Editing Amazon River (section)

=== Pre-Columbian era ===<!--NOTE; no typo; pre-Columbian refers to "before Columbus", not "before Columbia"-->
[[File: Brazil, the Amazons and the coast (1879) (14780994814).jpg|thumb|Old drawing (from 1879) of [[Arapaima]] fishing at the Amazon river. The arapaima has been on Earth for at least 23 million years.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Lundberg, J.G. |author2=B. Chernoff |name-list-style=amp |year=1992 |title=A Miocene fossil of the Amazonian fish Arapaima (Teleostei, Arapaimidae) from the Magdalena River region of Colombia--Biogeographic and evolutionary implications |journal=Biotropica |volume=24 |pages=2–14 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/2388468 |jstor=2388468|bibcode=1992Biotr..24....2L }}</ref>]]

During what many [[archaeologist]]s called the ''[[formative stage]]'', Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of [[South America|South America's]] highland [[agriculture|agrarian]] systems. The [[Muisca economy#Trade|trade]] with [[Andean civilizations]] in the terrains of the [[headwaters]] in the [[Andes]] formed an essential contribution to the social and religious development of higher-altitude civilizations like the [[Muisca Confederation|Muisca]] and [[Inca Empire|Incas]]. Early human settlements were typically based on low-lying hills or mounds.

[[Midden|Shell mounds]] were the earliest evidence of habitation; they represent piles of human refuse (waste) and are mainly dated between 7500&nbsp;BC and 4000&nbsp;BC. They are associated with [[ceramic age cultures]]; no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by [[Archaeology|archaeologists]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Silberman |first1=Neil Asher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeJMAgAAQBAJ&q=no+preceramic+shell+mounds+have+been+documented+so+far+by+archaeologists&pg=RA1-PA429 |title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology |last2=Bauer |first2=Alexander A. |date=November 2012 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-973578-5 |page=429 |language=en |access-date=5 August 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102051716/https://books.google.com/books?id=xeJMAgAAQBAJ&q=no+preceramic+shell+mounds+have+been+documented+so+far+by+archaeologists&pg=RA1-PA429#v=snippet&q=no%20preceramic%20shell%20mounds%20have%20been%20documented%20so%20far%20by%20archaeologists&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Artificial earth platforms for entire villages are the second type of mounds. They are best represented by the [[Marajoara culture]]. [[Figurative mound]]s are the most recent types of occupation.

There is ample evidence that the areas surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly [[chiefdom]]s who developed towns and cities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roosevelt |first=Anna Curtenius |date=1993 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Amazon Chiefdoms |journal=L'Homme |volume=33 |issue=126/128 |pages=255–283 |doi=10.3406/hom.1993.369640 |jstor=40589896 |issn=0439-4216}}</ref> [[Archaeology|Archaeologists]] estimate that by the time the [[Spanish conquistador]] De Orellana traveled across the Amazon in 1541, more than 3 million indigenous people lived around the Amazon.<ref name=Wohl>{{cite book|last1=Wohl|first1=Ellen E|author-link1=Ellen E. Wohl|year=2011|chapter=2. The Amazon: Rivers of Blushing Dolphins|location=[[Chicago]]|title=A world of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World's great rivers|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo9396888.html|url-access=subscription|language=en-us|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=9780226904801|oclc=690177774|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411180730/https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo9396888.html|archive-date=2024-04-11|access-date=2020-05-23}}</ref>{{rp|24&ndash;25}} These [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian [[indigenous peoples of Brazil|indigenous people]] on the island of [[Marajó]] may have developed social stratification and supported a population of 100,000 people. To achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the [[Amazon rainforest]] altered the forest's [[ecology]] by [[selective cultivation]] and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repeatedly, the indigenous people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as ''[[terra preta]] de índio'' ("Indian dark earth").<ref name=Wohl/>{{rp|25}} Because of the terra preta, indigenous communities were able to make land fertile and thus sustainable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support their large populations and complex social structures. Further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on [[forest ecology]] and regional climate explain the otherwise inexplicable band of lower rainfall through the [[Amazon basin]].<ref name=Wohl/>{{rp|25}}

Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant [[Tribal warfare|warfare]]. According to [[James S. Olson]], "The [[Munduruku]] expansion (in the 18th century) dislocated and displaced the [[Kawahíb people|Kawahíb]], breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups&nbsp;... [Munduruku] first came to the attention of [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]] in 1770 when they began a series of widespread attacks on Brazilian settlements along the Amazon River."<ref>{{cite book |first=James Stuart |last=Olson |title=The Indians of Central and South America: an ethnohistorical dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=175c4xOpLtYC&pg=PA57 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1991 |pages=57–248 |isbn=978-0-313-26387-3 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912153816/https://books.google.com/books?id=175c4xOpLtYC&pg=PA57&dq |archive-date=12 September 2015}}</ref>