Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:45:41.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iron Age landscape changes in the Benoué River Valley, Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2019

David K. Wright Open the ORCID record for David K. Wright [Opens in a new window] ,
Scott MacEachern ,
Stanley H. Ambrose ,
Jungyu Choi ,
Jeong-Heon Choi ,
Carol Lang  and
Hong Wang
David K. Wright*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, N-0315 Oslo, Norway State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710061, China
Scott MacEachern
Affiliation:
Division of Social Science, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, 215316, China
Stanley H. Ambrose
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA
Jungyu Choi
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, N-0315 Oslo, Norway
Jeong-Heon Choi
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea Basic Science Institute, Chungbuk, 28119, South Korea
Carol Lang
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, YO1 7EP, United Kingdom
Hong Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710061, China Interdisciplinary Research Center of Earth Science Frontier, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
*
*Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] (D.K. Wright).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The introduction of agriculture is known to have profoundly affected the ecological complexion of landscapes. In this study, a rapid transition from C3 to C4 vegetation is inferred from a shift to higher stable carbon (13C/12C) isotope ratios of soils and sediments in the Benoué River Valley and upland Fali Mountains in northern Cameroon. Landscape change is viewed from the perspective of two settlement mounds and adjacent floodplains, as well as a rock terrace agricultural field dating from 1100 cal yr BP to the recent past (<400 cal yr BP). Nitrogen (15N/14N) isotope ratios and soil micromorphology demonstrate variable uses of land adjacent to the mound sites. These results indicate that Early Iron Age settlement practices involved exploitation of C3 plants on soils with low δ15N values, indicating wetter soils. Conversely, from the Late Iron Age (>700 cal yr BP) until recent times, high soil and sediment δ13C and δ15N values reflect more C4 biomass and anthropogenic organic matter in open, dry environments. The results suggest that Iron Age settlement practices profoundly changed landscapes in this part of West Africa through land clearance and/or utilization of C4 plants.

Keywords

HoloceneSavannaWest AfricaAgricultureAnthropogenic soilsNiche constructionSoil carbonNitrogen isotopes
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , September 2019 , pp. 323 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ackermann, O., Greenbaum, N., Bruins, H., Porat, N., Bar-Matthews, M., Almogi-Labin, A., Schilman, B., et al. , 2014. Palaeoenvironment and anthropogenic activity in the southeastern Mediterranean since the mid-Holocene: the case of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel. Quaternary International 328–329, 226–243.10.1016/j.quaint.2014.02.016Google Scholar
Aitken, M.J., 1998. An Introduction to Optical Dating: The Dating of Quaternary Sediments by the Use of Photon-Stimulated Luminescence. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H., 1991. Effects of diet, climate and physiology on nitrogen isotope abundances in terrestrial foodwebs. Journal of Archaeological Science 18, 293–317.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H., 2010. Coevolution of composite-tool technology, constructive memory, and language: implications for the evolution of modern human behavior. Current Anthropology 51, S135–S147.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H., Sikes, N.E., 1991. Soil carbon isotope evidence for Holocene habitat change in the Kenya Rift Valley. Science 253, 1402–1405.Google Scholar
Armitage, S.J., Bristow, C.S., Drake, N.A., 2015. West African monsoon dynamics inferred from abrupt fluctuations of Lake Mega-Chad. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 8543–8548.10.1073/pnas.1417655112Google Scholar
Bayon, G., Dennielou, B., Etoubleau, J., Ponzevera, E., Toucanne, S., Bermell, S., 2012. Intensifying weathering and land use in Iron Age Central Africa. Science 335, 1219–1222.Google Scholar
Boivin, N.L., Zeder, M.A., Fuller, D.Q., Crowther, A., Larson, G., Erlandson, J.M., Denham, T., Petraglia, M.D., 2016. Ecological consequences of human niche construction: examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113, 6388–6396.Google Scholar
Bostoen, K., Clist, B., Doumenge, C., Grollemund, R., Hombert, J.-M., Muluwa, J.K., Maley, J., 2015. Middle to Late Holocene paleoclimatic change and the early Bantu expansion in the rain forests of western Central Africa. Current Anthropology 56, 354–384.Google Scholar
Bullock, P., Federoff, N., Jongerius, A., Stoops, G., Turina, T., Babel, U., 1985. Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description. Waine Research Publications, Wolverhampton.Google Scholar
Clist, B., Bostoen, K., de Maret, P., Eggert, M.K.H., Höhn, A., Mbida Mindzié, C., Neumann, K., Seidensticker, D., 2018. Did human activity really trigger the late Holocene rainforest crisis in Central Africa? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, E4733.Google Scholar
Commisso, R.G., Nelson, D.E., 2006. Modern plant δ15N values reflect ancient human activity. Journal of Archaeological Science 33, 1167–1176.Google Scholar
Crowther, A., Prendergast, M.E., Fuller, D.Q., Boivin, N., 2018. Subsistence mosaics, forager-farmer interactions, and the transition to food production in eastern Africa. Quaternary International 489, 101–120.Google Scholar
David, N., 1968. Archaeological reconnaissance in Cameroon. Expedition 10, 21–31.Google Scholar
David, N., 1981. The archaeological background of Cameroonian history. In: Tardits, C. (Ed.), Contribution de la recherche ethnologique a l'histoire des civilisations du Camerouns. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Editions du CNRS, Paris, pp. 79–98.Google Scholar
Delègue, M.-A., Fuhr, M., Schwartz, D., Mariotti, A., Nasi, R., 2001. Recent origin of a large part of the forest cover in the Gabon coastal area based on stable carbon isotope data. Oecologia 129, 106–113.10.1007/s004420100696Google Scholar
Foley, S.F., Gronenborn, D., Andreae, M.O., Kadereit, J.W., Esper, J., Scholz, D., Pöschl, U., et al. , 2013. The Palaeoanthropocene—the beginnings of anthropogenic environmental change. Anthropocene 3, 83–88.10.1016/j.ancene.2013.11.002Google Scholar
Galbraith, R.F., Roberts, R.G., 2012. Statistical aspects of equivalent dose and error calculation and display in OSL dating: an overview and some recommendations. Quaternary Geochronology 11, 1–27.10.1016/j.quageo.2012.04.020Google Scholar
Galbraith, R.F., Roberts, R.G., Laslett, G.M., Yoshida, H., Olley, J.M., 1999. Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jinmium rock shelter, northern Australia: part I, experimental design and statistical models. Archaeometry 41, 339–364.Google Scholar
Garcin, Y., Deschamps, P., Ménot, G., de Saulieu, G., Schefuß, E., Sebag, D., Dupont, L.M., et al. , 2018. Early anthropogenic impact on Western Central African rainforests 2,600 y ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, 3261–3266.10.1073/pnas.1715336115Google Scholar
Gonné, B., 2010. Karal land: family cultural patrimony or a commercialized product on the Diamaré Plain. In: Anseeuw, W., Alden, C. (Eds.), The Struggle Over Land in Africa. Conflicts, Politics and Change. Human Sciences Research Council Press, Cape Town, pp. 71–82.Google Scholar
Grollemund, R., Branford, S., Bostoen, K., Meade, A., Venditti, C., Pagel, M., 2015. Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 13296–13301.Google Scholar
Högberg, P., 1997. Tansley Review No. 95: 15N natural abundance in soil-plant systems. New Phytologist 137, 179–203.10.1046/j.1469-8137.1997.00808.xGoogle Scholar
Jackson, A.L., Inger, R., Parnell, A.C., Bearhop, S., 2011. Comparing isotopic niche widths among and within communities: SIBER – Stable Isotope Bayesian Ellipses in R. Journal of Animal Ecology 80, 595–602.10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01806.xGoogle Scholar
Kahlheber, S., Neumann, K., 2007. The development of plant cultivation in semi-arid West Africa. In: Denham, T.P., Iriarte, J., Vrydaghs, L. (Eds.), Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California, pp. 320–346.Google Scholar
Kay, A.U., Kaplan, J.O., 2015. Human subsistence and land use in sub-Saharan Africa, 1000 BC to AD 1500: a review, quantification, and classification. Anthropocene 9, 14–32.Google Scholar
Kenga, R., Njoya, A., M'biandoum, M., 2005. Analysis of constraints to agricultural production in the Sudano Savanna zone of Cameroon and implication for research priority setting. Tropicultura 23, 91–99.Google Scholar
Killick, D., 2015. Invention and innovation in African iron-smelting technologies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 25, 307–319.Google Scholar
Kim, S.-T., Coplen, T.B., Horita, J., 2015. Normalization of stable isotope data for carbonate minerals: implementation of IUPAC guidelines. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 158, 276–289.Google Scholar
Kohn, M.J., 2010. Carbon isotope compositions of terrestrial C3 plants as indicators of (paleo)ecology and (paleo)climate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, 19691–19695.Google Scholar
Lander, F., Russell, T., 2018. The archaeological evidence for the appearance of pastoralism and farming in southern Africa. PLOS ONE 13, e0198941.Google Scholar
Lawn, B., 1973. University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates XV. Radiocarbon 15, 367–381.Google Scholar
Lebamba, J., Vincens, A., Lézine, A.-M., Marchant, R., Buchet, G., 2016. Forest-savannah dynamics on the Adamawa plateau (Central Cameroon) during the “African humid period” termination: a new high-resolution pollen record from Lake Tizong. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 235, 129–139.Google Scholar
Lézine, A.M., Casanova, J., 1989. Pollen and hydrological evidence for interpretation of past climates in tropical Africa during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 8, 45–55.Google Scholar
Lézine, A.-M., Holl, A.F.C., Lebamba, J., Vincens, A., Assi-Khaudjis, C., Février, L., Sultan, É., 2013. Temporal relationship between Holocene human occupation and vegetation change along the northwestern margin of the Central African rainforest. Comptes Rendus Geoscience 345, 327–335.Google Scholar
MacEachern, S., 2012. The Holocene history of the southern Lake Chad Basin: archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence. African Archaeological Review 29, 1–19.10.1007/s10437-012-9110-3Google Scholar
Maley, J., 2002. A catastrophic destruction of African forests about 2,500 years ago still exerts a major influence on present vegetation formations. IDS Bulletin 33, 13–30.Google Scholar
Maley, J., Giresse, P., Doumenge, C., Favier, C., 2012. Comment on “Intensifying Weathering and Land Use in Iron Age Central Africa.” Science 337, 1040.Google Scholar
Maley, J., Vernet, R., 2015. Populations and climatic evolution in north tropical Africa from the end of the Neolithic to the dawn of the modern era. African Archaeological Review 32, 179–232.Google Scholar
Manning, K., Pelling, R., Higham, T., Schwenniger, J.-L., Fuller, D.Q., 2011. 4500-year old domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: new insights into an alternative cereal domestication pathway. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 312–322.Google Scholar
Marchant, R., Richer, S., Boles, O., Capitani, C., Courtney-Mustaphi, C.J., Lane, P., Prendergast, M.E., et al. , 2018. Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: human and environmental interactions from 6000years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews 178, 322–378.Google Scholar
Marshall, F., Reid, R.E.B., Goldstein, S., Storozum, M., Wreschnig, A., Hu, L., Kiura, P., Shahack-Gross, R., Ambrose, S.H., 2018. Ancient herders enriched and restructured African grasslands. Nature 561, 387–390.Google Scholar
Meharg, A.A., Deacon, C., Edwards, K.J., Donaldson, M., Davidson, D.A., Spring, C., Scrimgeour, C.M., Feldmann, J., Rabb, A., 2006. Ancient manuring practices pollute arable soils at the St Kilda World Heritage Site, Scottish North Atlantic. Chemosphere 64, 1818–1828.Google Scholar
Morin-Rivat, J., Fayolle, A., Gillet, J.-F., Bourland, N., Gourlet-Fleury, S., Oslisly, R., Bremond, L., Bentaleb, I., Beeckman, H., Doucet, J.-L., 2014. New evidence of human activities during the Holocene in the lowland forests of the northern Congo Basin. Radiocarbon 56, 209–220.Google Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., 2000. Luminescence dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol. Radiation Measurements 32, 57–73.10.1016/S1350-4487(99)00253-XGoogle Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., 2003. The single aliquot regenerative dose protocol: potential for improvements in reliability. Radiation Measurements 37, 377–381.Google Scholar
Natelhoffer, K.J., Fry, B., 1988. Controls on natural nitrogen-15 and carbon-13 abundances in forest soil organic matter. Soil Science Society of America Journal 52, 1633–1640.Google Scholar
O'Leary, M.H., 1988. Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. BioScience 38, 328–336.Google Scholar
Olley, J.M., Murray, A., Roberts, R.G., 1996. The effects of disequilibria in the uranium and thorium decay chains on burial dose rates in fluvial sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 15, 751–760.Google Scholar
Oslisly, R., White, L., Bentaleb, I., Favier, C., Fontugne, M., Gillet, J.-F., Sebag, D., 2013. Climatic and cultural changes in the west Congo Basin forests over the past 5000 years. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 368, 20120304.Google Scholar
Prescott, J.R., Hutton, J.T., 1994. Cosmic ray contributions to dose rates for luminescence and ESR dating: large depths and long-term time variations. Radiation Measurements 23, 497–500.Google Scholar
Qi, H., Coplen, T.B., Mroczkowski, S.J., Brand, W.A., Brandes, L., Geilmann, H., Schimmelmann, A., 2016. A new organic reference material, l-glutamic acid, USGS41a, for δ13C and δ15N measurements − a replacement for USGS41. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 30, 859–866.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., et al. , 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869–1887.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., 2013. The Anthropocene. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 41, 45–68.Google Scholar
Runge, J., 2002. Holocene landscape history and palaeohydrology evidenced by stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis of alluvial sediments in the Mbari valley (5 degrees N/23 degrees E), Central African Republic. Catena 48, 67–87.Google Scholar
Russell, T., Silva, F., Steele, J., 2014. Modelling the spread of farming in the Bantu-speaking regions of Africa: an archaeology-based phylogeography. PLoS ONE 9, e87854.Google Scholar
Schoeneberger, P.J., Wysocki, D.A., Benham, E C., Staff, Soil Survey, 2012. Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, Version 3.0. Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R., Simons, A., Ambrose, S.H., 2008. Identification of pastoral sites using stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes from bulk sediment samples: a case study in modern and archaeological pastoral settlements in Kenya. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 983–990.Google Scholar
Solís-Castillo, B., Golyeva, A., Sedov, S., Solleiro-Rebolledo, E., López-Rivera, S., 2015. Phytoliths, stable carbon isotopes and micromorphology of a buried alluvial soil in Southern Mexico: a polychronous record of environmental change during Middle Holocene. Quaternary International 365, 150–158.Google Scholar
Stark, M.A., Hudson, R.J., 1985. Plant communities' structure in Benoue National Park, Cameroon: a cluster association analysis. African Journal of Ecology 23, 21–27.Google Scholar
Stoops, G., 2003. Guidelines for Analysis and Description of Soil and Regolith Thin Sections. Soil Science Society of America, Madison.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Reimer, R.W., 2019. CALIB 7.1 (accessed January 7, 2019). http://calib.org.Google Scholar
Wang, L., D'Odorico, P., Ries, L., Macko, S.A., 2010. Patterns and implications of plant-soil δ13C and δ15N values in African savanna ecosystems. Quaternary Research 73, 77–83.Google Scholar
White, F., 1983. The Vegetation of Africa: A Descriptive Memoir to Accompany the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO Vegetation Map of Africa. United Nations Educational and Scientific Cultural Organization, Paris.Google Scholar
WoldeGabriel, G., Ambrose, S.H., Barboni, D., Bonnefille, R., Bremond, L., Currie, B., DeGusta, D., et al. , 2009. The geological, isotopic, botanical, invertebrate, and lower vertebrate surroundings of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 326, 65e1–65e5.Google Scholar
Wright, D.K., MacEachern, S., Choi, J., Choi, J.H., Lang, C., Djoussou, J.-M.D., 2017. Iron Age landscapes of the Benue River Valley, Cameroon. Journal of Field Archaeology 42, 394–407.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Wright et al. supplementary material

Wright et al. supplementary material 1

Download Wright et al. supplementary material(File)
File 749 Bytes