Buried in ashes: Site formation processes at Lapa do Santo rockshelter, east-central Brazil Ximena S. Villagran a, b, * , Andr  e Strauss c, d, e, f , Christopher Miller b , Bertrand Ligouis g , Rodrigo Oliveira e a Museo de Arqueologia e Etnologia e Universidade de S~ ao Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado 1466, 05588070 S~ ao Paulo, Brazil b Institute for Archaeological Sciences e University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany c Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment e University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany d Department of Human Evolution e Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany e Laboratorio de Estudos Evolutivos e Ecologicos Humanos e Universidade de S~ ao Paulo, Rua do Mat~ ao 277, 05508090, Brazil f Centro de Arqueologia Annette Laming-Emperaire, Rua Acad^ emico Nilo Figueiredo 62, 33400-000 Lagoa Santa, Brazil g Laboratory for Applied Organic Petrology (LAOP) e Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany article info Article history: Received 13 August 2015 Received in revised form 27 June 2016 Accepted 12 July 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Tropical geoarchaeology Micromorphology Organic petrology mFTIR Lagoa Santa Experimental hearths Paleoamerican abstract Few archaeological sites in the Americas contain high concentrations of human burials dating back to the early Holocene. The tropical karstic region of Lagoa Santa, in central Brazil (state of Minas Gerais) is one of the richest bioanthropological records available to study the behaviors and funerary practices of early Holocene South Americans, with more than 200 skeletons found so far. One of the key locations to examine the history of human settlement in Lagoa Santa is the site of Lapa do Santo, a rockshelter known to contain the oldest rock art and the earliest evidence of funerary complexity in the continent. In this geoarchaeological investigation we focus on the early Holocene settlement at Lapa do Santo (7.9e12.7 cal kyBP) applying high-resolution geoarchaeological techniques, such as micromorphology, organic petrology and mFTIR, on both archaeological, modern reference and experimental samples. This is the first time that a micro-contextual approach integrated with experimental geoarchaeology has been applied to study the formation of rockshelter deposits in a tropical setting. Our results show that the stratigraphic sequence formed under the dual influence of anthropogenic sedimentationdthrough continuous combustion activitiesdand geogenic sedimentation in the form of oxisol aggregates which fell from above the limestone cliff into the rockshelter. Intact hearths and remobilized combustion debris, possibly hearth rake-out, are close to the graves suggesting repeated burning activities as part of the ritual behavior of early Holocene South Americans. Large amounts of ash are intermixed with heated and unheated oxisol aggregates. Heated termite mound fragments were also found mixed within the sedi- ments. Post-depositional alteration of the site includes limited bioturbation and localized, low energy surface water and sub-surface concentrations of moisture, leading to precipitation of dense, secondary carbonates. The age inversions can be attributed to the human action of reworking the ashy sediments and not to post-abandonment processes. Despite this, the overall preservation of the sediments is good and most human burials can be considered to be in primary context. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The karstic region of Lagoa Santa in east-central Brazil (state of Minas Gerais) is an important location to understand the activities and behaviors of early Holocene populations in South America. An astonishing amount of well-preserved human remains were found, the oldest being the female skeleton of “Luzia” stratigraphically dated ca. 11.3e15.1 cal kyBP (Araujo et al., 2012; Feathers et al., 2010; Neves and Hubbe, 2005; Neves et al., 1999). Peter Lund, a Danish naturalist, conducted the first research in the area in the 19th century. Lund's observations on the skeletal remains led to bioanthropological research focused on the study of a skeletal/ cranial type named “Paleoamerican”. Morphologically distinct from * Corresponding author. Museo de Arqueologia e Etnologia e Universidade de S~ ao Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado 1466, 05588070 S~ ao Paulo, Brazil. E-mail address: villagran@usp.br (X.S. Villagran). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.07.008 0305-4403/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2016) 1e25 Please cite this article in press as: Villagran, X.S., et al., Buried in ashes: Site formation processes at Lapa do Santo rockshelter, east-central Brazil, Journal of Archaeological Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.07.008