With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Thomas Foster, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Roger Brown, and the Apalachicola Ecosystems Project (AEP) will advance the understanding of the dynamic relationship of humans and their physical and social environment. The AEP will use archaeological, historical, and ancient botanical data to investigate how Native American populations adapted to a changing biophysical and colonial environment. The AEP's interdisciplinary approach integrates ecological systems and human agency in the analysis of socio-ecological resilience in the face of dynamic and nonlinear changes in the political, social, and ecological environments. This project will use a unique case where the emigrant and immigrant sites of a single town are well documented. By studying the archaeological sites of Apalachicola (1715-1836) in eastern Alabama and accurately controlling for temporal variation, this project will characterize how humans dynamically adapt to and, simultaneously, affect their biophysical and social environment. Apalachicola was one of the most politically important Creek Indian towns and was, according to historic legend, the site of the origin of the Creek Confederacy.
The objectives of the AEP are to (1) investigate how Native Americans maintained social, economic, and ecological viability in the face of substantial and rapid change to the social and biophysical environments, (2) identify the anthropogenic effects of the Creek Indian economic strategies on plant and animal communities, and (3) better understand Native American social, economic, and ecological resilience during the Historic Period. Sections of two archaeological sites will be excavated, Apalachicola town (1757-1836) and Apalachicola Old Town (1715-1757), to measure cultural resilience throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The project will couple the archaeological investigations with historical research to elucidate broader political climate, alliances, and conflicts. Finally, the project will measure local changes in the biophysical environment through pollen cores, analysis of anthropogenic changes in the plant and animal communities, and climate variation.
The intellectual merit of the AEP is relevant to studies of resilience theory and risk management, historical ecology and environmental management. Reconstructing human impact upon, and interaction with, past environments is important to our understanding of current human affected environments. This project will contribute to our understanding of how the Southeastern Indians adapted to a diverse plant and animal environment within a changing social and economic environment. The project will also help refine our understanding of the processes of historical ecology, migration, and cultural resilience in an understudied region.
The broader impacts of this study are significant to a wide range of fields and will contribute to scientific education and descendant communities. The study of anthropogenic effects on the environment is one of the most important problems facing humans today. The Apalachicola Ecosystems Project is relevant to modern forest managers, policy makers, environmental historians, anthropologists, culture historians, and ecologists. The AEP will further understanding of how humans use culture to adapt to and modify their physical environment as well as contribute to student training.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Overview The Apalachicola Ecosystems Project (AEP) examines the dynamic relationship of humans and their physical and social environment through the use of resilience theory, integrating archaeological, historical, and palenvironmental data to investigate how Native American populations adapted to a changing biophysical and colonial frontier environment. The AEP’s interdisciplinary approach integrates ecological systems and human agency in the analysis of socio-ecological resilience in the face of dynamic and nonlinear changes in the political, social, and ecological environments. By studying the archaeological sites of Apalachicola (1715-1836) in eastern Alabama and accurately controlling for temporal variation, this project will characterize how humans dynamically adapt to and, simultaneously, affect their biophysical and social environment. Paleoenvironmental Research This segment of the project focuses on the collection of sediment cores and other samples from stratigraphic and archeological contexts to reconstruct vegetation and fire history related to agriculture and land use practices by resident populations. Creek agricultural and land-use practices shaped southeastern landscapes and was a very old and resilient subsistence strategy. The Creek Indians practiced shifting horticulture that was dependent upon use of the nutrient-rich alluvial soils near major rivers. Creek farmers grew corn and beans, as well as Old World domesticates such as watermelons, peaches, and rice, and other American domesticates such as sweet potatoes and exotic squashes. Weeds and other early succession plants in old fields were burned to prepare the ground for new crops. These fires likely altered the composition of plants surrounding settlements by interrupting secondary succession (Foster et al. 2004). Creek agricultural fields and other landscape management strategies created new habitats that attracted "edge" adapted species. It also contributed to environmental degradation. Paleoenvironmental analysis utilizes preserved pollen, charcoal, and other microfossils in sediments, soils, and archeological contexts to reconstruct vegetation assemblages. Changes in vegetation assemblages, represented by changes in pollen percentages, can reflect changes due to climate as well as natural and human generated disturbance. Potential anthropogenic effects include the clearing of forest for agriculture, intensification of clearing or burning for other land uses such as hunting, or record changes in plant taxa favored for nut or fruit production. Paleoenvironmental records can also reveal the presence or use of cultigen species, such as Zea mays (corn), Helianthus spp. (sunflower) or Cucurbitaceae (gourds and squashes); their relative abundance may also reflect the intensity of local cultivation or transition from one suite of cultigens to another. Charcoal in sediment records can indicate the relative intensity of fire use at both local and regional scales. Other information preserved in sediment cores such as stratigraphic changes in particle size or sedimentation rates can record natural events such as floods or droughts as well as the local and regional anthropogenic effects of erosion and deposition associated with both Native American land use and Euro-American land clearing. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE In connection with the project, sediment samples for paleoenvironmental analysis were collected from 16 locations cored by conventional methods with PVC pipe, soil auger, or Russian peat corer. Six additional locations of either stratigraphic exposures or Vibracores collected my Markus Dotterweich of the University of Mainz, Germany and Andrew Ivester of West Georgia University collected for a related project were also sampled. Samples from archeological contexts (25) were also sampled and processed. Figure 1 shows their location relative to the major archeological sites and activity areas. To date, 404 samples have been taken form cores and other sources, with approximately 375 being processed and 280 producing data. Samples not processed were due to results determining that lower levels of the sources were all historic or that microfossil preservation was low. The number of cores collected reflects the difficulty in collecting suitable records in a predominantly fluvial environment where rapid sedimentation, fluctuating water levels, bioturbation, and geochemical factors such as oxidation can all degrade pollen and other microfossils. Results from the project demonstrate the impacts of Native American land use on forests and vegetation through fire and agricultural practices. Results show both the presence of cultigens, selective effects on tree and other species, and evidence for the effects of Native AMericans beyond settlement locations. Evidence also exists for the intensification of erosion by Native AMerican land use practices during the Mississipian and pre-European periods.
