Sarah Elliott, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Mark Robinson, Michael Burn, William D. Gosling, Hayley L. Mickleburgh, Selvenious Walters, Zachary J. M. Beier
{"title":"The legacy of 1300 years of land use in Jamaica","authors":"Sarah Elliott, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Mark Robinson, Michael Burn, William D. Gosling, Hayley L. Mickleburgh, Selvenious Walters, Zachary J. M. Beier","doi":"10.1080/15564894.2022.2078448","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>Abstract</b></p><p>Despite decades of archaeological research on Jamaica, little is known about how settlers influenced landscape change on the island over time. Here, we examine the impact of human occupation through a multi-proxy approach using phytolith, charcoal, and stratigraphic analyses. White Marl was a continuously inhabited village settlement (ca. 1050–450 cal yrs BP) with large mounded midden areas, precolonial house structures, and human landscape management practices. We have shown that the local vegetation at White Marl was directly affected by human settlement through the use of agroforestry and burning, and suggest that fire was used to modify vegetation. Manioc phytoliths were found throughout human occupation and are broadly associated with increases in evidence for burning, suggesting fire was used to modify the landscape and clear vegetation for crop cultivation. The phytolith assemblages relate to three distinct temporal vegetation phases: (1) the earliest occupation dominated by arboreal vegetation (pre-ca. 870 cal yrs BP); (2) a transition to palm-dominated vegetation (ca. 870–670 cal yrs BP); and (3) the latest occupation representing European colonization associated with a more open, grass-dominated landscape (after ca. 670 cal yrs BP). These transitions occur independent of changes in paleoclimate records, suggesting humans were the dominant driver of vegetation change.</p>","PeriodicalId":501396,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2022.2078448","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Despite decades of archaeological research on Jamaica, little is known about how settlers influenced landscape change on the island over time. Here, we examine the impact of human occupation through a multi-proxy approach using phytolith, charcoal, and stratigraphic analyses. White Marl was a continuously inhabited village settlement (ca. 1050–450 cal yrs BP) with large mounded midden areas, precolonial house structures, and human landscape management practices. We have shown that the local vegetation at White Marl was directly affected by human settlement through the use of agroforestry and burning, and suggest that fire was used to modify vegetation. Manioc phytoliths were found throughout human occupation and are broadly associated with increases in evidence for burning, suggesting fire was used to modify the landscape and clear vegetation for crop cultivation. The phytolith assemblages relate to three distinct temporal vegetation phases: (1) the earliest occupation dominated by arboreal vegetation (pre-ca. 870 cal yrs BP); (2) a transition to palm-dominated vegetation (ca. 870–670 cal yrs BP); and (3) the latest occupation representing European colonization associated with a more open, grass-dominated landscape (after ca. 670 cal yrs BP). These transitions occur independent of changes in paleoclimate records, suggesting humans were the dominant driver of vegetation change.
摘要尽管对牙买加进行了数十年的考古研究，但人们对定居者如何影响岛上景观的变化知之甚少。在这里，我们通过使用植物岩、木炭和地层分析的多代理方法来研究人类活动的影响。白泥滩是一个持续有人居住的村庄聚落(约公元前1050-450 cal - ybp)，中间有大片的丘状区域，前殖民时期的房屋结构和人类景观管理实践。我们已经证明，人类住区通过使用农林业和燃烧直接影响了怀特沼泽的当地植被，并表明火被用来改变植被。Manioc植物岩在人类居住的整个时期都被发现，并且与燃烧证据的增加广泛相关，这表明火被用来改变景观和清除作物种植的植被。植物岩组合与三个不同的时间植被阶段有关:(1)以树栖植被为主的最早时期(前ca。870 cal年BP);(2)向棕榈为主植被过渡(约870 ~ 670 cal - ybp);(3)代表欧洲殖民的最新占领，与更开放、以草为主的景观有关(大约公元前670万年之后)。这些转变的发生与古气候记录的变化无关，表明人类是植被变化的主要驱动力。
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