at a glance

furthermore, marambaia is of particular historical and archeological significance as it contains 'sambaquis' (shell-mounds) - ancient deposits formed by shells, kitchenware, utensils, and skeletons piled up by the populations which inhabited the coastal area in prehistoric times and then petrified by a natural calcification process. ancient indian burial sites have attracted much interest in the area because many of the dead were buried with their belongings. 

as a result, many scientific expeditions and projects take place on the island, in particular joint ventures between the brazilian navy (comando geral do corpo de fuzileiros navais) and the federal rural university of rio de janeiro (universidade federal rural do rio de janeiro).

while access to the ilha da marambaia is restricted, there are communities of people living on it.   one of the first owners of this island was joaquim josé de sousa breves, the king of coffee' - a powerful land owner, who had 25 coffee farms and 6000 slaves. he used the marambaia to let slaves recover after the long trip across the ocean, before distributing them among his farms.