Anna Curtenius Roosevelt

Anna Curtenius Roosevelt (born 1946[1]) is an American archaeologist and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago.

[8] In 1991, Roosevelt published, Moundbuilders of the Amazon: Geophysical Archaeology on Marajo Island, Brazil, which detailed her work throughout the 1980s on pre-Columbian Marajoara culture.

[7] In this work, Roosevelt challenged the theory that the pre-Columbian Amazon was a "counterfeit paradise" unable to sustain increasingly complex human culture.

[10] Roosevelt posited that this pre-Columbian society was "one of the outstanding indigenous cultural achievements," with a high population and territory, intensive subsistence agriculture, as well as public works.

[13] From 1990 to 1992, Roosevelt led the excavation of the Painted Rock Cave (Caverna da Pedra Pintada) near Monte Alegre in the State of Pará, Brazil.

[14] Over a 1000-year period, about 10,000-11,000 years ago, humans used the cave and left behind unique projectile points, as well as evidence that they had transported plant seeds from far away to the site.

[14] Roosevelt's findings suggested that the study of migration of humans into the Americas, as well as the development of civilization in the Amazon, needed to be revisited.

Her archaeological work in the Congo basin has centered on preceramic sites in Bayanga in the southwestern Central African Republic.