Le projet SESAME : Human paleoecology, Social and cultural Evolutions among first Settlements in Southern AMErica Understanding the earliest chronology and settlement patterns of the Americas cannot be achieved without studying human-environment past relations. Adapting, moving or even disappearing in response to climate fluctuations are the expected reactions. In order to characterize these different scenarios, SESAME proposes to focus on North-East Brazil, where the human presence has been documented for at least 40,000 years. By reconstructing past climatic and environmental variations in NE Brazil and revealing the cultural and technological identity of past societies, SESAME aims at revealing the evolution of the relationship between people and their environment through Pleistocene and Holocene.