Paleoecological perspectives on human adaptation in central Panama. II the Holocene

Abstract

AbstractA 17.5 m sedimentary core from Lake La Yeguada, central Panama provides the first complete Holocene sequence for the Pacific watershed of Lower Central America. Phytolith, pollen, and charcoal records document a long lowland history of foraging and food production. Human modification of tropical forests can be described as systematic during the early Holocene and was possibly associated with small‐scale (garden?) horticulture involving native tubers. The incorporation of seed crops like maize and development of slash and burn techiques for larger‐scale field systems is indicated by the increase of secondary forest taxa and removal of primary trees between 7000 and 4000 years ago. After this time, agricultural intensification in an essentially deforested landscape proceeded to the point where, by the time of Christ, agricultural abandonment of the lake watershed may have occurred as a result of loss of soil fertility. Events such as this in the interfluve forests may have, in part, precipitated the coalescence of population and settlement around the river valleys and the emergence of sedentary village life.