With National Science Foundation support, an interdisciplinary team of Drs. Meghan Howey, Peter Schmidt, Michael Palace, Joel Hartter, Lawrence Kiage, and Bunny Lejju will conduct one field season of archaeological and paleoecological research on the Ndali crater lake landscape in western Uganda, a complex series of crater lakes and in-filled crater swamps east of the Rwenzori mountains which forms a particularly distinct setting in the Albertine Rift. Exponential population growth and unchecked land conversion have made the Albertine Rift one of the world's most threatened biodiversity hotspots. This research aims to use deep history to inform present and future trajectories of landscape change in the Albertine Rift. To build towards that goal, it is necessary to test whether linkages can be established between local archaeological and paleoecological records.
The Ndali crater lakes and swamps are excellent environments for archiving evidences (biotic and abiotic) of past landscapes and as such, they have been the focus of paleoecological research. These records consistently show possible evidence of human-driven disturbance but there has been a tendency to attribute change to climate change rather than anthropogenic influences. One reason for this is the absence of archaeological evidence around these lakes that might connect historical human occupation to these findings. There is good reason to expect robust cultural activity here, as the Ndali lakes are located less than two hundred kilometers northeast of the epicenter for the development of iron smelting technology in East Africa west of Lake Victoria and are located in the same forest band that would have provided fuelwood and other resources to support people in industrial production. Indeed, preliminary work 17 years ago by Dr. Schmidt confirmed deep-time human occupation around the northern-most crater lakes with strong signatures from the Early and Later Iron Age. To date no work has expanded these preliminary findings. Through a combination of expanded archaeological testing on crater rims and contiguous terraces and new paleoecological cores in filled calderas, swamps, and crater lakes, this pilot research program will establish if archaeology and paleoenvironmental data can be successfully articulated. The close proximities between crater lakes and human settlements opens the potential to make direct inferences about human influence on the landscape, human resource exploitation, and the resilience of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to human disturbance.
New approaches and answers are needed to address current demographic and ecological crises facing the Albertine Rift. This pilot work will help build a research program that offers new answers by crossing the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, looking backwards as well as forwards, and prioritizing local historical knowledge as important to address current stresses.
Introduction This high risk archaeological research project aimed to evaluate the ways deep history can inform present and future trajectories of landscape change. We proposed a pilot research project focused on the Ndali crater lakes in western Uganda, a particularly distinct landscape within the broader Albertine Rift which is one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots. In this environment, longstanding relationships between social and ecological systems are stressed in unprecedented ways by enormous population growth and associated resource extraction. An important goal of the project is to connect archaeological and paleoecological evidence in this specific and particularly distinct Rift landscape where only weak inferential connections between human occupation and ecosystem disturbance exist. The Ndali crater lakes and swamps are excellent environments for archiving evidences (biotic and abiotic) of past ecosystems and human settlement. Through a combination of predictive site modeling, archaeological survey and testing, and paleoecological cores, we aimed to investigate the major episodes of anthropogenic disturbance occur in the craterlake landscape of western Uganda. We also are also trying to study what role the start and spread of early industrialization (i.e., iron production) and intensified agriculture had in structuring the intervals and scale of anthropogenic changes. In addition, we also aimed to investigate the anthropogenic-induced changes on the landscape and how can these changes be distinguished by changes induced by climate change. Information gained from the project would be crucial in guiding current best practices for sustainable management of natural resources. Activities Research and Education Activities: During the month of June 2014, we (the PIs: Dr, Lawrence Kiage, GSU and Meghan Howey, UNH) travelled to Uganda for fieldwork in the crater lakes region. The fieldwork expedition lasted for two weeks during we travelled throughout the Ndali crater region of Uganda, located archaeological sites, and suitable lakes and/or swamps that were ideal for coring. In the field we were assisted by two local field research assistants who helped with translation and other logistics. While the PIs were in Uganda doing paleoecological coring in the crater lakes another team of researchers for this project led by Peter Schmidt (CoI) were performing archaeological research in the vicinity of the core sites. We raised eight cores from a swamp on Lake Kifuruka and Kabata Swamp. Both sites are craters that are filled with water. Raising the cores proved to be more challenging than we had envisaged. The primary challenge was accessing the craters which are characterized by very steep walls. Most of the crater lakes could not be cored because it was impossible to move the equipment and boats into the crater floor. The cores were transported to the Department of Geosciences laboratories at Georgia State University. Analysis of the cores began immediately and is on-going. So far six samples have been submitted to Direct-AMS for radiocarbon dating and the results anticipated within the month of September. As part of the fieldwork experience, we (the PIs) visited two local elementary schools located in the vicinity of Lake Kifuruka and Kabata Swamp. We gave encouragement talks on the importance of education and science, in particular. We were struck by the abject poverty that affects many pupils in the schools; some pupils are actually heads of their families when they are barely teenage (their parents having died and with no relatives to care for them). We paid full a full year’s tuition for six students and donated writing materials and bar soaps to the schools (not part of our NSF budget). Outcomes Although the results of this study are not yet out considering that we just came back from fieldwork we are encouraged to have demonstrated that the crater lake and swamps in the vicinity of the archaeological sites can be cored and have potential to yield long-term paleoenvironmental record which can be key to the interpretation the archaeological record in the immediate vicinity of the core sites. Lithostratigraphic and Palynological analyses would continue over the next six months to a year. Sediment samples have already been submitted for AMS radiocarbon dating to determine the chronology of the record from the cores. The results will be published in academic journals once the analyses are complete.
