Lucayan charred wood selection patterns: a comparative study of variability in fragile island ecosystems of the central and northern Bahamas

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-024-01017-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Lucayan charred wood selection patterns: a comparative study of variability in fragile island ecosystems of the central and northern Bahamas Mary Jane Berman1 · Deborah M. Pearsall2 · Caleb Ritzheimer3 Received: 26 December 2023 / Accepted: 14 September 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract While Lucayan exploitation of their marine environment is relatively well understand, less is known about terrestrial resource utilization, particularly of the floristic environment. Lucayans are the earliest permanent Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahama archipelago, which has suffered significant terrestrial habitat changes through time due to natural and anthropogenic factors. In this study we examined 878 wood charcoal specimens (21 taxa; 19 at the genus and two at the family level) from two Early Lucayan (ca. ad 700–1100) sites: the Three Dog and Pigeon Creek Dune 2 sites from San Salvador Island (Guanahaní), and two Late Lucayan (ca. ad 1100–1530) sites: the Pigeon Creek Dune 1 site from San Salvador and the Deadman’s Reef site from Grand Bahama (Bahama) for temporal and inter-island variability in fuelwood selection patterns and for insight into the composition of the islands’ flora during aboriginal occupation. Although the islands are both part of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, they are in two different bioclimatic zones. We found that the Lucayans practiced a combination of least-effort and intentional fuelwood collection strategies, even though the sites lie in dissimilar bioclimatic zones encompassing multiple plant communities. Considered “globally rare”, “highly endangered”, and “the most threatened tropical forests”, the vulnerability of Bahamian forests is increasing with climate change and development. The Lucayan wood collection economy can provide a model for contemporary conservation management and sustainability. Keywords Fuelwood · Caribbean · Bahamas · Lucayans · Palaeoethnobotany · Anthracology Introduction Twenty years ago, Newsom and Pearsall (2003) and Newsom and Wing (2004) provided comprehensive reviews of Caribbean palaeoethnobotany. These overviews, based primarily on charred wood and seeds from archaeological Communicated by L. A. Newsom. Mary Jane Berman 1 Department of Anthropology, Miami University, 120 Upham Hall, Oxford, OH 45056, USA 2 Department of Anthropology, University of MissouriColumbia, 112 Swallow Hall, 507 S 9th St, Columbia, MO 65201, USA 3 Washington University School of Law, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA contexts, included discussion of the Lucayans, the Indigenous inhabitants of The Bahamas. Since then, several more studies have increased our knowledge of Lucayan tree use (Ostapkowicz et al. 2012; Ostapkowicz 2015, 2023). Numerous factors distinguish the Bahama archipelago from neighbouring insular and continental locales: the islands are low-lying and small, consist entirely of coralline limestone geology, possess shallow alkaline soils, and lack naturally occurring fresh water sources (e.g. rivers and streams). The flora possesses less diversity than neighbouring islands and while there are numerous families, each contains only a few genera with only one or a few species (Correll and Correll 1982; Kjellmark et al. 2024). Climatic variability along a north-south environmental gradient and land-size differences contribute to inter-island floristic variability. Plant communities lie close to one another and are small. Ecosystems are fragile and dynamic due to high energy rainstorms, tropical/subtropical cyclones, hurricanes [averaging 13 Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 1.82 per year (Sealey 2006; Gamble 2008, p 44)], storm surges, flooding, fires, erosion (Currie et al. 2019, p 13) and droughts (Byrne 1980); all these factors exacerbate soil leaching, deforestation, infra-structural damage, community abandonments, and deaths. With a view to plant use, the Lucayan’s responses to these conditions constitute what Newsom and Wing (2004. pp 172, 182) regard as “unique patterns of resource use” comprising a “uniquely Bahamian paleoethnobotany”, concepts we explore through the organization of the Lucayan charred wood economy from the Three Dog, Pigeon Creek Dune 1, and Pigeon Creek Dune 2 sites on Guanahaní (the Indigenous name for San Salvador Island) and the Deadman’s Reef site on Bahama (the Indigenous name for Grand Bahama) (Fig. 1 ). Charred wood (carbonized wood or “charcoal”) is produced by numerous processes (Kabukcu 2018; Newsom Fig. 1 Map showing site locations (San Salvador and Grand Bahama Islands) 13 2022). Fuelwood, the primary form of charred wood found in the archaeological record, was wood used to produce heat for cooking, warmth, metallurgy, pottery manufacture, brick-making, cremation, fertilizer, power production, lighting, and messaging. Because of its versatility and the scarcity or lack of alternative fuels in some parts of the world, fuelwood was critical to societal functioning (Rosenzweig and Marston 2018) and demand for wood was high, requiring regular replacement. For example, in addition to using fuel for cooking, wood was required in the firing of ceramics (Arnold 1985; Osborn 2023), which was essential for cooking, serving, and food transfer in many societies. Procuring and maintaining fuelwood stores were, therefore, critical and integral parts of daily practice (Graham 2020) for societal maintenance and survival in the past. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Charcoal fragments constitute a significant portion of Lucayan ecofactual, specifically the archaeobotanical, remains. This study focuses on identifying and interpreting spatial and temporal variability in wood taxa from four sites on two islands and two time periods to infer wood, mainly fuelwood, collection and use. Our primary objective is to elucidate Lucayan fuelwood selection patterns during the two time periods of Lucayan occupation [Early Lucayan (ca. ad 700–1100), and Late Lucayan (ca. ad 1100–1530)]; a secondary objective is to provide additional insights into past floristic environments and plant use not registered by other indicators (e.g. pollen) at the time of aboriginal occupation; and, the third objective is to contribute to the comparison of plant use and floristic variation with other islands occupied by the Lucayans, as well as The Greater Antilles (Newsom and Wing 2004), considered to be the Lucayans’ homeland and with which they maintained close cultural contact. Factors influencing fuelwood selection Most wood charcoal studies have assumed an optimizing model in which people expend the smallest amount of effort or energy for fuelwood collection, i.e. they choose wood that requires the least amount of energy to obtain (Asouti and Austin 2005, p 12; Marston 2009, p 2,198; Rubiales et al. 2011, p 8). According to this “least effort” model, “past peoples collected fuelwood that was closest to the (...truncated)