The available historical sources for the area of the Nhamundá-Trombetas rivers,
in the lower Amazon, report the existence of populous settlings, hierarchical forms of
social organization and religious cults, indicating the existence of complex societies
during the time of the first contacts. In the second half of the 19th century, elaborated
ceramic and stone idols were discovered in this area. These elements associated with the
historical reports led to the hypothesis of the existence of cultural complexity in this
region previous to the contact. In this context, the region of the Trombetas river
acquired visibility for Amazon archaeology.
Archaeological studies carried out in the Porto Trombetas region in the 1970s
demonstrated the existence of two ceramist occupations spread along the rivers and the
lakes: an older one - Pocó; and a more recent one - Konduri.
Recent research, in the same region, carried out in the scope of contract
archaeology, allowed the identification of small sites showing distinct characteristics
from those located in the edges of the rivers and associated with Konduri occupation.
The study and comparison between the sites located in the edges of the rivers
and in the interfluve zone will show that the prehistoric societies from that region
exploited and dominated both environments.
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