Archaeologists have uncovered the mysterious funerary rites of Brazil's vanished people

An international team led by Luiz Phellipe de Lima, Daniela Klokler and MaDu Gaspar conducted a dating analysis and spatial GIS study to explain why this people have buried some of their dead in secluded caves and others in conspicuous earth mounds and enclosures (MECs) over the centuries.

Details: Luiz Phellipe de Lima et al, A song of earth and water: Burial caves as sacred and animated Southern Jê deathscapes in Brazil, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101646

Briefly on Southern Jê

• Language family: The Jê originated in central Brazil around 1050 B.C. By 840 A.D. it had split into eastern and western branches, and then the eastern branch split into Kaingang and Laklãnõ.
• Modernity: Today, the Kaingang and Laklãnõ are the only descendants of the Southern Jae.
• Burial Caves (SJBCs): The first such burials date back to about 1 AD, with the deceased most often not buried in the ground but left on the surface inside the cave.
• Earth mounds and enclosures (MECs): By about 1000 CE, large-scale earthworks on hilltops became part of the rituals.

Two hypotheses about rituals

1. Hierarchical
   It was assumed that the "elite" were buried in mounds and people of lower status were buried in caves.
2. Chronological
   The idea that MECs (burial mounds) completely supplanted cave burials after 1000 AD.

However, a new study shows that both hypotheses are wrong: caves and barrows coexisted for at least 500 years, and there is no direct evidence of strict status separation.

The role of water and mythology

The authors found that 88% of burial caves are located near water bodies (waterfalls, rivers, streams). According to Southern Jae cosmology, water is the only element that links the three levels of the universe:

1. The Underground Realm of the Dead;
2. Earth, where people, animals and forests dwell;
3. The celestial world of stars and gods.

Thus, the placement of caves near water may indicate a desire to facilitate the "transition of the soul" to the underground dimension. At the same time, the cave itself, hidden in a hard-to-reach place, symbolically "removed" the deceased from the eyes of the living, as the soul, not cremated, could be dangerous.

Contrast with earthen structures (MECs)

• Openness: Earthen mounds were usually built on high ground, clearly visible from surrounding settlements.
• Cremation: People buried in MECs were often burned, which ethnographic evidence suggests helps the soul to "escape" to the afterlife more quickly, negating the risk of "harm" to the living.

New hypothesis

Archaeologists believe that the introduction of MECs may have had less to do with the displacement of caves than with cultural and linguistic changes among the Southern Jae after 840 A.D. Perhaps the various branches (Kaingan and Laklãno) continued to use the old caves, but at the same time began to build mounds, reflecting changes in beliefs and social rituals. Even the caves began to "modernise" after 1000 AD, with archaeologists finding ceramics, hearths and rock paintings that are in keeping with Southern Jae aesthetics.

The study of Southern Zhe funerary practices suggests that ancient societies may have combined different burial rituals in parallel, rather than sequentially as previously thought. Scientists emphasise that for the final confirmation of their "hybrid" hypothesis they need further data - additional radiocarbon dating and wider archaeological research. Burials in inaccessible caves, emphasise the authors, remain one of the most understudied topics in the archaeology of South America and can hide many more unsolved mysteries about cultural contacts and rituals of ancient peoples.