Jonas Gregorio De Souza graduated with a BA in History at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2009. After that, he completed his MA in Archaeology at the University of Sao Paulo in 2012. Currently, he is a doctoral student at the University of Exeter, funded by a scholarship from the CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education, Brazil. In his past research, Jonas has examined the artefact assemblages, features, and activity areas of Taquara/Itararé mound and enclosure complexes in order to ascertain site function in relation to architectural variability.

Within the scope of the Jê Landscapes Project, Jonas is conducting a regional survey in Campo Belo do Sul in order to compare Taquara/Itararé settlement patterns in this area with those of distinct parts of the Southern Brazilian Highlands. His research will be focused on the emergence of central places possibly represented by large-scale, well-planned pit house architecture, and how they integrated with other domestic sites, specialized activity areas, and ritual mounds and enclosures. In the next stage of his research, Jonas will focus on wide-area excavations of a major pit house settlement in order to reveal community patterns that can shed light on the degree of social inequality and incipient hierarchies among the Southern Jê groups in the precolonial past.