Scientific contributions for a deep history of the Amazon

Abstract

This article presents a selection of the most recent findings in the fields of geology and archelogy of the Amazon and discusses how current scientific research can be useful in the production of environmental histories of the Amazon Forest. From the Miocene, around 20 million years ago, when the west of the forest was a wetland, to the Holocene, roughly 11 thousand years ago, when humans moved into the forest, the fields of Amazon geology and Amazon archaeology have shed light on the deep past of the region. Contributions of both fields can assist environmental historians to paint a fuller picture of the Amazon’s deep past.