Sambaqui of Cubatão I

The Cubatão I sambaqui sits on the Atlantic fringe of São Paulo state, a landscape of tidal estuaries and productive fishing grounds. Archaeological data indicates that the mound and associated deposits were formed during the Late Holocene, with calibrated dates falling between 807 BCE and 412 BCE. These shell mounds (sambaquis) are the visible record of generations who exploited rich marine and estuarine resources and built durable landscape features from dietary refuse, hearths and burials.

Limited evidence suggests that sambaqui communities on the south coast were part of a broader network of coastal lifeways that extended along Brazil’s southeastern shoreline. Material culture—fish bones, shellfish remains, worked shell ornaments, and stone tools—speaks to intensive marine foraging and regional exchange. Burial contexts within sambaquis often include secondary interments and grave goods, providing insight into social identity and ritual.

Because the current genetic dataset from Cubatão I includes only two individuals, archaeological interpretation remains crucial: stratigraphy, midden composition, and associated artifacts frame biological findings, and together they begin to reveal how people lived, ate, and commemorated the dead along this dynamic coast.

Two ancient individuals from Cubatão I yielded mitochondrial haplogroups D1 and A2—both well-known founding lineages in Native American populations. mtDNA D1 and A2 are consistent with broader Pan-American maternal ancestry patterns documented across South America, supporting the archaeological picture of indigenous coastal populations with deep regional roots.

No Y-chromosome haplogroups are reported from these two samples, so paternal lineages at Cubatão I remain unknown. With a sample count of only two individuals, genetic interpretations must be explicitly provisional: population structure, continuity with later groups, and fine-scale affinities cannot be robustly assessed. Nevertheless, the presence of D1 and A2 aligns with other Holocene coastal and inland samples in eastern South America, tentatively indicating maternal continuity of indigenous lineages in this region.

Integrated analysis—combining radiocarbon dates, burial context, isotopic data (if available), and expanded genomic sampling—will be required to test hypotheses about mobility, kinship, and demographic change. For now, the genetic data from Cubatão I provide a valuable but limited window into maternal ancestry at a sambaqui site.