Paleoenvironmental evidence for first human colonization of the eastern Caribbean

Full text

Paleoenvironmental evidence for first human colonization of the
eastern Caribbean
Peter E. Siegel
a
,
*
, John G. Jones
b
, Deborah M. Pearsall
c
, Nicholas P. Dunning
d
,
Pat Farrell
e
, Neil A. Duncan
f
, Jason H. Curtis
g
, Sushant K. Singh
h
a
Department of Anthropology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA
b
Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd., 424 West Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA
c
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
d
Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45211, USA
e
Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
f
Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
g
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
h
Department of Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA
article info
Article history:
Received 21 November 2014
Received in revised form
7 September 2015
Accepted 1 October 2015
Available online xxx
Keywords:
Caribbean paleoenvironments
Human colonization
Island historical ecology
Modified landscapes
abstract
Identifying and dating first human colonization of new places is challenging, especially when group sizes
were small and material traces of their occupations were ephemeral. Generating reliable reconstructions
of human colonization patterns from intact archaeological sites may be difficult to impossible given post-
depositional taphonomic processes and in cases of island and coastal locations the inundation of land-
scapes resulting from post-Pleistocene sea-level rise. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction is proving to be
a more reliable method of identifying small-scale human colonization events than archaeological data
alone. We demonstrate the method through a sediment-coring project across the Lesser Antilles and
southern Caribbean. Paleoenvironmental data were collected informing on the timing of multiple island-
colonization events and land-use histories spanning the full range of human occupations in the Carib-
bean, from the initial forays into the islands through the arrival and eventual domination of the land-
scapes and indigenous people by Europeans. In some areas, our data complement archaeological,
paleoecological, and historical findings from the Lesser Antilles and in others amplify understanding of
colonization history. Here, we highlight data relating to the timing and process of initial colonization in
the eastern Caribbean. In particular, paleoenvironmental data from Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique, and
Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) provide a basis for revisiting initial colonization models of the Caribbean.
We conclude that archaeological programs addressing human occupations dating to the early to mid-
Holocene, especially in dynamic coastal settings, should systematically incorporate paleoenvir-
onmental investigations.
©2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
1.1. Issues in colonization of the Caribbean
Irving Rouse (1986, 1992) proposed long ago that early ceramic-
age (or Neolithic) colonists to the Caribbean (Saladoid archaeo-
logical cultures) introduced to the Antillean archipelago agricul-
ture, the use of pottery, and established lifeways and belief systems
from their greater Amazonian homeland. He developed a stepping-
stone colonization model, whereby settlers first targeted specific
islands closer to mainland South America before moving onto other
islands further up the archipelago. Recent investigations are
increasingly showing that earlier groups of people (Archaic pop-
ulations) occupying the islands may have introduced cultigens and
produced pottery and some researchers argue that first and later
settlers made direct voyages from northern South America to the
northern Lesser Antilles or the Greater Antilles, thus bypassing
nearly 70% of the island arc (Callaghan, 2010; Fitzpatrick, 2013;
Fitzpatrick et al., 2010; Keegan, 2010; Pag
an-Jim
enez, 2013;
Pag
an-Jim
enez et al., 2015; Rodríguez Ramos et al., 2008).
*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: siegelp@mail.montclair.edu (P.E. Siegel).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Quaternary Science Reviews
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.014
0277-3791/©2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295

Archaeological traces of the earlier Archaic residents are consider-
ably different than the later and, apparently, more densely settled
Saladoid and post-Saladoid groups. Owing to a variety of tapho-
nomic and sampling issues the earliest colonists to the Caribbean
dating to the early/mid-Holocene in particular are difficult to
identify using traditional methods of archaeological surveying,
testing, and excavation. Additional lines of evidence from paleo-
ecology are required to provide data on small-scale scouting or
colonization events and habitat modifications by early as well as
later occupants (Athens et al., 2014; Burney, 1997a, 1997b; Foley
et al., 2014).
We conducted an extensive paleoenvironmental investigation
across nine islands of the Lesser Antilles and southern Caribbean
(Fig. 1). Microfossils of pollen and phytoliths, charcoal particulates,
sediment chemistry, and a program of high-precision radiocarbon
dating provide new evidence that first colonizers to the islands
arrived earlier than previously thought. These first colonizers were
modifying and perhaps managing landscapes that had implications
for subsequent colonizing groups, including the larger Neolithic
communities from greater Amazonia. Archaeological remains of
these earliest colonists may be deeply buried under alluvial,
colluvial, or volcanic deposits and in cases of coastally oriented
people may be underwater due to rising sea level. Clearly, archae-
ological programs addressing early to mid-Holocene human occu-
pations and land-use histories, especially in dynamic coastal
settings, should systematically incorporate paleoenvironmental
investigations.
Data from the current project inform on the full span of human
history in the eastern Caribbean, from first colonization of the
islands through the arrival of Europeans. In some areas, our data
complement archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and historical
findings from the Lesser Antilles and in others amplify under-
standing of colonization history. Results presented in this paper
relate specifically to initial colonization history of the eastern
Caribbean. In particular, data from Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique,
and Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) provide a basis for revisiting
initial colonization models of the Caribbean (Fig. 1;Table 1).
1.2. Methodological challenges and debates in identifying the
earliest traces of human activities in the Caribbean
Models of prehistoric island colonization are generally based on
data collected from archaeological sites (Alcover, 2008; Rouse,
1986; Siegel, 1991). While archaeological excavations are impor-
tant it is increasingly apparent that many human activities leave
only subtle traces, for which traditional methods of archaeological
surveying, testing, and excavation may not be adequate for iden-
tification and assessment (Jones, 1994; Neff et al., 2006; Pohl et al.,
1996; Pope et al., 2001). Paleoenvironmental investigations in the
Caribbean are revealing the importance of systematically collecting
Fig. 1. Map of the Caribbean basin. Environmental cores were collected from Trinidad, Grenada, Curaçao, Barbados, Martinique, Marie-Galante, Antigua, Barbuda, and St. Croix.
Cores discussed in this paper came from Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique, and Marie-Galante (inset).
Table 1
Locations of the cores discussed in the text.
Island, location Core number Northing
a
Westing
a
Trinidad, Nariva Swamp NV08-1 1031.035 6102.603
Grenada, Meadow Beach MB08-1 1209.728 6136.403
Grenada, Lake Antoine 12-VII-08 1211.011 6136.393
Martinique, Baie de Fort-de-France KC08-1 1433.802 6059.677
Martinique, Pointe Figuier PF08-1 1427.680 6054.558
Marie Galante, Vieux Fort VF08-1 1558.697 6117.637
a
Coordinates are in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Example: N1209.728 ¼N12

,
09 min, 72.8 s.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295276

microfossils from sedimentary deposits to identify past human
activities that are not well represented in the archaeological record
(Brenner and Binford, 1988; Burney, 1997a; Burney et al., 1994;
Higuera-Gundy et al., 1999; Siegel et al., 2005).
Standard models of initial human colonization of the Caribbean
indicate two independent entry routes: the Yucat
an Peninsula to
the Greater Antilles (c. 5900 cal yr BP) and the Orinoco Valley to
Trinidad (c. 8000 cal yr BP) (Boomert, 2013; Rouse, 1992; Wilson,
2007; Wilson et al., 1998). Early to Middle Archaic (early to mid-
Holocene) archaeological sites are well represented in the Greater
and northern Lesser Antilles (Davis, 2000; Kozlowski, 1974;
Lundberg, 1989; Rodríguez Ramos et al., 2008; Veloz Maggiolo
and Ortega, 1983). However, there is a dearth of documented
Archaic sites between Tobago and Antigua, a distance accounting
for most of the Lesser Antillean chain (from the South American
continental margin to the Guadeloupe Passage).
Investigators have argued that Archaic groups did not occupy
the southern Lesser Antilles and that these same islands were
bypassed by the later first ceramic-age settlers to the Caribbean,
who presumably traveled directly from the South American
mainland to the northern Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands, and Puerto
Rico (Callaghan, 2003, 2010; Fitzpatrick, 2013). Before drawing
conclusions concerning colonization strategies based on negative
evidence it is important to consider issues of archaeological site-
discovery techniques, taphonomic processes, volcanism, land-use
histories, and sea-level changes. Early Holocene landscapes with
archaeological sites may be buried beneath volcanic deposits pre-
senting unique challenges in identifying them (Armstrong, 1980).
Lacking systematic surveys, poor representation of these sites is
likely the product of sampling bias and issues of visibility. We know
from other tropical regions that sites dating to the early Holocene
are often underrepresented compared to later, more visible
Neolithic occupations. Yet paleoenvironmental records reveal the
presence of active early Holocene occupations in those same re-
gions (Jones, 1994; Neff et al., 2006; Burney, 1997a). Another factor
potentially obscuring early Holocene Caribbean landscapes is the
massive erosion resulting from colonial plantation practices that
have scoured upland areas and buried old, lowland surfaces under
meters of colluvial and alluvial deposits on many islands, thus
obliterating or sealing archaeological sites within contexts difficult
to detect or access. Finally, sea-level changes have resulted in the
drowning of former shoreline or near-shoreline terrestrial land-
scapes (Murray-Wallace and Woodroffe, 2014) potentially con-
taining sites dating to the early to mid-Holocene. Inundation of
coastlines and low-lying landforms no doubt will be exacerbated as
global warming continues. Postglacial relative sea-level (RSL) pre-
dictions based on glacial isostatic adjustment modeling in the
Caribbean reveal RSL values of approximately 2 m MSL
(4000 cal yr BP), 4 m MSL (5000 cal yr BP), 8 m MSL (7000 cal yr
BP), and 13 m MSL (8000 cal yr BP) (Peltier and Fairbanks, 2006;
Toscano et al., 2011). Depending on seafloor topography and age
there is the potential for submerged early Holocene landscapes and
archaeological sites associated with the islands (Armstrong, 1980;
Cooper and Boothroyd, 2011). Addressing the archaeological im-
plications of submerged landscapes will require the analysis of
bathymetric maps and sea-level curves in connection with specific
islands and conducting underwater surveys.
2. Disentangling natural from cultural impacts in Caribbean
paleoenvironmental records
Modifications to Caribbean landscapes have been well-
documented following arrival of Europeans, most notably in
eyewitness accounts, archival sources, historical maps, and oral
histories (Sauer, 1966; Sheridan, 1973; Watts, 1987). Richardson
(2004) observed that fires have been used by humans for
millennia in modifying physical environments, especially after the
arrival of Europeans. This account was based on archival research,
literature reviews, and oral histories with a focus primarily on the
British West Indies between the mid/late-nineteenth to early-
twentieth century. Recent paleoenvironmental investigations
have extended this perspective of landscape modification to the
earliest human occupations of the Caribbean islands using sedi-
mentological data. Studies addressing prehistoric landscape mod-
ifications in the Caribbean have been limited and small in scale
(Brenner and Binford, 1988; Burney et al., 1994; Kjellmark, 1996;
Lane et al., 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2014; Peros et al., 2006; Siegel
et al., 2005).
Dated sequences of microfossils from particularly productive
cores combined with regional paleoenvironmental/climatic re-
constructions are presented here to build on previous models of
island colonization history. A number of regional studies provide a
paleoclimate/environmental history context for interpreting the
microfossil, sedimentary, and landscape records obtained in the
current project (Banner et al.,1996; Beets et al., 2006; Bertran et al.,
2004; Caffrey, 2011; Caffrey and Horn, 2015; Caffrey et al., 2015;
Curtis et al., 2001; Haug et al., 2001; Hodell et al., 1991; Higuera-
Gundy et al., 1999; Kjellmark, 1996; Malaiz
e et al., 2011; Mangini
et al., 2007).
It is increasingly clear that relying exclusively on the archaeo-
logical record may be misleading when accounting for past human
events, especially during times of low population densities early in
the Holocene of the New World or earlier in the Old World. Human-
derived disturbance indicators recovered from sedimentary records
may be more reliable in identifying first colonizers to new places. In
landscape ecology, a disturbance or perturbation is defined as any
event that results in a disruption to an ecosystem (White and
Pickett, 1985). With some modification this is the sense in which
we have been using the term “disturbance”when investigating
Caribbean paleoanthropogenic landscapes.
As archaeologists, paleoethnobiologists, and geographers we are
concerned specifically with distinguishing between disturbances or
disruptions in ecosystem structure caused by natural vs. human
agents. For example, fire as a disturbance factor may occur as a
relatively short discrete event or repeated events during an interval
of time ranging from decades to hundreds of years. The discrete
firing event may be the result of nature, such as a lightning strike.
Greater frequencies of discrete firing events may also be associated
with climate change (increased aridity and combustible ground-
cover). Alternatively, the continuous presence of fire may be the
result of active landscape management, especially during wetter
periods of climate history (Burney et al., 1994; Pyne, 1998). These
scenarios will produce alternative signatures in the paleoenvir-
onmental record: (1) a discrete firing event represented by a spike
in charcoal concentration value with little to no sustained presence
or (2) longer phase of fire presence represented by elevated and
sustained charcoal concentration values. It is important to consider
too the context of documented disturbances, including climate
conditions (wet vs. dry), relative percentages or presence/absence
of economically useful plant taxa, changes in mix of species
composition, and relative density of vegetation coverage. Climate
reconstructions provide a framework within which disturbance
indicators are evaluated. Specifically, evaporation/precipitation
ratios over time represent one line of evidence to be viewed along
with dated sequences of microfossils, sediment chemistries, and
landscape histories.
2.1. Quaternary climate change in the Caribbean
Quaternary climate change and concomitant sea-level variation
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 277

are critical to an understanding of Trinidad's land bridge connec-
tions to South America, the Caribbean islands evolving shorelines
and estuaries, and earliest signs of human activities on the islands.
Climate change at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition drove the
adaptive changes evident in the resources used by the inhabitants
of the South American lowland tropics who became increasingly
dependent on estuaries and mangrove environments (Boomert,
2000; Piperno and Pearsall, 1998). It is difficult to determine local
sea-level rise; even a relatively small basin such as the Caribbean
Sea does not follow a homogenous sea-level curve due to local
variations in isostatic response, local tectonics, and changes in the
earth's rotational state (Rull et al., 1999; Toscano et al., 2011). In
general terms, it is agreed that eustatic sea level was, on average,
121 ±5 m lower than present at the height of the last glacial
maximum, 18,000 cal yrs BP, and that temperatures in the low
latitudes were c. 5e8

C lower than present (Burnham and Graham,
1999; Curtis et al., 2001; Fairbanks, 1989; Geophysics Study
Committee, 1990; Guilderson et al., 1994; Leyden, 1985; Webb
et al., 1997). Holocene data from the wider Caribbean indicate
that sea level reached its present height c. 200 0 years ago (Gischler,
2006; Rull, 2000; Scheffers et al., 2009; Toscano and Mcintyre,
2003, 2006).
Evidence points to late Pleistocene aridity associated with lower
temperatures due to the feedback loop between atmospheric
moisture and greenhouse effect (Brenner, 1994; Curtis et al., 2001;
Haug et al., 2001; Holmes et al., 1995; Leyden, 1985). Late Pleisto-
cene and early Holocene intervals of cooler, drier climate supported
an array of moist forests, dry forests, and savannas (Burnham and
Graham, 1999). The timing for the onset of mesic Holocene condi-
tions was regionally variable (Beets et al., 2006; Bertran et al., 2004;
Brenner et al., 2000; Caffrey, 2011; Curtis, 1997; Curtis et al., 2001;
Haug et al., 2001; Higuera-Gundy et al., 1999; Hodell et al., 1991,
2005; Leyden, 1985; Mangini et al., 20 07; Mayle and Power, 2008).
Reconstructions from Lakes Valencia, Venezuela and Miragoane,
Haiti reveal dry conditions persisting until c. 7000e8000 cal yr BP
(Curtis et al., 2001; Leyden, 1985). Mesic conditions in Panama were
present by 10,500 BP and in Jamaica xeric conditions dominated
until c. 9500 BP (Bush et al., 1992; Curtis et al., 2001; Street-Perrott
et al., 1993). The effect of rising sea level in the early Holocene was
to cause a trend away from savanna in favor of mangrove-
dominated environment in coastal regions in the Caribbean (Van
der Hammen, 1988) and the cores from this project support this
view. Moist conditions prevailed during the early/mid-Holocene
(7000e3000 BP) for much of the Caribbean and evidence points
to drying during the late Holocene (3000 BP to present) although
the timing of the drying episode is not consistent across the region
(Deevey et al., 1983; Islebe et al., 1996; Piperno et al., 1990). Data
from Guadeloupe suggest a stormy dry period from c. 1150e950 BP
(Beets et al., 2006). Lakes on the Yucat
an peninsula also indicate a
series of droughts in the late Holocene (Curtis et al., 1996;
Whitmore et al., 1996). The Lake Valencia data revealed an in-
crease in salinity after c. 3000 BP, but oxygen isotope evidence was
lacking (Curtis et al., 2001). A core from eastern Venezuela pro-
duced a peat layer at 9.2 m, which dated to c. 7000 BP suggesting an
average sea-level rise of 13.2 cm/100 years since that time (Rull
et al., 1999). Studies of marine cores from the Cariaco Basin on
the north coast of Venezuela also indicate late Holocene aridity
(Haug et al., 2001).
One important sequence of Caribbean climate history over the
past 10,500 years comes from the investigations of
18
O-isotope
values of ostracods (carbonate shells) in the sediments of Lake
Miragoane, Haiti (Brenner and Binford, 1988; Curtis et al., 2001;
Higuera-Gundy, 1991; Higuera-Gundy et al., 1999; Hodell et al.,
1991). The chronological resolution for the Miragoane sediments
analyzed by Curtis was 16.8 years per sample (Curtis, 1992, 1997;
Curtis and Hodell, 1993; Hodell et al., 1991). Within a 17-year
span there may be unusual dry or wet episodes that are not
detectable, especially those related to El Ni~
no events (Giannini
et al., 2001). Mangini et al. (2007) analyzed
18
O-isotope values of a
c. 7000-year-old stalagmite collected from a cave on Barbados.
Although Mangini et al. (2007) generally documented elevated
rainfall between 6700 and 3000 BP (consistent with the Miragoane
study), they observed that lower precipitation values in Barbados
were coterminous with higher values recorded in the Miragoane
sediments. Oxygen-isotope values in stalagmites reflect summer
precipitation, while isotope values in ostracods record average
annual precipitation thereby leveling out seasonal variation
(Mangini et al., 2007). The degree of resolution may be finer in the
stalagmite data, allowing for assessments in seasonal variability
that cannot be tracked in ostracod records. In addition, mean lat-
itudinal changes in the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone
through time may affect rainfall patterns in the region of the
equator (Black et al., 2004; Brenner et al., 2000; Haug et al., 2001;
Hodell et al., 2005; Mangini et al., 2007; Rosenmeier et al., 2002).
The Cariaco Basin sediment records over the past c. 6000 years
compare to other tropical Atlantic locations, ranging from West
Africa to northern South America and the circum-Caribbean region
(Curtis et al., 2001; Goni et al., 2009; Haug et al., 2001; Hodell et al.,
2005). Complicating climate reconstructions in the Caribbean are
regional variations due to island topography and strong seasonal
variations resulting from interactions of the tropical Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, particularly sea surface temperature anomalies
associated with ENSO and North Atlantic Oscillation effects (Enfield
and Alfaro, 1999; Giannini et al., 2000; Jury et al., 2007).
2.2. Reconstructing anthropogenic landscapes in the Caribbean
In his sediment-coring work on Puerto Rico, Burney (1997a;
Burney et al., 1994) documented human colonization by c.
5300 cal yr BP, approximately two millennia prior to what the
archaeological record indicated at the time. His assessment was
based exclusively on substantial increases in charcoal-particulate
frequencies. Identifications of anthropogenic inputs in paleoeco-
logical records are strengthened when evaluating independent
lines of evidence that when integrated are unlikely to have been a
product of nature in the absence of humans (Caffrey and Horn,
2015). Burney (1997a) was most successful in this regard on
Madagascar. First colonizers to new places do not leave identical
ecological signatures wherever they go. Ethnobotantically useful
taxa present in the pre-human landscape may be considerably
diminished or extirpated due to overexploitation. Alternatively,
some native plant taxa may be selectively spared and nurtured in a
form of active landscape management. Variable trajectories of
landscape modifications are measurable through the identification
of the baseline pre-human landscape.
In the current investigation of Caribbean paleoenvironments,
measurable lines of evidence included pollen, phytolith, and
charcoal-microparticulate distributions; sediment chemistries;
landscape characterizations; and archaeological and paleoclimate
records. Data collected from sediment cores were linked to the
calendrical time scale through a program of radiocarbon dating. Not
all lines of evidence were available for all cores or periods of time
owing to issues of context-specific depositional regimes and dif-
ferential preservation.
Further reconstructing anthropogenic landscapes, we distin-
guish between “modified”vs. “managed”terrains. Conservation
biologists frequently use the terms modified and managed land-
scapes interchangeably (Koh and Gardner, 2010; Tabarelli et al.,
2012). However, in the case of pre-industrial communities, espe-
cially first colonists to new places, distinguishing between and
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295278

attempting to identify modified and managed landscapes informs
on the intent and kinds of activities conducted. We define a
modified terrain as one that has been altered incidentally due to
human activities. For example, in constructing shelters trees and
underbrush may be removed thus altering the composition of the
local biotic community and perhaps underlying edaphic conditions.
Paleoenvironmental proxies of clearing activities may include fossil
indicators of such quick-growing, gap-colonizing plants as trumpet
trees (Cecropia), mulberry shrubs (Moraceae), myrtle trees (Myr-
taceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), grasses (Poaceae), asters (Asteraceae),
Chenopodium and Amaranthus (cheno-ams), wild plantain (Helico-
nia), and cattails (Typha). New settlers to an area may modify
landscapes for their needs and with time gradually or quickly
introduce exotic or nurture native economically useful plant taxa
resulting in an actively managed landscape. The distinction be-
tween modified and managed landscapes is one of gradation and
implies a degree of intentionality. A modified landscape may be the
byproduct of human activities whereas a managed landscape is the
primary goal. It is our expectation that managed landscapes were
an outgrowth of modified landscapes. Depending on sedimentation
or depositional rates it may be difficult to impossible to discern the
trajectory from modified to managed landscapes in the paleo-
environmental record.
3. Materials and methods
The foundation of this investigation was the collection of mul-
tiple independent proxies of environmental conditions and
anthropogenic landscapes spanning and ideally predating the
range of human occupations in the southern and eastern Caribbean.
Proxies included plant microfossils (pollen, phytoliths, charcoal
particulates) and sediment chemistry. These data were evaluated
within the frameworks of available archaeological and paleoclimate
records. Sediment cores were taken in places where the potential
was good for the preservation of proxies.
In general, coring locations were selected in wetlands or lakes in
proximity to known archaeological sites, allowing us to assess
human impacts on, and adjustments to, local, supra-local, and
regional environmental settings. Except for some volcanic islands,
natural lakes are absent in the Lesser Antilles. On most islands we
targeted wetlands, typically coastal mangrove swamps with good
potential for preserved plant microfossils. In some cases, intact
wetlands suitable for microfossil preservation had been drained for
modern agriculture or development projects. This was most
extreme on Barbados, where remnants of only a single wetland
remain on the island (Ramcharan, 2005). The predominant mode of
phytolith deposition is fluvial, thus we attempted to core on the
landward side of depressions, where sedimentation from in-
flowing streams was presumed to be greatest. Continuously satu-
rated sediments were targeted to increase the likelihood of pre-
served pollen. Reconnaissance surveys were conducted in the
watersheds that potentially contributed sediment to each coring
location. Watersheds were determined by analysis of topographic
maps and field observations. Within each watershed observations
were made of current soil state (e.g., degree of anthropogenic
degradation), current land use, and evidence of past land use. These
data combined with soil surveys, current and historical records of
land use, and archaeological inventories provided background in-
formation in assessing possible landscape dynamics over time.
Disturbances to landscapes potentially impacting stratigraphic re-
lations were assessed through radiocarbon chronologies.
3.1. Coring technology and collecting methods
Cores were recovered using a modified Livingstone rod-piston
corer built by Jason Curtis (Colinvaux, 2007; Wright, 1967). This
device was used to collect successive one-meter drives into soft
sediments of wetlands in 5.7-cm outside diameter polycarbonate
core tubes. Two cores were collected from the deepest part of Lake
Antoine on Grenada using two attached anchored inflatable boats
as a platform. The uppermost unconsolidated lake sediments were
collected using a 7.6-cm mudewater interface (MWI) sediment
corer, specifically designed to retrieve those flocculate layers of
sediment without disturbance. Next, the section of sediment from
50 to 150 cm was collected without casing pipe. Then casing pipe
(10-cm PVC drain pipe) was lowered into the sediment and pushed
in approximately 1 m to hold position and sediments from 1.5 to
8.5 m were collected through the casing. A backup parallel core was
collected from the mud surface to 8.03 m. Lake sediments were
transported in their plastic collecting tubes to the University of
Florida Department of Geological Sciences for sampling and anal-
ysis of carbonate microfossils suitable for oxygen isotope analysis.
Unfortunately, adequate microfossils for isotope analysis were
discontinuously preserved precluding their use for climate
reconstruction.
All wetland cores were extruded, split, described, and sub-
sampled in the field. Physical descriptions included color (Mun-
sell), other visible attributes (e.g., large pieces of organic debris,
charcoal, shells), and finger tests of texture. Sampling for physical/
chemical analysis was conducted by natural strata. Phytolith sam-
ples were taken every 5 cm and pollen every 2 cm, thus embedding
two pollen samples within each phytolith sample. Testing of sedi-
ment subsamples was carried out in the laboratories of the
Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati; Spectrum An-
alytic Inc., Washington Courthouse, Ohio; Department of Geogra-
phy, University of Minnesota, Duluth; Department of Geological
Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville; Department of An-
thropology, Washington State University, Pullman; and Depart-
ment of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia.
3.2. Physical and chemical analyses of sediments
After air-drying, percentages of organic matter (OM) and
organic carbon (OC) were determined by loss on ignition (Dean,
1974). The Bouyoucos hydrometer method was used to determine
particle-size percentages of remaining inorganic material
(Bouyoucos, 1936). Laboratory analyses by the hydrometer method
were used to confirm field finger tests of texture, which can be
misleading in highly organic sediments because organic material
may “feel”like clay to the finger. Particle size is important to
measure, especially in sediments from dynamic coastal settings to
identify processes of sandbar aggradation or degradation linked to
shifts in relative sea level and brackish to freshwater ratios.
Chemical analyses provide additional information about the
depositional environment. P, Ca, Mg, Na, and S were measured
using the Mehlich-3 ICP method (Mehlich, 1984). Na and Ca levels
reflect changes in salinity, from brackish environments open to
marine flow to closed freshwater lagoons. Elevated P values may
indicate human activities within the watershed contributing to the
depositional setting (Holliday and Gartner, 2007; Lippi, 1988;
Sj€
oberg, 1976).
3.3. Pollen methods
Pollen samples were quantified (1e2 cc) using European Lyco-
podium spp. spores as exotic tracers, unlikely to be found in
Caribbean fossil pollen assemblages (Stockmarr, 1971). Tracer
spores allow fossil pollen concentration values to be calculated and
to minimize processing error. Following the addition of the tracer
spores, samples were washed with 10% HCl. This step removed
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 279

carbonates and dissolved the bonding agent in the tracer spore
tablets. Samples were then rinsed in distilled water, sieved through
150-
m
m mesh screens, and swirled to remove the heavier inorganic
particles. Next, samples were consolidated and 50% hydrofluoric
acid was added to the residues to remove unwanted silicates. This
step deflocculated the residues, effectively removing all colloidal
material smaller than two microns. Samples were then washed in
1% KOH to remove any remaining humates, dehydrated in glacial
acetic acid, and subjected to an acetolysis treatment (Erdtman,
1960) consisting of 9 parts acetic anhydride to 1 part concen-
trated sulfuric acid. During this process, the samples were placed in
a heating block for a period not exceeding 8 min. This step removed
most unwanted organic materials, including cellulose, hemi-
cellulose, lipids and proteins, and converted these materials to
water-soluble humates. The samples were then rinsed in distilled
water until a neutral pH was achieved.
Samples were next subjected to a heavy density separation us-
ing zinc chloride or sodium polytungstate (2.00 specific gravity).
After the lighter organic fraction was isolated from the heavier
minerals the lighter pollen and charcoal remains were collected.
Residues were then dehydrated in absolute alcohol and transferred
to a glycerine medium for curation in glass vials. Permanent slides
were prepared using glycerine as a mounting medium, and pollen
and charcoal identifications and counts were made using a Nikon
compound stereomicroscope at 400magnification. Identifica-
tions were confirmed by comparison with the Washington State
University Palynology Laboratory's pollen reference collection.
With adequate preservation, minimum 200-grain counts were
made for each sample (Barkeley, 1934; Bryant and Hall, 1993,p.
280).
Pollen and charcoal concentration values were calculated for all
samples. Pollen concentration values below 2500 grains/ml of
sediment may not reflect past conditions and usually record a
differentially preserved assemblage (Bryant and Hall, 1993; Hall,
1981). Counts with low concentration values should be viewed
with caution. Pollen results were graphed as percentages of the
total sum in Tiliagraph, a computer program designed for the
presentation of plant microfossil data (Grimm, 1988). Charcoal and
total pollen concentrations were also graphed. Zonation of the
pollen sequences were calculated by a constrained sum of squares
analysis (CONISS), although in all cases zones were empirically
obvious. Following standard palynological conventions, in-
terpretations of each sequence were made from the base of the core
upwards and were based on appearance/disappearance of key in-
dicator plants, shifts in relative abundances of taxa, and patterning
and magnitude of charcoal concentrations.
3.4. Phytolith methods
After samples were received in the lab, an initial set (typically 8
samples to correspond to equipment capacities) was selected from
each core. These samples were distributed across the major lith-
ostratigraphic units identified in the core. If the core proved to be of
interest based on dating, identified plant taxa, or nature of the
sediments and phytoliths were well represented then additional
samples were processed to fill in the stratigraphy. Approximately
24 samples were processed from productive cores.
Samples were processed following the standard University of
Missouri (MU) phytolith processing procedure (Pearsall, 2015).
Dried phytolith extracts were mounted in Canada balsam and slides
examined until a 200-count of diagnostic phytoliths was reached or
the entire slide was scanned. Identifications were made using the
MU phytolith comparative collection (http://phytolith.missouri.edu
for the diagnostic database and counting form templates). Diatoms
and sponge spicules were tallied outside the 200-count. Two Tilia
graphs were produced for each core, a resolved diagram of all taxa
and a composite diagram of grouped data.
Phytolith recovery was variable among cores, most likely a
result of low phytolith infux in some locations or time periods.
Nature and density of vegetation, size of watershed, and sedi-
mentation rates are likely to be important factors determining
phytolith influx, although these conditions remain to be system-
atically field tested. In no core did all samples achieve a 200-count
of diagnostic phytoliths. Rather than calculate proportions of phy-
toliths based on counts of less than 200 per slide we presented all
data as raw counts. For samples exceeding 200 diagnostic phyto-
liths counting stopped at 200; the relative numbers of kinds of
phytoliths can be compared for these samples. Counts below 200
represent all diagnostics on a single slide and these data are treated
as presence/absence.
When presenting pollen and phytolith results, especially in
comparing settings across islands, it is important to display the full
range of taxonomic identifications and not only those proxies of
anthropogenic inputs. In so doing, we gain insight into the natural
biodiversity of paleohabitats settled by first colonists and how that
biodiversity may have been modified or managed through human
interventions over the ensuing decades, centuries, or millennia.
Comparing the structure and composition of floristic communities
across potential routes of colonization, we are also afforded op-
portunities to address relative degrees of familiarity versus
strangeness of newly settled landscapes.
4. Paleoenvironmental data related to initial colonization of
the eastern Caribbean
A variety of economically useful plant taxa and disturbance in-
dicators were identified in sediment cores collected in the current
investigation of island paleoenvironments. Although the cores from
Trinidad, Curaçao, Barbados, Antigua, Barbuda, and St. Croix pro-
duced rich bodies of paleoecological data following colonization,
they do not unambiguously pre-date the earliest archaeologically
documented occupations for those islands (Boomert, 2000; Davis,
2000; Drewett, 2006; Hardy, 2009; Haviser, 1987; Watters et al.,
1992). Except by way of comparison with one of the cores from
Trinidad, these other datasets will not be discussed here.
One of the cores from Nariva Swamp along the east coast of
Trinidad penetrated dated sediments that approached the earliest
documented human occupations on the island and pre-dated the
oldest anthropogenic contexts from the Lesser Antilles. Trinidad is a
likely origin for some or all of the earliest colonists to the Lesser
Antilles, thus representing a place where survival strategies were
developed and knowledge and experiences were culturally
archived by people prior to venturing into and exploring new
landscapes. Insight into how humans interacted with homeland
landscapes provides a framework for understanding the anthro-
pogenic signatures of their first forays into new places.
4.1. Nariva Swamp, Trinidad
A core extracted from a red and black mangrove estuary within
Nariva Swamp contained two zones of unusually high organic
carbon content and high sand percentages. A sample of preserved
wood from 250 cm was dated to c. 7060 cal yr BP (AA82681,
Table 2). Pollen preservation was good with moderate phytolith
deposition and abundant particulate charcoal representation (Fig. 2
and Fig. S1). From the base of the core to approximately 180 cm a
combination of ethnobotanically significant and disturbance-
indicator taxa are represented (Table S1).
The core did not penetrate sediments deeper than 320 cm
(beneath the basal charcoal spike), thus we did not obtain an
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295280

unambiguous pre-anthropogenic landscape. The relatively high
charcoal concentration at the core base underlies the deepest dated
context, followed by sustained but somewhat lower charcoal con-
centrations, with two additional higher values at 160 cm and 80 cm.
The charcoal particulate concentration values between 280 cm and
195 cm ranged from 250 to 500 fragments per cm
3
, higher than the
sustained charcoal concentrations in the other cores for the same
time periods discussed below (Fig. 2). In addition to frequency and
magnitude of burning events, a number of other factors influence
charcoal concentration values, including sedimentation rates, fuel
types, fire temperature, and secondary transport mechanisms. This
makes comparisons across coring locations difficult. The Nariva
sequence is noteworthy, nonetheless, for the strength of the char-
coal signature.
The stratigraphically lower two elevated charcoal concentra-
tions (core base and 160 cm), separated by sustained charcoal
presence, date to the mid-Holocene period of wet conditions dis-
cussed earlier in the paleoclimate section (Banner et al., 1996;
Higuera-Gundy et al., 1999; Mangini et al., 2007). Some have
argued that sustained levels of charcoal values do not necessarily
indicate human-induced burning, but may represent background
charcoal influx between fire events. It has been further proposed
that wet climate conditions may lead to greater abundance of
vegetative fuel, increasing the likelihood of fire events (Caffrey and
Horn, 2015; Higuera et al., 2009, 2010). We suggest that sustained
charcoal during the mesic conditions of the mid-Holocene com-
bined with somewhat elevated percentages of Poaceae and higher
values of Cecropia and Moraceae below 195 cm indicate that local
clearings were being maintained (Athens et al., 2014; Burney,
1997a, 1997b; Burney et al., 1994; Pyne, 1998). The initial high
value of Cecropia is associated with the basal spike in charcoal.
Elevated percentages of Moraceae and Cecropia persist above
195 cm, along with high charcoal values suggesting that this
portion of Nariva Swamp was continuously occupied and managed
by humans for millennia (Fig. 2). Ethnobotanically useful taxa
associated with the period below 195 cm (prior to c. 6720 cal BP)
include Fabaceae, Anacardiaceae, Spondias,Coccoloba, and Sap-
otaceae (Table S1).
Sediment, phytolith, pollen, and charcoal data support a gradual
shift in depositional environments and vegetation, and a strong
transition by c. 6720 cal yr BP (Beta-343380). Prior to this date,
there was a notable absence of sand in the profile, representing a
time when sea level was still slowly rising and the coring location
was not yet estuarine. Phytolith and pollen evidence reveal open,
mixed habitats with arboreal, understory, and open-habitat plants,
including Poaceae, Cecropia, and Moraceae. Habitats may have been
managed and maintained through sustained burning. Subse-
quently, Asteraceae was absent, grass phytoliths decreased, and the
location received sediments carried from the Central Range up-
lands including microfossils of savanna vegetation. As sea level
encroached and the estuary was formed, storms on the windward
coast contributed sand to the sediment profile. Phytolith evidence
in the upper portion of the core, subsequent to c. 6720 cal yr BP,
reflects a vegetation shift to freshwater swamp forest, with palm
and sedges, and finally to reduced palm and increased woody di-
cots, probably representing mangrove and a shift to brackish con-
ditions (Fig. S1). Likewise, pollen data show a marked shift by c.
6720 cal yr BP, with decreasing arboreal types (including Ana-
cardiaceae, Coccoloba,Psidium-type, Sapindaceae, Chrysophyllum,
Sapotaceae, and Cecropia) and increased and sustained Rhizophora
(Fig. 2).
Four Archaic archaeological sites are known for the Nariva
Swamp area dating no earlier than c. 2890 cal yr BP (Boomert,
2000)(Table S2). Given taphonomic factors especially those
related to sea-level increases and lacking systematic surveys it is
likely that more Archaic sites were present and of greater antiquity
than current archaeological evidence indicates. Microfossil data
from the Nariva Swamp core support such a scenario.
Recently, starch-grain evidence has been identified for cultivars
and other ethnobotanically useful taxa processed by the occupants
Table 2
AMS radiometric dates from cores discussed in the text.
Core location Lab sample number Core/sample depth/material
14
C age (BP)
a
d
13
C(
‰
)2
s
cal date range
b
(BP) Cal median date (BP)
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad Beta-379162 NV08-1, 100e105 cm, PP
c
1750 ±30 26.5 1710e1560 1640
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad Beta-378825 NV08-1, 100e105 cm, OS
c
3220 ±30 27.4 3550e3370 3430
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad Beta-382069 NV08-1, 100e105 cm, OS, alkali insoluble 3260 ±30 27.2 3570e3400 3490
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad Beta-343380 NV08-1, 208e210 cm, PW
c
5900 ±30 25.0 6790e6660 6720
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad AA-82681 NV08-1, 250e251 cm, PW 6160 ±70 30.4 7250e6890 7060
Meadow Beach, Gren AA84798 MB08-1, 215e217 cm, Peat 2880 ±39 27.0 3160e2880 3010
Meadow Beach, Gren AA84799 MB08-1, 330e332 cm, Peat 4420 ±40 30.4 5280e4870 5010
Meadow Beach, Gren AA82678 MB08-1, 492 cm, PW 5270 ±50 31.1 6180e5930 6060
Lake Antoine, Gren Beta-377885 Antoine 12-VII-08-1, 146 cm, PP 1290 ±30 23.2 1290e1180 1240
Lake Antoine, Gren AA91729 Antoine 12-VII-08-3, 311e313 cm, LS
c
2030 ±40 34.2 2110e1890 1980
Lake Antoine, Gren AA91728 Antoine 12-VII-08-6, 611e613 cm, LS 4860 ±45 29.2 5710e5470 5600
Lake Antoine, Gren Beta-377883 Antoine 12-VII-08-7, 700 cm, PP 7340 ±40 28.4 8300e8020 8140
Lake Antoine, Gren AA91730 Antoine 12-VII-08-7, 736e738 cm, LS 8050 ±50 28.6 9090e8730 8930
Baie de Fort-de-France, Martinique AA92562 KC08-1, 229e230 cm, OS 1710 ±30 27.7 1700e1550 1610
Baie de Fort-de-France, Martinique Beta-341060 KC08-1, 575 cm, PP 4420 ±30 25.4 5270e4870 5000
Baie de Fort-de-France, Martinique AA82676 KC08-1, 674e676 cm, OS 5000 ±50 27.3 5890e5620 5740
Pointe Figuier, Martinique AA92561 PF08-1, 128 cm, PW 330 ±35 27.8 480e310 390
Pointe Figuier, Martinique AA82677 PF08-1, 222e223 cm, OS 2600 ±50 29.1 2840e2490 2740
Vieux Fort, MG Beta-379163 VF08-1, 60e65 cm, PP 230 ±30 25.3 420e1
d
260
Vieux Fort, MG Beta-383083 VF08-1, 60e65 cm, OS, alkali insoluble 660 ±30 27.2 670e560 610
Vieux Fort, MG Beta-378827 VF08-1, 60e65 cm, OS 630 ±30 27.0 660e550 600
Vieux Fort, MG AA84800 VF08-1, 205e207 cm, Peat 1980 ±35 26.3 2000e1830 1930
Vieux Fort, MG AA84883 VF08-1, 255e257 cm, OS 2960 ±30 31.2 3210e3010 3120
Vieux Fort, MG AA84884 VF08-1, 414.5 cm, CW
c
4380 ±60 26.7 5280e4840 4960
Vieux Fort, MG AA82675 VF08-1, 655e657 cm, Peat 5730 ±70 27.4 6710e6320 6530
a
1
s
range.
b
IntCal13 of CALIB ver. 7.0 was used to calibrate the dates and to compute the cal median values (Reimer et al., 2013).
c
PW: preserved wood, LS: lake sediment, OS: organic sediment, PP: preserved plant matter, CW: carbonized wood.
d
The most recent 7 percent of the range is suspect due to impingement on the end of the calibration data set.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 281

Fig. 2. Nariva Swamp, Trinidad core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, per cm
3
of sediment. Anthropogenic inputs from the core base include
disturbance indicators of Poaceae, Cecropria, Moraceae, and charcoal microparticulates. Ethnobotanically useful taxa include Fabaceae, Anacardiaceae, Spondias,Coccoloba, Marantaceae, and Sapotaceae.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295282

of St. John, an early Archaic site located near the west coast of
Trinidad (Pag
an-Jim
enez et al., 2015). Starch grains collected from
ground stone artifacts include Ipomoea batatas,Zamia sp., Canna
spp., Marantaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Zea mays, Fabaceae, and
Capsicum spp. Radiocarbon dates associated with the artifacts range
between c. 6980 and 5080 cal yr BP (Pag
an-Jim
enez et al., 2015;
Table S2). These findings provide additional evidence that the
earliest-known occupants of Trinidad were modifying, creating,
and managing landscapes, including the introduction of some plant
domesticates.
The composition and structure of the paleobiotic communities
and the nature of anthropogenic indicators vary by degree between
Nariva Swamp, Trinidad and the Lesser Antillean contexts. A
number of plant taxa were represented in all cores across the
islands (Tables S1 and S3). Percentages of some taxa and concen-
tration values of charcoal particulates co-varied with time, which
may relate to issues of biogeography, climate change, human
colonization of new places, or some combination. Similarities in
anthropogenic patterns reflect already-developed adaptive strate-
gies from mainland South America or Trinidad, or both, which were
applied to new places reflecting a form of dynamic landscape
learning as first colonizers dispersed rapidly through the island
chain.
4.2. Grenada
Grenada is the southernmost island in the Lesser Antilles Vol-
canic Island Arc and is composed of conjoined andesite and basalt
cones and lava domes with the last known activity dating to the
early Holocene (Fig. 1). Despite the island's size of 344 km
2
, only 14
prehistoric sites are documented for the island, all dating to
ceramic-age occupations (post c. 2200 cal yr BP) (Boomert, 2000;
Bullen, 1964).
Two cores provide evidence for earlier human occupations than
what is presently known archaeologically for Grenada (Fig. 1). No
Archaic sites have been documented on the island. A sample from
the base of the Meadow Beach core produced a date of c. 6060 cal yr
BP (AA82678) and is associated with a swamp-forest ecosystem.
Between c. 6060 and 5010 cal yr BP charcoal concentrations were
low (Fig. 3 and Fig. S2). Ethnobotanically useful taxa such as Poa-
ceae, Solanaceae, Arecaceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae, Sapotaceae, and
Spondias formed a significant part of the pollen assemblage during
this early to mid-Holocene era. However, sedimentation rate was
high and pollen concentration values were low during this interval,
raising the possibility that these data record a differentially pre-
served or deposited assemblage (Table S4). In the absence of a clear
charcoal signal indicating human activity and with low pollen
concentrations, we conclude these taxa were part of the natural
vegetative assemblage.
Sustained and elevated charcoal concentration values consistent
with anthropogenic burning activity are bracketed by dates of c.
5010 and 3010 cal yr BP (Fig. 3;Table 2). Sedimentation rate for this
c. 2000-year date range is quite low (Table S4) and this is a period
documented to be among the wettest in Caribbean climate history,
thus it unlikely that the associated high charcoal concentrations
were the result of widespread natural fires (see also Burney et al.,
1994; Siegel et al., 2005). Arecaceae phytolith concentrations
declined significantly above 300 cm, shortly after the onset of large-
scale burning, which may be either a secondary byproduct of
landscape modifications or intentional and intensive harvesting of
palms by newly arrived human colonists, or some combination of
both factors. Restructuring of the local plant community is apparent
by c. 5010 cal yr BP (Fig. 3 and Fig. S2). In the Amazon and Central
America, increased charcoal concentrations have been attributed to
human-induced burning rather than natural fire events (Clement
and Horn, 2001; Horn et al., 2000; Kennedy et al., 2006; Mayle
and Power, 2008; Piperno and Pearsall, 1998). Low charcoal fre-
quencies combined with sparse disturbance indicators have been
interpreted to reflect the absence of human impacts (McMichael
et al., 2012). The 1700 to 2400-year period of human-induced
burning and landscape modifications documented in the Meadow
Beach core most likely represent the impacts of the first colonizers
to Grenada.
An 8.4-m core was collected from Lake Antoine. Unlike Meadow
Beach, the Lake Antoine sequence is dominated by freshwater taxa.
Pollen concentration values were variable but relatively high
throughout the core. Four biozones were identified. Lake sediment
from 737 cm produced an end date of c. 8930 cal yr BP (AA91730)
for the lowest biozone. At that depth total phosphorus value was
extraordinarily high (1000 mg/kg), Moraceae pollen dominated,
and there was a relatively high abundance of herbs and cultigens.
At 700 cm there was a substantial spike in charcoal, major increase
in Arecaceae (palm family with edible fruit), and elevated herb
totals (disturbance indicators) (Fig. 4). This context was dated to c.
8140 cal yr BP (Beta-377883). In the context of regional archae-
ology, the associated radiocarbon dates are too old for these pat-
terns to present early human occupations. We regard the early Lake
Antoine assemblages to be linked to natural disturbances associ-
ated with dry conditions in the early to mid-Holocene. As discussed
earlier, paleoclimate records indicate a period of dry conditions
between approximately 10,000 and 7200 cal yr BP (Curtis et al.,
2001). The charcoal-particulate spike and disturbance indicators
documented in the lowest sections of the core may reflect natural
fire events associated with this xeric period (Banner et al., 1996;
Curtis, 1997; Curtis and Hodell, 1993; Hodell et al., 1991; Leyden,
1985). Periods of arid conditions in the Pacific have been pro-
posed to account for naturally caused fires and elevated charcoal
values documented in paleosediment records in contrast to fires
caused by early human activities (Athens et al., 2004; Hunter-
Anderson, 2009; Prebble and Wilmshurst, 2009). At this stage of
research, evidence is not strong enough to argue for human occu-
pations during the early Holocene on Grenada and pre-dating the
oldest-known occupations elsewhere in the Caribbean.
At 600 cm in the Lake Antoine core there is a major increase in
charcoal inputs followed by sustained concentration values. Sedi-
ment from 612 cm was dated to c. 560 0 cal yr BP (AA91728), placing
that fire event in the middle to early-late Holocene (Table 2).
Associated with this sudden onset and sustained presence of fire
were elevated values of pollen from disturbance indicators
(Cecropia) and pollen and phytoliths of economically useful taxa
(Anacardiaceae, Bursera, Moraceae, Sapotaceae, and Spondias)
(Fig. 4 and S3;Table S1). As with the Meadow Beach core, the
increased and sustained presence of charcoal coincided with a
major decline in Arecaceae (Figs. 3 and 4,Figs. S2 and S3). The
Meadow Beach and Lake Antoine data are consistent regarding the
timing of human-derived disturbances on Grenada no later than c.
5600e5010 cal yr BP, at least 3000 to 3500 years earlier than what
the archaeological record currently indicates for the presence of
humans.
4.3. Martinique
Martinique, located midway along the Lesser Antilles chain and
part of the volcanic island arc, is made up of several volcanic cones
of varying age, one of which, Mt. Pel
ee, has been active throughout
the Holocene (Fig. 1). A 7-m core from a wetland along the Baie de
Fort-de-France produced a near-basal date of c. 5740 cal yr BP
(AA82676, Table 2) and no proxies for anthropogenic inputs at that
time (Fig. 5 and Fig. S4;Table 3). In its entirety, the core sediments
were strongly organic, most of which were 45e70% OM by dry
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 283

Fig. 3. Meadow Beach, Grenada core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, percm
3
of sediment. Charcoal-concentration values spiked and remained
elevated between c. 5010 and 3010 median cal yr BP. Prior to this period of large-scale fires ethnobotanically useful taxa were relativelywell represented, including Poaceae, Solanaceae, Arecaceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae, Sapotaceae, and
Spondias.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295284

Fig. 4. Lake Antoine, Grenada core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, percm
3
of sediment. Anthropogenic inputs from approximately 600 cm include
disturbance indicators of Cecropia and charcoal microparticulates. Ethnobotanically useful taxa include Anacardiaceae, Arecaceae, Moraceae, Sapotaceae, and Spondias. It is possible that the elevated values of charcoal, Arecaceae, and
herb totals at 700 cm also reflect early human activities. However at this stage of research, the associated date of median 8140 cal yr BP is too old and lacking other regional archaeological or paleoenvironmental evidence for early
human occupations we regard the 700-cm assemblage to be linked to natural disturbances associated with dry conditions in the early to mid-Holocene. Cultigens are represented by a minor amount of Zea mays at 175 cm.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 285

weight. The mineral fraction of the core increased notably in the
upper two meters, especially near the surface reflecting changing
land cover and use patterns in the watershed. Rising sea level is
indicated by elevated sediment salinity values and aggradation
between 600 and 450 cm, followed by a period of stabilization, then
slightly more seawater incursion above 200 cm, possibly a product
of instability in the mangrove ecosystem.
The basal zone (625e575 cm) was dominated by Cladium
(sawgrass), other sedges, Byrsonima, Moraceae, and Zanthoxylum.
Red mangrove pollen was present but reduced compared to later
quantities. This assemblage reflects a swamp forest and slightly
brackish environment.
The next zone (575e425 cm) represents a similar environment
with elevated amounts of mangroves and fewer arboreal elements.
Cladium and other sedges remain common. Charcoal values began
to increase in the upper portion of the basal zone by 600 cm along
with increases in pollen concentrations of Poaceae and Cyperaceae,
colonizing taxa associated with open, cleared spaces. One pollen
sample revealed a spike in Sapotaceae, an edible-fruit-bearing tree.
Preserved plant matter from 575 cm was dated to c. 5000 cal yr BP
(Beta-341060, Table 2). Increases in Asteraceae and Cyperaceae
pollen were documented by approximately 500 cm. These herba-
ceous families include weedy invaders of cleared, open areas. The
pollen and charcoal assemblage from this zone may represent an
actively managed anthropogenic landscape. The interpreted signal
of human activity from c. 575e425 cm occurred during the mesic
conditions of the mid-Holocene. Following the earliest evidence of
human intervention in the area, charcoal concentration values
declined to negligible levels, suggesting that human activities in the
local area were minimal although indicators of clearings remained
elevated (Cladium, Cyperaceae, Cecropia). Adequate organic mate-
rial was not available at 425 cm to date the decline in charcoal
concentration values. There is good archaeological evidence for
settlements on the island by c. 2400 BP (Bright, 2011).
A core from the Pointe Figuier wetland along the south coast
displayed nearly continuous elevated Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, Mor-
aceae, Myrtaceae, Poaceae, Brysonima (base of core), and charcoal
concentration values from c. 2740 cal yr BP (AA82677) through
historic occupations, indicating again the presence of humans
during the Late Archaic (late middle Holocene) and later (Fig. 6 and
Fig. S5;Table 2). Coarse sand in the lower part of the core is
composed chiefly of pulverized coral and marine shells. Prior to c.
2600 cal yr BP, the coring location was either closer to the shoreline
or more open to the ocean, possibly a tidal flat before aggradation.
Fig. 5. Baie de Fort-de-France, Martinique core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, per cm
3
of sediment. Anthropogenic inputs between 575 and 425 cm
include disturbance indicators of Cladium, Poaceae, Moraceae, Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, and charcoal microparticulates.
Table 3
Earliest available Archaic single radiocarbon dates per island from the Lesser
Antilles/southern Caribbean associated with archaeological deposits or sediments
with evidence of human activities in order from oldest to most recent.
Island/location (source of information) 2
s
cal. age
range
Cal.
median
year
a
Trinidad/Banwari Trace site (Boomert, 2000) 8170e7850 BP 8000 BP
Barbuda/Strombus line (Watters et al., 1992) 6150e5650 BP 5890 BP
Grenada/Lake Antoine (current project) 5710e5470 BP 5600 BP
Tobago/Milford 1 site (Boomert, 2000) 5380e5030 BP 5200 BP
St. Martin/Etang Rouge 3 site (Bonnissent, 2009) 5290e5020 BP 5160 BP
Curaçao/Rooi Rincon site (Haviser, 1987) 5310e4890 BP 5150 BP
Antigua/Birgits site (de Mille, 2011; Nodine, 1990) 5280e4980 BP 5140 BP
Martinique/Baie de F-de-F (current project) 5270e4870 BP 5000 BP
Marie-Galante/Vieux Fort (current project) 5280e4840 BP 4960 BP
Barbados/Heywoods site (Fitzpatrick, 2011) 4690e4410 BP 4540 BP
Anguilla/Whitehead’s Bluff site (Crock et al., 1995) 3665e3405 BP 3530 BP
Saba/Plum Piece site (Hofman and Hoogland, 2003) 3585e3410 BP 3510 BP
St. Croix/Coakley Bay (current project) 3160e2950 BP 3030 BP
a
CALIB 7.0 (Reimer et al., 2013) was used to calibrate the dates and compute the
cal median values.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295286

Proximity to the shoreline is reflected in elevated sodium levels in
the lower strata. A stratigraphic break at 162 cm most likely reflects
a scouring event and truncation of sedimentation. The composition
of sediments, including terrestrial gravels and other large clasts
above the unconformity suggests that the scouring event was fluvial
in nature. The most likely scenario is a major storm and consequent
flooding. The position of Anse Figuier in a small embayment on the
south coast of Martinique could have made it particularly vulner-
able to hurricanes. Storms may have also reconfigured coastal bars
and beaches isolating the coring location from the coast as reflected
in decreasing sodium levels in the sediments.
Two possible Archaic sites (Boutbois, Godinot) have been
identified in northern Martinique (Allaire and Mattioni, 1983). On
reexamination these sites may or may not be of Archaic age; they
may be special-purpose aceramic sites dating to the ceramic age,
although the lithic assemblages from the two sites are similar in
character to Archaic sites documented on Trinidad (B
erard, 2006a,
2006b; Boomert, 2000). Charcoal collected from Boutbois produced
a date range of 1700e1320 cal yr BP (2
s
), clearly postdating the
Archaic age (B
erard, 2006b). The best evidence for early human
activities on Martinique comes from the Baie de Fort-de-France
core, considerably earlier than current archaeological data from
the island.
4.4. Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe)
Marie-Galante is situated along the forearc of the Lesser Antilles
subduction zone, a mainly submarine ridge of uplifted seafloor; the
island is composed of uplifted Pliocene to Holocene-age coral
limestone reef structures of generally very low relief (Fig. 1). A
nearly 7-m core collected from a wetland along Riviere du Vieux
Fort produced a basal date of c. 6530 cal yr BP (AA82675, Table 2).
At that time, mean sea level was approximately 2 m lower than
today and was slowly rising. High Na and S levels and OM preser-
vation in the basal sediments reflect a stable, brackish, moderately
high saline mangrove-forest habitat. Disturbance-indicating vege-
tation is reduced and particulate charcoal is almost wholly lacking
in all samples from this basal zone, representing a non-
anthropogenic landscape (Fig. 7;Table 3).
With rising sea levels the red mangrove environment was
destabilized reflected by sandy, shell-rich deposits beginning at
464 cm. Superadjacent sediments indicate a nearer-to-shore
lagoonal environment with frequent bands of biogenic marls and
increased salinity. A high concentration of mollusk shells between
464 and 440 cm is indicative of the die-off of species present in
formerly stable mangroves. The marl layers are a product of
autochthonous biogenic sediments forming either within algal
mats or via pelletization during episodes of Ca supersaturation
within stagnant backwater contexts. Clay strata were deposited
during still-water episodes. Periods of marl and clay precipitation
were interrupted by development of organic strata, reflecting
resurgence of mangrove forest in the area. Concentrations of Ner-
itina shells with evidence of in situ predation at 396e398 cm also
indicate a period of brackish mangrove habitat stabilization.
Beginning at 400 cm, dramatic and sustained increases in par-
ticulate charcoal concentrations were documented (Fig. 7;Table 1).
This period of elevated charcoal concentrations was bracketed by
the dates of c. 4960 and 3120 cal yr BP, which is associated with the
mid-Holocene period of wet conditions in the Caribbean (Table 2).
Pollen concentration values for invasive weedy and economically
useful taxa increased at this time. Disturbance-indicator taxa
included Asteraceae, Poaceae, Cyperaceae, and Cecropia. With the
clearing of local forests plants of economic value were selectively
spared and encouraged, resulting in what were previously low
pollen concentrations with higher values. Economically useful
Fig. 6. Pointe Figuier, Martinique core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, per cm
3
of sediment. Anthropogenic inputs from the core base include Canna,
Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae, Poaceae, Brysonima, and charcoal microparticulates. Elsewhere in the Neotropics, Canna has been documented to be a cultivar and propagated for its edible roots (Gade, 1966; Piperno and
Pearsall, 1998).
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 287

Fig. 7. Vieux Fort, Marie-Galante core pollen-percentage diagram. Pollen and charcoal concentrations are expressed as grains and fragments, respectively, per cm
3
of sediment. Landscape transformations are evident from 400 cm, with
disturbance indicators including Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Cecropia, and charcoal microparticulates. Ethnobotanically useful taxa include Arecaceae and Sapotaceae. The structure of the mangrove community changed
dramatically with the near-disappearance of Rhizophora and replaced by Combretaceae.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295288

plant taxa included Arecaceae (palm family) and Sapotaceae (Sa-
pote family). It is not clear what accounts for the replacement of the
Rhizophora (red) by the Combretaceae (white) mangrove commu-
nities, although evidence of rising sea level by 464 cm may be
linked to the reduction in red mangrove at about 410 cm. Major
increases in charcoal concentration values beginning at 400 cm
may or may not be related to the shift in mangrove communities.
Red mangrove has been documented to be a superior fuel wood
(Morton, 1965) however its' diminished presence in the Marie-
Galante pollen record predates by an unknown number of years
the significant increase in probable anthropogenic fires. The char-
coal and pollen data reflect a human-modified if not actively
managed landscape by c. 5000 cal yr BP, considerably earlier than
archaeological evidence for human occupations on Marie-Galante.
4.5. Summary
Paleoenvironmental data collected from a core in Nariva Swamp,
Trinidad indicate that humans were modifying and perhaps man-
aging landscapes in that region nearly 2000 cal yr before initial
colonization of the Lesser Antilles. Certainly floristic communities
in many of the Lesser Antillean islands were recognizable to the
first colonists, clearly attested to by the many similarities in plant
taxa documented in the pollen and phytolith data (Tables S1 and
S3). The landscape-learning curve was not demonstrably steep for
pioneering groups entering the islands for the first time.
Data collected from cores on Grenada, Martinique, and Marie-
Galante are consistent in the timing of initial human colonization
approximately 5000 cal yr BP, although a date from the Lake
Antoine, Grenada core suggests human presence as early as c.
5600 cal yr BP. Evidence from this mid-Holocene era consists of
considerable and sustained increases in charcoal particulates and
shifts in pollen and phytolith spectra related to plants representing
disturbances or perturbations to landscapes and increases in
economically useful taxa. These data represent initial human oc-
cupations of the islands, whereby landscapes were modified and
eventually managed.
From the perspective of landscape ecology, human-derived
perturbations created greater heterogeneity in ecosystem struc-
ture than what was present prior to colonization. Native econom-
ically useful plants most likely were nurtured in managed
landscapes as first colonists created places recognizable to them as
home. In this regard, newly occupied and modified places were
manifestations of transported landscapes, not in the sense of
physically bringing in new species from elsewhere but in a cogni-
tive and behavioral sense; knowledge of and lifeways practiced in
their previous homelands were drawn upon in the colonization and
humanization of landscapes (Thomas, 2008).
5. Revised understanding of Caribbean island colonization
A large suite of
14
C dates is now available from Trinidad and
Tobago, the southern Caribbean, and the Lesser Antilles falling
within the range of early to middle Holocene (Archaic) occupations
in the Caribbean and which are associated with archaeological
deposits or anthropogenic landscapes (Table S2). Contrary to recent
suggestions for a minimal to non-existent presence of Archaic oc-
cupations in the islands south of the Guadeloupe Passage
(Callaghan, 2010) it is clear that humans were well-established in
the southern Lesser Antilles during that time. If Archaic inhabitants
were coastally oriented and sea level is 2e4 m higher today than
4000 to 5000 years ago it is likely that many of those early sites are
now inundated.
The dates associated with Archaic archaeological sites or
anthropogenic landscapes are ordered from oldest to most recent
and as a group represent latest possible dates of initial colonization
(Table S2). At 2
s
, most dates overlap with each of the two adjacent
dates. There is a general geographic progression from south to north
in the distribution of the oldest dates on each island (Fig. 8;Table 3).
Trinidad was the earliest occupied island based on dates from the
Banwari Trace and St. Johns sites and anthropogenic contexts in
Nariva Swamp. If the remaining dates reflect general colonization
rates of the islands then there is a significant temporal gap or
occupational pause between Trinidad and Grenada. Geologically
and culturally Trinidad and northern South America are connected
(Bellizzia and Dengo, 1990; Boomert, 2000). Boomert (2013) sug-
gested that hunters and foragers may have occupied Trinidad by
approximately 10,000 BP before sea-level increases created the is-
land, although there is no solid archaeological or paleoecological
evidence for a human presence on Trinidad at that time.
It is unlikely coincidental that there is a temporal gap of at least
2500 to 3000 years between the earliest evidence of human ac-
tivities on Trinidad and Grenada and that the shortest straight-line
distance between the two islands is about 140 km, considerably
longer than interisland distances amongst any of the Windward
Islands except for Barbados (Bright, 2011). It is impossible to say
with any certainty what the push or pull factors were that
prompted the first individuals by c. 5600 cal yr BP (dates from the
Grenada cores) to embark on the 140-km journey from either Tri-
nidad or the north coast of Venezuela. Overcrowding or inadequate
food or other resources were unlikely push factors, especially
during that era of low population densities based on available site
distribution data (Boomert, 2000). Without resorting to notions of
aimless drift, accidental voyaging, or random walking perhaps
terms other than “push”or “pull”might better characterize some
instances of exploration and colonization of new places. People did
move into the islands beyond Trinidad and at the moment we do
not know why.
By approximately 5600 cal yr BP, Grenada and many if not all of
the remaining islands in the Lesser Antilles up to Antigua were
being investigated, if not settled. Therefore, following the long
pause between Trinidad and Grenada, human dispersal through the
eastern Caribbean was rapid. Similar colonization patterns have
been documented in the Pacific, whereby Near Oceania (island
groups proximate to New Guinea and Australia) was settled first
followed by a long pause before the westernmost islands of Remote
Oceania were colonized. Of course, distances between islands or
island groups of the Caribbean and the Pacific are markedly
different; compare 140 km between Trinidad and Grenada to
380 km between Santa Anna of eastern Near Oceania and the Santa
Cruz islands of western Remote Oceania and then 800 km between
Vanuatu and Fiji within Remote Oceania (Kirch, 2010a). However,
the colonization process seems to be the same for the Caribbean
and Oceania: pulse between mainland and nearest islands/island
groups, pause between islands/island groups separated by great
expanses of water, followed by additional pulse(s) and rapid
expansion (Terrell, 2011; Wilmshurst et al., 2011).
Alternative explanations may account for high percentages of
disturbance indicators in many of our core samples dating to the
mid-Holocene. Brief forays or scouting investigations may result in
sufficiently modified landscapes to produce shifts in the microfossil
spectra. Optionally, some landscapes were visited and prepared for
later use without being occupied. The paucity of Archaic archaeo-
logical sites in some cases could be linked to the practice of land
preparation without occupation. However, a single human-
generated conflagration followed by departure of the people
without returning would be difficult if not impossible to distinguish
from a natural fire event because of the spike in microfossil in-
dicators of disturbance without sustained elevated percentages of
those microfossils.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 289

Bal
ee and Erickson (2006, p. 1) observed “wherever humans
have trodden, the natural environment is somehow different,
sometimes in barely perceptible ways, sometimes in dramatic
ways.”Environmental differences, or perturbations, are discernible
given appropriate recovery and analytical techniques. We docu-
mented anthropogenic landscapes at times when and places where
archaeologists traditionally have assumed humans were not pre-
sent (Burney,1997a,1997b; Jones, 1994; Neff et al., 2006; Pohl et al.,
1996).
The effects of human actions may be more apparent or dramatic
in island ecosystems than elsewhere because of their circumscribed
relatively isolated geographies (Kirch, 1997). In terms of island
historical ecology, the Pacific has been the focus of the most wide-
ranging and detailed studies (Athens et al., 2002, 2014; Kirch, 1996;
Kirch and Hunt, 1997; Vitousek et al., 2004). For the Caribbean,
Fitzpatrick and Keegan (2007) observed that the earliest occupants
of the islands must have impacted them through land clearing
probably through the use of fire. As documented in the present
study, fire seems to have been the tool of choice in modifying and
eventually managing Caribbean landscapes for millennia. More
generally, Foley et al. (2014, p. 85) suggested that from earliest
human history fires “may have caused the first appreciable
anthropogenic effects on ecology.”
Data from the current project suggest blended strategies of
scouting, initial colonization, population infilling, abandonment,
and re-occupation as a continuous process throughout the full
range of human history in the Caribbean. Concerning initial island
colonization, reliance on standard archaeological data from exca-
vated sites is not sufficient. Archaeological surveys and excavations
should be combined with sediment data collected from judiciously
selected settings for the potential of containing preserved micro-
fossils indicative of human-derived disturbances or modifications
to paleolandscapes.
In a number of cores, disturbance indicators and attendant
economically useful plant taxa were documented early in the Ho-
locene followed by the absence or considerably diminished pres-
ence of disturbance indicators but continued presence of
economically useful taxa. As landscape ecologist Monica Turner
remarked, “All landscapes have a history [and that] …disturbances
can also leave legacies that persist for decades to centuries”(Turner,
2005, p. 321). And as historical ecologist William Bal
ee observed,
“intermediate disturbance may have lasting legacies …in terms of
redefining vegetation patterns”(Bal
ee, 2006, p. 78).
From the perspective of island biogeography and human colo-
nization history in the Caribbean, ideas developed by Rouse (1986,
1992) need to be revisited. Rouse introduced, modified, and refined
Fig. 8. Map of the eastern Caribbean showing the earliest calibrated median radiocarbon dates associated with archaeological deposits or anthropogenic landscapes.
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295290

ideas about multiple colonization events of the islands and sub-
sequent cultural developments. In addressing the early ceramic-age
or Saladoid occupations from the Orinoco Valley through Puerto
Rico, c. 2500 cal yr BP, Rouse documented a series of cultural
complexes purportedly older in Venezuela and successively
younger moving through the eastern Caribbean. He developed and
refined the stepping-stone model of island colonization during the
early ceramic age, arguing that groups of horticulturalists targeted
high volcanic islands and bypassed low islands lacking large forests
(Rouse, 1992). Some archaeologists have refuted the stepping-stone
model, arguing that evidence to date indicates the earliest ceramic-
age colonists jumped directly from South America to the northern
Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico (Fitzpatrick, 2013; Fitzpatrick et al.,
2010; Keegan, 2010).
Based on dated anthropogenic landscapes identified in the
current study and previously reported
14
C dates from Archaic sites,
we propose that the stepping-stone model applies also to the initial
colonization of the eastern Caribbean (Fig. 8;Tables 3 and S2). One
might view the old dates from Antigua and Barbuda and St. Martin
as contradicting this argument. As discussed earlier,there were two
independent entry routes for the earliest colonization of the West
Indies: the Yucat
an Peninsula from the north and northern South
America from the south.
The core-and-blade technology documented in many of the
Archaic sites on Antigua culturally links these assemblages to the
groups in the Greater Antilles and ultimately to the Yucat
an (Davis,
1993, 2000). Old dates associated with Archaic sites on Antigua and
Barbuda and St. Martin should be considered along with contem-
poraneous and older dates from Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba
(Wilson, 2007, Fig. 2.6). When Archaic occupations on Antigua and
Barbuda and St. Martin are grouped with those from the Greater
Antilles and Yucat
an then the stepping-stone model makes sense
for first colonization of the eastern Caribbean from northern South
America and Trinidad.
6. Island historical ecology, paleolandscapes, and first
colonization
Pollen and phytolith data presented in this paper reveal tropical
island paleolandscapes teeming with a diverse range of plant taxa,
as most humid-tropical landscapes do that are not separated by
hundreds of kilometers from other islands intimately linked to
mainland areas (Fritsch and McDowell, 2003; Kirch, 2010a, b).
Except for Nariva Swamp on Trinidad and Pointe Figuier on
Martinique, all cores bottomed out in contexts that pre-dated hu-
man colonization. As such, we were afforded opportunities to
document directly the effects of initial island colonization on local
landscapes. In no cases did we identify extirpation of existing or
introductions of new plant taxa with the first arrivals of humans. To
be sure, major shifts were identified in some of the microfossil
spectra reflecting changes in the organization of associated floristic
communities.
In total, these data reveal important aspects of the humanizing
process of natural landscapes. There is no evidence that first colo-
nists introduced new cultigens or exotic plants in general. Yet
coming out of Trinidad or northern South America these newest
arrivals to the islands brought their foraging, collecting, and
hunting lifestyles with them, along with preconceived notions for
how their new landscapes should be structured. Landscapes in
many of the islands were broadly recognizable and comparable to
ones from their homelands.
In terms of colonization processes and issues of landscape
learning, we argue that initial humanization of new places is linked
directly to broad-spectrum subsistence adaptations. Boomert
(2000) made this point in regard to the foraging, collecting,
fishing, and hunting strategies of the earliest occupants of Trinidad,
c. 8000 cal yr BP, which were related to the same lifestyles of their
ancestors in the marshlands of northeastern South America and
coastal Central America. Regarding first colonization of the Amer-
icas, Paleo-Indians were traditionally linked to a focal subsistence
economy specialized to big-game hunting (Martin, 1984; Mason,
1962; Waguespack and Surovell, 2003). This view may have been
skewed by preservational bias in the form of spectacular lithic as-
semblages and faunal remains of large animals. Older excavations
that did not employ fine-sieving techniques and flotation rein-
forced such conceptions. With the use of more-rigorous recovery
methods it now appears that the earliest colonists to the Americas
relied on a broad range of plant and animal resources depending on
characteristics of local habitats (e.g., Byers and Ugan, 2005; Cannon
and Meitzer, 2004; Fiedel, 2000). The broad-spectrum subsistence
adaptation, linked to specific characteristics and taxonomic di-
versity of local habitats, may be thought of as a form of some mix of
opportunistic foraging, collecting, hunting, and fishing (Gingerich,
2011).
More relevant comparisons for the current investigation relate
to other island contexts. When appropriate recovery and analytical
methods were employed, the oldest-known Pleistocene sites in the
Bismarck and Solomon islands of the Pacific revealed subsistence
strategies based on a broad range of terrestrial and marine re-
sources, including plants and animals (Kirch, 2000; Leavesley,
2006; Loy et al., 1992). Similar observations concerning diverse
resource sets have been made for Neolithic and pre-Neolithic or
Epipaleolithic occupations in the Mediterranean (Knapp, 2010;
Phoca-Cosmetatou, 2011).
Addressing the first Mediterranean islanders, Dawson (2011)
observed that colonization does not necessarily equate to full-
blown settlement. Instead, the term “colonization”subsumes a
range of non-mutually exclusive occupational strategies, including
temporally and spatially narrow visitations linked to the activities
of small scouting parties (Cherry, 1990; Dawson, 2011). Similar to
the Caribbean Saladoid, considerably more Early and Middle
Neolithic sites are documented in the Mediterranean than earlier
ones, although Dawson (2011) noted that with ongoing research
there is increasingly more evidence for pre-Neolithic occupations.
With systematic paleoenvironmental studies, the view of the pre-
Neolithic presence across the Mediterranean islands no doubt
will be considerably modified to take into consideration the po-
tential for small but perhaps widespread and numerous scouting
and colonizing parties, resulting in anthropogenic landscapes that
had fundamental implications for later Neolithic communities.
7. Final comments
First colonization of new landscapes, especially in the context of
archipelagos, was by small groups of people difficult to identify
archaeologically. Once people ventured into the frame of the island
world they traveled quickly, following a mix of strategies including
scouting-and-moving on or scouting-and-settling. Alternative
colonizing strategies result in somewhat different trajectories of
landscape modification and management. Once people occupied or
even subtly modified a natural habitat, the legacy of human history
has been inscribed into the landscape. Later groups of different
people or descendants of the original colonists will make yet
additional modifications and so on through time, so that by today
the landscape contains a cumulative record of anthropogenic
history.
In this investigation of Caribbean paleolandscapes and island
colonization, it is clear that people were moving into places
comfortably if only broadly recognizable to them in terms of
floristic communities. Yet the scale of the Caribbean archipelago is
P.E. Siegel et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 129 (2015) 275e295 291

considerably different than others in the world. The x,ylinear
distances of c. 11,600 km by 8600 km approximate the geographic
extent of Oceania, which dwarf the distances of c. 2900 km by
1600 km in the Caribbean (Kirch, 2000, Map 1; Wilson, 2007,
Fig. 1.1). With such differences in geographic magnitude, there will
be wide variation in colonization rates, pushepull factors, and de-
grees of landscape familiarity and resulting trajectories of land-
scape engagements.
To identify variable trajectories of landscape engagements,
research must be explicitly interdisciplinary, incorporating the
expertise and perspectives of archaeologists, geographers, soil
scientists, ethnobiologists, paleoecologists, and climate scientists.
In so doing, understanding will be furthered concerning interre-
lated domains of island or continental survival strategies including
colonization patterns, modifications of and adjustments to varying
landscapes, and the continuum between environmental degrada-
tion and sustainability. The successes of these kinds of studies hinge
on carefully considered, systematic, and fine-grained data-collect-
ing protocols; close collaboration among disciplinary specialists;
and willingness to consider alternative perspectives as research
progresses. Systematic paleoenvironmental investigations are
crucial to continue in archipelago settings, especially to fill out
topographic and geographic variability. As the effects of modern
climate change, sea-level rise, economic development, and glob-
alization continue it is essential that these kinds of studies be
conducted in a timely manner. Otherwise, the settings that contain
preserved proxies of paleoenvironments and past human activities
will be gone before we know about them.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by two grants from the National
Science Foundation (Grants BCS-0718819 and BCS-0818372) and
one grant from the National Geographic Society (Grant 8438-08)
awarded to Peter Siegel. The Antoinette C. Bigel Endowment fund in
the anthropology department at Montclair State University pro-
vided support for a student to participate in one round of fieldwork.
The Dean's office in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at
Montclair State University provided a subvention for shipping of
field equipment. The School for Advanced Research awarded Siegel
a Research Team Short Seminar grant to convene the team in Santa
Fe, New Mexico to discuss implications of the research results.
Kathryn Carlson from the Department of Geography at the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, Duluth prepared Figs. 1 and 8. Comments
from Arie Boomert, Gary Feinman, Christine Hastorf, Samuel Wil-
son, and journal reviewers substantially improved the paper. A
Leiden University Faculty of Archaeology fellowship afforded Siegel
the necessary time to concentrate on the paper. Siegel thanks in
particular Professor Corinne Hofman, Dean of the Leiden Faculty of
Archaeology, for that opportunity.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.014.
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