"After my initial experience as an intern at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP) in 2023, I fell in love with Amazonian Archaeology and returned to my hometown of São Paulo, Brazil for a Study-Away in the Spring of 2024 to begin my thesis research. From January to September this year, I regularly worked at ARQUEOTROP, the museum’s Tropical Archaeology Laboratory, coordinated by Professor Eduardo Neves. While also taking Anthropology and Archaeology classes at USP, when I wasn't attending class, you could typically find me in the lab, where I occupied a full table overflowing with hundreds of sherds from the Amazonian ceramic collection I am attempting to understand! 

 

My research is an investigation of the so-called Jamari Surface ceramics found in the excavations conducted at Sítio Teotônio—an archaeological site next to Teotônio Waterfall in the Southwestern Amazon region (SOA), in the state of Rondônia. Through macro-technological ceramic analysis, I am investigating the form, intentions, functionalities, and potter abilities to understand the Jamari layer in its individual, social, and material dimensions, dialoguing with the existent archaeological and ethnohistorical database of the region. Research of the Jamari phase in Teotônio is particularly relevant because it represents an opening to broaden our understanding of Indigenous migration and cultural trade between the Madeira and Jamari rivers, two of the most culturally diverse rivers of SOA, ultimately enriching the narrative of the long-term Indigenous History that Amazonian Archaeology has been constructing over the recent decades!"