Recent Investigation Shows Effects of Ancient Native American Forest Clearing

Recent Investigation Shows Effects of Ancient Native American Forest Clearing

Last summer I wrote about ancient forest clearing practices of American Indians in the Eastern Woodlands region, particularly in reference to the Mohawk and Hudson valleys of New York State.  I focused especially on sites of archaeological and geological data recovery in New York’s Capital District, such as the Goldkrest site in East Greenbush and Collins Lake near Schenectady. 

Forest Burning and Clearing by Hudson Valley Indians 1000 Years Ago

In describing and interpreting the results of her investigation of the Goldkrest Site near Albany, New York, archaeologist Lucianne Lavin (2004) referred to the radiocarbon dating of burned soil patches with associated charcoal as evidence of forest clearing through the use of fire.  This evidence was found near the transition between soil strata that indicated a stabilizing landscape about AD 1000.  The implication of this information is that as floods became less frequent and less violent due to changes in the Hudson River channel; this section of the Hudson River floodplain became more attractive for gardening to the ancestors of the Mohican Indians. 

Did Climate Change Affect the Hudson Valley, AD 800-1300?

In the Hudson Valley, archaeological sites dating to the period AD 1000-1300 appear to be scarce, or at least relatively invisible to archaeologists.  This trend had been noted, for example, by former New York State Archaeologist Robert E. Funk (1976), and has continued to hold through the era of more recent archaeological research and Cultural Resource Management studies.  Could the Medieval Warm Period have affected Hudson Valley Native American populations in some significant way, such as causing population decline, out-migration, or a reorganization of settlement patterns?

How Archaeologists Tell Time

Archaeology is about telling time.  To be sure, knowledge of the spatial or formal properties of the sites we excavate is important, but if you can’t account for time, you can’t do archaeology.  Historical archaeologists infer time with a number of methods, but it really all comes down to careful artifact inspection and identification.  If the various materials from a given site can be correctly identified and their diagnostic attributes recorded, historical archaeologists can almost always determine occupation periods.