Human arrival and landscape dynamics in the northern Bahamas

Abstract

The first Caribbean settlers were Amerindians from South America. Great Abaco and Grand Bahama, the final islands colonized in the northernmost Bahamas, were inhabited by the Lucayans when Europeans arrived. The timing of Lucayan arrival in the northern Bahamas has been uncertain because direct archaeological evidence is limited. We document Lucayan arrival on Great Abaco Island through a detailed record of vegetation, fire, and landscape dynamics based on proxy data from Blackwood Sinkhole. From about 3,000 to 1,000 y ago, forests dominated by hardwoods and palms were resilient to the effects of hurricanes and cooling sea surface temperatures. The arrival of Lucayans by about 830 CE (2σ range: 720 to 920 CE) is demarcated by increased burning and followed by landscape disturbance and a time-transgressive shift from hardwoods and palms to the modern pine forest. Considering that Lucayan settlements in the southern Bahamian archipelago are dated to about 750 CE (2σ range: 600 to 900 CE), these results demonstrate that Lucayans spread rapidly through the archipelago in less than 100 y. Although precontact landscapes would have been influenced by storms and climatic trends, the most pronounced changes follow more directly from landscape burning and ecosystem shifts after Lucayan arrival. The pine forests of Abaco declined substantially between 1500 and 1670 CE, a period of increased regional hurricane activity, coupled with fires on an already human-impacted landscape. Any future intensification of hurricane activity in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean threatens the sustainability of modern pine forests in the northern Bahamas.

Sedimentary Accumulation of Black Carbon on the East Coast of The United States

“…Continental and maritime sources contributed BC to the sediment cores, especially NC, which was enriched in δ 13 C ratio representing C3 plant and fossil fuels (Bush et al, 2007), while the OC fraction indicated a marine origin. Meanwhile, the average BC δ 13 C values at FS sites seemingly emphasized marine sources but could reflect a combination of C 3 plants (Fall et al, 2021) and fossil derived (i.e., oil) marine sources (Wozniak et al, 2012). Wagner et al (2019) suggested that the δ 13 C signatures can undergo changes during photolytic exposures and other processes including sorption/desorption during delivery to the bottom sediment, though particulate BC is considered to be recalcitrant.…”

A population history of indigenousBahamianislanders: Insights from ancientDNA

“…Our findings indicate a rapid migration of persons into and within the Bahamian archipelago (Fall et al, 2021;Keegan, 2010), most likely from Hispaniola. This is evident in the distribution of mtDNA haplogroups, which illustrates that the oldest haplogroup, B2, is found primarily in the northernmost islands.…”

“…Haplogroup B2 is rare (>2%) across ancient Caribbean samples and modern Caribbean peoples in contrast to A2 and C1 (>20% in some Greater Antilles) (Paulino‐Ramirez et al, 2019; Vilar et al, 2014). The dominance and widespread geography of B2 lineages in the Northwest Bahamas shows that population expansion across the entire archipelago occurred rapidly, and that there was not a single propagule but waves of migration from a coherent homeland over a period of perhaps a century (see Fall et al, 2021). Genetic relationships with Hispaniola, and to a lesser degree Puerto Rico, also demonstrate that the Bahamian archipelago likely had stronger influences from Hispaniola than from any other place.…”

Unique Lucayan sand dune burials at the Rolling Heads site, Long Island, The Bahamas

“…In addition, there was sufficient genetic substructure to distinguish a subclade comprised of individuals from The Bahamas and Ceramic Age Cuba whose homeland is traced to Hispaniola. All of the islands were settled at a rapid rate, possibly in less than a century (Fall et al, 2021). A 3D morphometric study, which included the three complete crania (B1, B3, & B4) from this study and others from The Bahamas, revealed that the facial morphology of the Lucayans clustered with individuals from Hispaniola and Jamaica and were significantly different from Puerto Rico and Archaic Age Cuba (Ross et al, 2020).…”