An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests
Phytolith analysis is a well-established archaeobotanical tool, having provided important insights into pre-Columbian crop cultivation and domestication across Amazonia through the Holocene. Yet, its use as a palaeoecological tool is in its infancy in Amazonia and its effectiveness for reconstructin...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Quaternary |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/6/2/33 |
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| author | James Hill Stuart Black Alejandro Araujo-Murakami Rene Boot Roel Brienen Ted Feldpausch John Leigue Samaria Murakami Abel Monteagudo Guido Pardo Marielos Peña-Claros Oliver L. Phillips Marisol Toledo Vincent Vos Pieter Zuidema Francis E. Mayle |
| author_facet | James Hill Stuart Black Alejandro Araujo-Murakami Rene Boot Roel Brienen Ted Feldpausch John Leigue Samaria Murakami Abel Monteagudo Guido Pardo Marielos Peña-Claros Oliver L. Phillips Marisol Toledo Vincent Vos Pieter Zuidema Francis E. Mayle |
| author_sort | James Hill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Phytolith analysis is a well-established archaeobotanical tool, having provided important insights into pre-Columbian crop cultivation and domestication across Amazonia through the Holocene. Yet, its use as a palaeoecological tool is in its infancy in Amazonia and its effectiveness for reconstructing pre-Columbian land-use beyond archaeological sites (i.e., ‘off-site’) has so far received little critical attention. This paper examines both new and previously published soil phytolith data from SW Amazonia to assess the robustness of this proxy for reconstructing pre-Columbian land-use. We conducted the study via off-site soil pits radiating 7.5 km beyond a geoglyph in Acre state, Brazil, and 50 km beyond a ring-ditch in northern Bolivia, spanning the expected gradients in historical land-use intensity. We found that the spatio-temporal patterns in palm phytolith data across our soil-pit transects support the hypothesis that pre-Columbian peoples enriched their forests with palms over several millennia, although phytoliths are limited in their ability to capture small-scale crop cultivation and deforestation. Despite these drawbacks, we conclude that off-site soil phytolith analysis can provide novel insights into pre-Columbian land use, provided it is effectively integrated with other land-use (e.g., charcoal) and archaeological data. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:59:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-041fee8218894852892db6fe661fdddd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-550X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:59:31Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quaternary |
| spelling | doaj.art-041fee8218894852892db6fe661fdddd2023-11-18T12:21:55ZengMDPI AGQuaternary2571-550X2023-05-01623310.3390/quat6020033An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian RainforestsJames Hill0Stuart Black1Alejandro Araujo-Murakami2Rene Boot3Roel Brienen4Ted Feldpausch5John Leigue6Samaria Murakami7Abel Monteagudo8Guido Pardo9Marielos Peña-Claros10Oliver L. Phillips11Marisol Toledo12Vincent Vos13Pieter Zuidema14Francis E. Mayle15Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AH, UKDepartment of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AH, UKNoel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, Santa Cruz AI 2489, BoliviaDepartment of Plant Ecology, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The NetherlandsSchool of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UKGeography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PY, UKBolivian Amazon Forest Management Program (PROMAB), Autonomous University of Beni, Trinidad 54P5+X33, BoliviaBolivian Amazon Forest Management Program (PROMAB), Autonomous University of Beni, Trinidad 54P5+X33, BoliviaSchool of Biological Sciences, National University of San Antonio the Abad, Cusco 08000, PeruFaculty of Forest Sciences, Autonomous University of Beni, Riberalta 2W3Q+VHJ, BoliviaForest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsSchool of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UKNoel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, Santa Cruz AI 2489, BoliviaFaculty of Forest Sciences, Autonomous University of Beni, Riberalta 2W3Q+VHJ, BoliviaForest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AH, UKPhytolith analysis is a well-established archaeobotanical tool, having provided important insights into pre-Columbian crop cultivation and domestication across Amazonia through the Holocene. Yet, its use as a palaeoecological tool is in its infancy in Amazonia and its effectiveness for reconstructing pre-Columbian land-use beyond archaeological sites (i.e., ‘off-site’) has so far received little critical attention. This paper examines both new and previously published soil phytolith data from SW Amazonia to assess the robustness of this proxy for reconstructing pre-Columbian land-use. We conducted the study via off-site soil pits radiating 7.5 km beyond a geoglyph in Acre state, Brazil, and 50 km beyond a ring-ditch in northern Bolivia, spanning the expected gradients in historical land-use intensity. We found that the spatio-temporal patterns in palm phytolith data across our soil-pit transects support the hypothesis that pre-Columbian peoples enriched their forests with palms over several millennia, although phytoliths are limited in their ability to capture small-scale crop cultivation and deforestation. Despite these drawbacks, we conclude that off-site soil phytolith analysis can provide novel insights into pre-Columbian land use, provided it is effectively integrated with other land-use (e.g., charcoal) and archaeological data.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/6/2/33phytolithsAmazoniaHolocenepre-Columbianpalaeoecology |
| spellingShingle | James Hill Stuart Black Alejandro Araujo-Murakami Rene Boot Roel Brienen Ted Feldpausch John Leigue Samaria Murakami Abel Monteagudo Guido Pardo Marielos Peña-Claros Oliver L. Phillips Marisol Toledo Vincent Vos Pieter Zuidema Francis E. Mayle An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests Quaternary phytoliths Amazonia Holocene pre-Columbian palaeoecology |
| title | An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests |
| title_full | An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests |
| title_fullStr | An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests |
| title_short | An Assessment of Soil Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Identifying Pre-Columbian Land Use in Amazonian Rainforests |
| title_sort | assessment of soil phytolith analysis as a palaeoecological tool for identifying pre columbian land use in amazonian rainforests |
| topic | phytoliths Amazonia Holocene pre-Columbian palaeoecology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/6/2/33 |
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