneip et al., 2018). The role of plants in this social system, however, is still largely underestimated. For many archaeologists the very concept of “fisher- gatherers” still implies “mollusk gatherers” (cf. Gaspar, 2014). Ar- chaeologists tend to value what they see with the naked eye, thus animal remains have historically been overestimated when compared to plant remains. Hence, mollusks (which are more visible in the strati- graphy) have long been considered as the major staple food, until fish was proven to be their most important source of protein (Figuti, 1993; De Masi, 2001; Colonese et al., 2014). But plants were also essential to their lives. And botanical remains, albeit frequently inconspicuous and underrepresented due to differential preservation, provide meaningful evidence. Archaeobotanical studies have been demonstrating that plants played a pivotal part in these people’s diet and way of life, while also providing robust evidence of wild and domesticated plants obtained from varying proxies across sites, contexts, and chronologies. In this paper, we intend to discuss the significance of these plant remains to a food production system while contextualizing them in the landscape. By doing this, we will try to demonstrate the importance of environmental manipulation, horticultural practices, and of domesticates in this so- ciocultural system. We argue that these shellmound builders are to be considered as a middle ground society engaged in low-level food pro- duction with domesticates (sensu Smith, 2001), or rather in a “low- impact” food production system (sensu Watling et al., 2018). In the given context, we argue that the concept of “fisher-gatherers”, heretofore adopted to describe their economy, is inaccurate. Even if these people were indeed collecting shells (mostly for building mate- rial) and a variety of wild plant resources, foraging was performed in a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101211 Received 1 October 2019; Received in revised form 24 July 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: scheelybert@mn.ufrj.br (R. Scheel-Ybert). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 60 (2020) 101211 0278-4165/ © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T