Pollen analysis and urban land use: The environs of Scottow’s Dock in 17th, 18th, and early 19th century Boston

Abstract

Pollen analysis cannot be used to reconstruct the natural environment during the historical period in New England because Euroamerican land clearance and soil disturbance have biased the record. Land use is recorded among arboreal pollen counts, but the size of the affected pollen source area is difficult to ascertain. Close agreement among documentary, archaeological, and non-arboreal pollen records of land use within specific 17th through 19th century urban matrices and the contrasts between the pollen data from the contemporaneous, adjacent but functionally different Wilkinson Backlot and Bostonian Hotel Sites in Boston, Massachusetts, indicate that non-arboreal pollen spectra sensitively record vegetative response to different kinds of human activities across small horizontal and stratigraphic intervals. The minor pollen types are the most important; hence large sums must be tabulated if patterns of change are to be recognized. Pollen corrosion and concentration measures and arboreal/ non-arboreal pollen ratios contribute to the understanding of matrix deposition processes.