Pre-Columbian land use in the ring-ditch region of the Bolivian Amazon

The nature and extent of pre-Columbian (pre-1492 AD) human impact in Amazonia is a contentious issue. The Bolivian Amazon has yielded some of the most impressive evidence for large and complex pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon basin, yet there remains relatively little data concerning the land use of these societies over time. Palaeoecology, when integrated with archaeological data, has the potential to fill these gaps in our knowledge. We present a 6,000-year record of anthropogenic burning, agriculture and vegetation change, from an oxbow lake located adjacent to a pre-Columbian ring-ditch in north-east Bolivia (13°15’44” S, 63°42’37” W). Human occupation around the lake site is inferred from pollen and phytoliths of maize (Zea mays L.) and macroscopic charcoal evidence of anthropogenic burning. First occupation around the lake was radiocarbon dated to ~2500 years BP. The persistence of maize in the record from ~1850 BP suggests that it was an important crop grown in the ringditch region in pre-Columbian times, and abundant macroscopic charcoal suggests that pre-Columbian land management entailed more extensive burning of the landscape than the slash-and-burn agriculture practised around the site today. The site was occupied continuously until near-modern times, although there is evidence for a decline in agricultural intensity or change in land use strategy, and possible population decline, from ~600-500 BP. The long and continuous occupation, which predates the establishment of rainforest in the region, suggests that pre-Columbian land use may have had a significant influence on ecosystem development at this site over the last ~2000 years

Predicting pre-Columbian anthropogenic soils in Amazonia

The extent and intensity of pre-Columbian impacts on lowland Amazonia have remained uncertain and controversial. Various indicators can be used to gauge the impact of pre-Columbian societies, but the formation of nutrient-enriched terra preta soils has been widely accepted as an indication of long-term settlement and site fidelity. Using known and newly discovered terra preta sites and maximum entropy algorithms (Maxent), we determined the influence of regional environmental conditions on the likelihood that terra pretas would have been formed at any given location in lowland Amazonia. Terra pretas were most frequently found in central and eastern Amazonia along the lower courses of the major Amazonian rivers. Terrain, hydrologic and soil characteristics were more important predictors of terra preta distributions than climatic conditions. Our modelling efforts indicated that terra pretas are likely to be found throughout ca 154 063 km2 or 3.2% of the forest. We also predict that terra preta formation was limited in most of western Amazonia. Model results suggested that the distribution of terra preta was highly predictable based on environmental parameters. We provided targets for future archaeological surveys under the vast forest canopy and also highlighted how few of the long-term forest inventory sites in Amazonia are able to capture the effects of historical disturbance

A multiproxy approach to studying a large prehistoric enclosure in Ojców, Kraków Upland, Poland

Due to the presence of multiple caves and rock shelters as well as flint outcrops, Ojców Upland is a region with an exceptionally high concentration of prehistoric human settlement traces. It has attracted archaeologists for over 150 years, leading to what was considered to have been a proper prospection of the area. Nonetheless, the analysis of airborne laser scanning has recently brought surprising results. In the very centre of the upland, on the densely forested hill ‘Złota Góra’ (Golden Hill), the remains of an exceptionally large defensive structure in the form of several rows of embankments were found. The use of magnetic methods made it possible to confirm their anthropogenic origin and the likely type of embankment construction. In turn, the layout of embankments combined with the results of a surface survey and the analyses of the acquired artefacts and the settlement context speak in favour of linking this defensive structure with a high degree of probability with the Neolithic or Eneolithic, most likely the Lengyel-Polgár cycle or Baden culture. The presence of such a large fortification in the immediate vicinity of flint mines could shed new light on the image of the Late Neolithic-Early/Middle Eneolithic period in this part of Europe