WATER AND WAR AT PYRENEUS MOUNTAINS

The Lavras do Abade research is a multiple perspective archaeological study about the environmental impacts of a gold mining village in Mid-Western Brazil that was destroyed by neighboring villages at the end of the nineteenth century. According to local narratives, the conflict was the consequence of a dispute about the control and use of natural resources, such as water. However, this investigation reveals that the conflict was caused also by economic and political disputes between the villages in the region. In this work, each stage of investigation is presented in separate chapters. Research was conducted to validate hypotheses and to combine different approaches to each element that compounds this mosaic of information. The result of this work is a combination of various complementary investigations into the same object, and is a theoretical and methodological referential that establishes the Lavras do Abade case study as an original bridge to understanding many “Water Wars” in the modern world today.