Tapajo

The Tapajó inhabited the meeting place of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers, where broad waters and fertile floodplains supported major settlements. Their potters made elaborate vessels decorated with human and animal forms, including birds, snakes and other creatures. Archaeological finds reveal a rich ceremonial and artistic tradition connected to communities throughout the lower Amazon.

European expeditions reached the region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, bringing violence and the capture of Indigenous people. In 1661 the Jesuit João Felipe Bettendorf established a mission at the Tapajó settlement that became Santarém. Missionary rule changed the settlement and its religious life; some pottery was destroyed as the colonisers sought to suppress Indigenous practices. The river mouth remained an important meeting point for the peoples and goods of the Amazon.