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Plant cultivation and forest clearance by prehistoric North Americans: pollen evidence from Fort Ancient, Ohio, USADepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN 55108, USA Archaeological records show that, as early as 2000–1500 bc, Native Americans in the eastern USA domesticated a group of native plant species with starchy or oily seeds that helped support extensive Woodland societies. Previously, the location and extent of cultivation of these ancient crop plants has been unknown, but was hypothesized to be small clearances on river floodplains. Here, pollen analyses of two 2000-year-old sediment records from Fort Ancient, an upland Hopewell archaeological site in southwestern Ohio, show exceptionally high amounts of pollen from cultigens- Iva annua, Polygonum erectum and Chenopodium – deposited during Hopewell occupation of the site (100 bc to ad 400). It is likely that this earthwork is a site of prehistoric cultivation, not exclusively a ceremonial structure. Pollen spectra indicate the area surrounding the ponds was largely deforested, and the sediment record indicates high rates of erosion during this time. Therefore, North American Woodland societies were likely modifying vegetation more extensively through agriculture and other land-clearing activities than has been assumed previously.
Key Words: Human impact • prehistory • cultivation • forest clearance • pollen • cultigens • palaeoecology • archae-ology • eastern North America • Fort Ancient • early Holocene
The Holocene, Vol. 13, No. 4,
557-566 (2003) This article has been cited by other articles:
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