The legacy of 1300 years of land use in Jamaica

Despite decades of archaeological research on Jamaica, little is known about how settlers influenced landscape change on the island over time. Here, we examine the impact of human occupation through a multi-proxy approach using phytolith, charcoal, and stratigraphic analyses. White Marl was a continuously inhabited village settlement (ca. 1050–450 cal yrs BP) with large mounded midden areas, precolonial house structures, and human landscape management practices. We have shown that the local vegetation at White Marl was directly affected by human settlement through the use of agroforestry and burning, and suggest that fire was used to modify vegetation. Manioc phytoliths were found throughout human occupation and are broadly associated with increases in evidence for burning, suggesting fire was used to modify the landscape and clear vegetation for crop cultivation. The phytolith assemblages relate to three distinct temporal vegetation phases: (1) the earliest occupation dominated by arboreal vegetation (pre-ca. 870 cal yrs BP); (2) a transition to palm-dominated vegetation (ca. 870–670 cal yrs BP); and (3) the latest occupation representing European colonization associated with a more open, grass-dominated landscape (after ca. 670 cal yrs BP). These transitions occur independent of changes in paleoclimate records, suggesting humans were the dominant driver of vegetation change

Dental calculus evidence of Taï Forest Chimpanzee plant consumption and life history transitions

Dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) is a source of multiple types of data on life history. Recent research has targeted the plant microremains preserved in this mineralised deposit as a source of dietary and health information for recent and past populations. However, it is unclear to what extent we can interpret behaviour from microremains. Few studies to date have directly compared the microremain record from dental calculus to dietary records, and none with long-term observation dietary records, thus limiting how we can interpret diet, food acquisition and behaviour. Here we present a high-resolution analysis of calculus microremains from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Taï National Park, Côte d"Ivoire. We test microremain assemblages against more tan two decades of field behavioural observations to establish the ability of calculus to capture the composition of diet. Our results show that some microremain classes accumulate as long-lived dietary markers. Phytolith abundance in calculus can reflect the proportions of plants in the diet, yet this pattern is not true for starches. We also report microremains can record information about other dietary behaviours, such as the age of weaning and learned food processing techniques like nutcracking