Historical Ecology in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Peter Siegel博士和他的同事Jason Curtis博士、Nicholas Dunning博士、John Jones博士和Deborah Pearsall博士正在进行一项跨学科研究，以解决东加勒比海选定地点的哥伦布前人类与环境的关系。这项研究的目标是评估人类对景观的影响，并将景观理解为加勒比地区的文化背景，鉴于目前人们对气候变化背后因素的担忧，这是一个及时的话题。在群岛环境中评估人与环境的关系对于岛屿殖民、农作物引进、居民和殖民者之间的互动以及文化变化等问题至关重要。将从已知的哥伦布前考古遗址附近的湿地提取沉积物岩芯，以获得重建古代环境的数据，评估人类对这些环境的影响，并将随着时间的推移比较人与环境的相互关系。考古遗址设置将在格林纳达、特立尼达、巴巴多斯、玛丽-加兰特和马提尼克岛进行审查。目前的调查结果将与之前NSF赞助的特立尼达、安提瓜和圣克鲁斯试点研究中收集的数据相结合。核心样本将分析花粉、植物硅体(植物硅体)和更大的植物部分的类型和浓度，以获取每个地区史前植被覆盖的信息。将对微小木炭颗粒的浓度进行检测，以记录过去人类为农业而进行的植被砍伐可能造成的燃烧规模和强度。将对每个考古遗址附近的土壤条件进行评估，以获得有关史前景观使用的信息。整合植物、木炭和土壤信息将提供过去存在的植物物种的种类和范围的全面图景，以及过去的文化如何随着时间的推移使用、修改和反应环境。除了湿地沉积物中的花粉、植硅体和木炭取心外，我们还将通过在格林纳达东北部的安托万湖取心来评估氢同位素分析的有效性。最近的地球化学研究发现，有机质的氢同位素分析提供了可靠的古气候信息。如果我们在安托万湖证明这种方法是成功的，那么从西印度群岛的其他湖泊和池塘中收集古气候数据的潜力很大。采用更传统的氧同位素方法的碳酸盐水体在加勒比海地区很少见。这项研究的结果将与加勒比海、南美洲和中美洲的其他类似调查进行比较，以扩大对人类活动对环境的影响和采用农业的条件的了解。该项目的学术价值涉及农业的起源、进化和扩散；作为景观变化因素的人口扩张或殖民；以及粮食生产的古老和发展的条件。在史前时期，占领加勒比地区的人与中美洲和南美洲联系在一起。研究加勒比历史生态学将为理解居民和殖民者之间的相互作用以及人与环境关系的变化提供一个背景。这一跨学科项目的更广泛影响将与研究过去环境、农业起源和传播以及岛屿殖民过程的研究人员有关。与团队一起工作的学生将受益于实地或实验室的实践经验，或两者兼而有之。每个岛国的当地考古学家都对这个项目表示了兴趣。在大多数情况下，每个岛屿上的学生都会参加或访问实地研究小组，从而获得进行古环境研究的实地工作的第一手机会。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Peter Siegel and colleagues Drs. Jason Curtis, Nicholas Dunning, John Jones, and Deborah Pearsall are conducting an interdisciplinary study to address pre-Columbian human-environmental relations in selected locations across the eastern Caribbean. Goals of this research are to assess the effects of humans on landscapes and to understand landscapes as cultural contexts in the Caribbean, a timely topic in view of current concerns over the factors behind climate change. Assessing human-environmental relations in an archipelago setting is crucial for issues of island colonization, introduction of crops, interactions between resident and colonizing peoples, and cultural change. Sediment cores will be extracted from wetlands in proximity to known pre-Columbian archaeological sites to obtain data from which ancient environments will be reconstructed, human impacts on those environments will be assessed, and human-environmental interrelations will be compared and contrasted through time. Archaeological site settings will be examined on Grenada, Trinidad, Barbados, Marie-Galante, and Martinique. Results of the current investigation will be combined with data collected in a previous NSF-sponsored pilot study on Trinidad, Antigua, and St. Croix.Core samples will be analyzed for the types and concentrations of pollen, phytoliths (plant silica bodies), and larger plant parts for information on prehistoric vegetation cover in each area. Concentrations of microscopic charcoal particles will be examined to document the scale and intensity of burning that may have resulted from vegetation clearing for agriculture by past peoples. Soil conditions in proximity to each archaeological site will be assessed for information on prehistoric landscape use. Integrating plant, charcoal, and soils information will provide a comprehensive picture of the kinds and range of plant species present in the past and how past cultures used, modified, and reacted to their environmental settings through time. In addition to wetland sediment coring for pollen, phytoliths, and charcoal we will assess the effectiveness of hydrogen-isotope analysis by coring in Lake Antoine located in the northeastern part of Grenada. Recent studies in geochemistry have found that hydrogen-isotope analysis of organic matter provides reliable paleoclimate information. If we prove the method to be successful in Lake Antoine then there is great potential for collecting paleoclimatic data from other lakes and ponds in the West Indies. Carbonate water bodies for the more traditional oxygen-isotope method are rare in the Caribbean. Results of the study will be compared to other similar investigations in the Caribbean, South America, and Central America to broaden understanding of the consequences of human activities on the environment and the conditions under which agriculture is adopted. Intellectual merits of the project relate to the origins, evolution, and dispersal of agriculture; expanding or colonizing populations as agents of landscape change; and the antiquity of food production and the conditions under which it developed. People occupying the Caribbean region were linked to Central and South America during prehistory. Addressing Caribbean historical ecology will provide a context to understand interactions between resident and colonizing populations and changes in human-environmental relations. Broader impacts of this interdisciplinary project will be relevant for researchers studying past environments, origins and spread of agriculture, and island-colonization processes. Students working with the team will benefit from hands-on experience in the field or lab or both. Archaeologists local to each of the island nations have expressed an interest in this project. In most cases, students on each of the islands will participate or visit the research team in the field, thereby obtaining first-hand exposure to fieldwork in conducting paleoenvironmental research.