Paleoindians relied very heavily on species of the palms Astrocaryum, Attalea, this website Oenocarpus, Maximiliana, and occasionally, in Colombia, on the long-lived palm M. flexuosa (all Arecaceae). The palms whose seeds are hyper-abundant in Paleoindian sites are among those whose distribution is thought to be greatly influenced by people ( Henderson, 1995:17–20, 88–251). They are important foods sources for rural Amazonians today ( Goulding and Smith, 2007, Peters et al., 1989 and Smith

et al., 2007:38–91). Indigenous wetland foragers in the Orinoco used the abundant starch and sap from Moriche’s stout trunk as staples, supplemented with fish and fruits ( Heinen, 1988). Its fallen, rotting trunk becomes a source of plump, storable fatty beetle grubs. Also very common in the Brazilian Paleoindian food remains are the seeds of the tree legume, Hymenaea (Fabaceae), whose pod has an edible sweet, pungent aril. Brazilian Paleoindians also favored the fruits of Sacoglottis guianensis

(Humiriaceae), Talisia esculenta (Sapindaceae), Mouriri apiranga (Melastomataceae), Coccoloba pixuna (Polygonaceae), and forest Muruci (Byrsonima crispa, Malpighiaceae), which are collected and sometimes planted by indigenous and peasant communities in Amazonia ( Cavalcante, 1991 and Smith et al., 2007). More rare were Brazil nut kernels (Bertholletia excelsa [Lecythidaceae]), found only in the Brazilian sites. In one Colombian selleck kinase inhibitor 4��8C late Paleoindian site, paleobotanists also identified phytoliths of arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea, Marantaceae) and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbitaceae), but these were in layers intersected by a late prehistoric intrusive pit ( Mora, 2003:126–127). Excavators also recovered seeds of the delectable

piquia fruit (Caryocar, Caryocaraceae), avocado pits (Persea, Lauraceae), and seeds of Podocarpus (Podocarpaceae), a now-rare conifer valued both for fruit and timber nowadays. That Paleoindians worked wood is shown by the heavy cutting tools they cached at some sites ( Gnecco and Mora, 1997:685, Fig. 2; Roosevelt et al., 1996:377–378, Fig. 6I). Paleoindians used forest plants that are sources of drugs or tools. A plant genus used for hallucinogens, Virola (Myristicaceae), was found in Colombian sites, and another, Vitex (Verbenaceae), used for fish bait, was identified at the early Brazilian site. The carbonized plant remains are well-dated evidence that the Paleoindians began a close relationship with numerous tree species that continue to dominate anthropic forests in Amazonia today. And their strong reliance on small fish for the bulk of their faunal diet in Brazil is a pattern that would continue through the entire indigenous human sequence in Amazonia. As a prelude to systematic agriculture, early Amazonian foragers eventually settled down at places favorable for intensive fishing and shell-fishing, especially at high land near rivers and wetlands.