期刊
HOLOCENE
卷 26, 期 12, 页码 1954-1967出版社
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0959683616646184
关键词
archaeology; charred endocarps; human settlements; late-Holocene; oil palm; soil charcoal; tropical Africa
资金
- National Fund for Scientific Research of Belgium (F.R.S./FNRS, FRFC project) [2.4577.10]
- King Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation (Belgium)
- Belgium Training Fund for Research in Industry and Agriculture (FRIA-F.R.S./FNRS, Belgium)
Palaeoecological and archaeological studies have demonstrated that human populations have long inhabited the moist forests of central Africa. However, spatial and temporal patterns of human activities have hardly been investigated with satisfactory accuracy. In this study, we propose to characterize past human activities at local scale by using a systematic quantitative and qualitative methodology based on soil charcoal and charred botanical remains. A total of 88 equidistant test-pits were excavated along six transects in two contrasting forest types in southern Cameroon. Charred botanical remains were collected by water-sieving and sorted by type (wood charcoals, oil palm endocarps and unidentified seeds). A total of 50 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry C-14 dates were also obtained. Results showed that charred macroremains were found at multiple places in the forest, suggesting scattered human activities, which were distributed into two main periods (Phase A: 2300-1300 BP; Phase B: 580 BP to the present). Charred botanical remains indicated two types of land-use: (1) domestic, with oil palm endocarps most often associated with potsherds (villages) and (2) agricultural, with charcoal as probable remnant of slash-and-burn cultivation (fields). Oil palm endocarp abundance decreased with distance from the identified human settlements. Our methodology allowed documenting, at high resolution, the spatial and temporal patterns of human activities in central African moist forests and could be applied to other tropical contexts.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据