Human-Environment Interactions in the Bale Mountains During the Late Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs: Anthracological Study
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis ababa university
Abstract
This thesis presents results of the analysis of the anthracological remains excavated from 10 archaeological sites located in the Bale Mountains. These sites yielded hundreds of anthracological remains collected from the early LSA occupation phase to the early arrival of pastoral phase in the BM covering a period between ~15-0ka cal. BP. The aims of the present study are: to reconstruct firewood collection strategies used by the prehistoric group in the Bale Mountains, to investigate the nature of vegetation history, to shed new light on the poorly understood environmental conditions during human occupation phases in the Bale Mountains, and to understand interactions between past humans and their environment in African high-altitude ecozones.
The anthracological investigation was conducted on a total of 565 charcoal macro-remains obtained from various excavated sites. From the samples, a total of 366 anthracological samples were identified in their respective taxa from which seven different plant spices were documented. The recorded taxa include Erica arborea (n=90), Myrsine africana (n=82), Solanum giganteum (n=51), Artemisia afra (n=47), Hagenia abyssinica (n=44), Hypericum revolutum (N=31) and Juniperus procera (n=21)
The results of antrhacological analysis show the presence of varied vegetation cover and environmental conditions in the sites located along the plateau and northern escarpments of the BMs. The finding of this study also demonstrates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers used different ecological zones very variably; the aforementioned plant types namely, Erica arborea, Myrsine africana, Solanum giganteum, Artemisia afra, Hagenia abyssinica, Hypericum revolutum, and Juniperus procera were also available as fire woods.
Description
Keywords
Anthracology, Bale Mountain, ecological adaptations, palaeoenvironment, vegetation history