Santa Catarina Island (state of Santa Catarina, Brasil) is very rich in prehistoric archaeological sites, which the oldest found until now is the Pântano do Sul one from 4500 BP (Before Present), studied by father Alfredo Rorh in 1977. After Rorh's death, almost nothing has been researched, lasting a lack in Catarinian prehistory.
Sambaqui - The Sambaquis are shells hills with over 30 meters
of high. The word came from Guarani (great Indian group who lived in Brasil
in colonial times) language: tamba (shells) and quí
(conic hill). The "Sambaquianos" ate molluscs, and piled up the shells
living over them, because it was a high and dry place.
In the Sambaqui we can find several evidences of occupation as burials,
lithic pieces, fire vestiges, feeding rests (fishes, birds and mammal bones)
and several adornments.
The Sambaquis are depredated by man since colonial times, in road paving
and in building cement making. Later these sources were exploited to lime
fabrication, which drove to a complete destruction of several Sambaquis.
The successive reoccupation of the Sambaquis by several cultures has created two periods in archaeological analysis: the Preceramic and the Ceramic.
Lithic Stations - They are vestiges left by prehistoric individuals who used diabase and eventually sandstone to sharp and polish their lithic implements. the act of scratching the tools against the rock left depressions, some in dish-like form and others in furrow-like form, leaving registrated those activities by thousands of years.
Rock Engravings - They are the most beautiful prehistoric legacy of the Island, but due to the large number of occupations by different cultures, the authors are still not positively identified.
The engravings of Santa Catarina Island, following the petroglyph form, show some very particular characteristics, with no similarity in other places, what makes impossible any kind of parallelism.
The other common symbols are the ensembles of parallel straight lines,
the zigzagged parallel lines, the waved parallel lines, the ensembles of
triangles, irregular quadrilaterals and the nicknamed masks, which are
here illustrated.
These petroglyphs are disposed in 13 sites, curiously
turned to the ocean side and on hard-waved beaches, places which pass a
sensation of fear and respect, what drives me to believe that they have
a fishering activity relation.
Maybe a sanctuary where the Indians might resort
to some divinity represented on the inscriptions, asking for a good fishing
period. Maybe they were just territorial delimitations of fishing areas.
I'm working on a complete photographic survey, which has already revealed the existence of new petroglyphs and vestiges almost extinguished from them. They are already over 15. There is still a possibility to find new rock art sites. When this survey will be over, I intend to publish a catalogue book with all the pictures and the precise localization of the Santa Catarina Island petroglyphs.
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