This work demonstrates an
important research tool. I would like to
see it extended to a number of geographically separated water sheds and to see
the work extended back several thousands of years in time.
We should be able to establish
the onset of corn culture and perhaps even determine the size of local
populations with this approach provided we collect enough data to get excellent
resolution.
There are plenty of questions
that need to be answered with something more than a slew of undiscovered and
even undiscoverable habitation sites.
Perhaps high schools could be recruited into the sampling program.
Agriculture disturbs natural
sedimentation rates. Let us take full
advantage of this information.
Native Americans Modified American Landscape Years Prior To The Arrival
Of Europeans
by Staff Writers
A new study by Baylor University geology researchers shows that Native Americans' land use nearly a century ago produced a widespread impact on the eastern North American landscape and floodplain development several hundred years prior to the arrival of major European settlements.
The study appears on-line in the journal Geology.
Researchers attribute early colonial land-use practices, such as
deforestation, plowing and damming with influencing present-day hydrological
systems across eastern North America . Previous
studies suggest that Native Americans' land use in eastern North
America initially caused the change in hydrological systems,
however, little direct evidence has been provided until now.
The Baylor study found that pre-European so-called "natural"
floodplains have a history of prehistoric indigenous land use, and thus
colonial-era Europeans were not the first people to have an impact on the
hydrologic systems of eastern North America .
The study also found that prehistoric small-scale agricultural
societies caused widespread ecological change and increased sedimentation in
hydrologic systems during the Medieval Climate Anomaly-Little Ice Age, which
occurred about 700 to 1,000 years ago.
"These are two very important findings," said Gary
Stinchcomb, a Baylor doctoral candidate who conducted the study. "The
findings conclusively demonstrate that Native Americans in eastern North America impacted their environment well before the
arrival of Europeans. Through their agricultural practices, Native Americans
increased soil erosion and sediment yields to the Delaware River basin."
The Baylor researchers found that prehistoric people decreased
forest cover to reorient their settlements and intensify corn production. They
also contributed to increased sedimentation in valley bottoms about 700 to
1,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.
The findings suggest that prehistoric land use was the initial cause of
increased sedimentation in the valley bottoms, and sedimentation was later
amplified by wetter and stormier conditions.
To conduct the study, the Baylor researchers took samples along the Delaware River Valley Delaware River base
flow and archaeological excavations
assessed the presence of human habitation.
The Baylor researchers then used a site-specific geoarchaeological
approach and a regional synthesis of previous research to test the hypothesis
that the indigenous population had a widespread impact on terrestrial
sedimentation in eastern North America .
"This study provides some of the most significant evidence yet
that Native Americans impacted the land to a much greater degree than
previously thought," said Dr. Steve Driese, professor and chair of
Baylor's department of geology,
College of Arts and Sciences, who co-authored the study. "It confirms that
Native American populations had widespread effects on sedimentation."
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