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Detection of Anthropogenic Environmental Impacts in Holocene East Africa: Microbotanical and Fungal Proxy Evidence

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Detection of Anthropogenic Environmental Impacts in Holocene East Africa: Microbotanical and Fungal Proxy Evidence DETECTION OF ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN HOLOCENE EAST AFRICA: MICROBOTANICAL AND FUNGAL PROXY EVIDENCE By RYAN MATTHEW SZYMANSKI A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Anthropology DECEMBER 2017 © Copyright by RYAN MATTHEW SZYMANSKI, 2017 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by RYAN MATTHEW SZYMANSKI, 2017 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of RYAN MATTHEW SZYMANSKI find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Andrew Duff, Ph.D., Chair Karen D. Lupo, Ph.D. Colin Grier, Ph.D. Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT Completion of this dissertation would have been an impossibility without the support and assistance of a list of people too numerous to name here, but among which several individuals stand out and deserve special thanks. First among these is my wife, Faith Njeri, who for the past seven years has aided in, and allowed me to, juggle this work and all of the other ways we have worked to support ourselves during this period, and who has herself worked in a variety of positions to support us and our family. Your assistance during fieldwork related to this project has also been invaluable. A strong work ethic, ability to simultaneously maintain our work and family life, and people skills which Tony Robbins would envy, have contributed in untold measure to the success of this research. Our family, on my side and Faith’s, has also contributed an incredible amount to the success of this project. My mother, Peggy Szymanski, my father, Matthew Szymanski, and brother, Graham Szymanski, have all been constant sources of moral, emotional, and financial support during the progression of this research, and have always sought to reassure me when I seemed to lose my way. Without the security provided by the knowledge that they will always be there, this dissertation would not have been possible, and indeed might never have been attempted. Thank you, from the bottom of my being, for your constant support and encouragement in all that I do. My mother-in-law, Agnes Nyambura, father-in-law, Satwaant Singh Chaggar, and sister-in-law, Harpreeth “Pinky” Chaggar have also been an indispensable part of this project’s success. You have all, likewise, been constant sources of reassurance and iii support. Thank you for your support and obligement the many nights that we stayed in the family compound, used the family car to go places where it had no business attempting to go, and crowded the refrigerator with bags of sediment. Your assistance in the field has also been of critical importance. Stanley Ndungu, a family friend, whose local knowledge, folksiness, and logistical and fieldwork support I depended upon greatly during this project, also deserves my sincerest thanks for his efforts. The members of both the Archaeology and Botany Departments at the National Museums of Kenya, and its administration, also deserve my sincerest thanks. Dr. Stephen Mathai Rucina, Dr. Rahab Kinyanjui, Dr. Veronica Muiruri, and Rebecca Muthoni have all contributed significantly to the performance and completion of this project. I thank you all for your support with materials, logistics, and fieldwork. My academic advisers, past and present, have also been a critical source of support through the tenure of this project. John Jones, who taught me the majority of what I know about palynology, and who I have to thank for my initial acceptance into the graduate program in Anthropology at Washington State University, provided the knowledge, experience, and research funding needed to put this project into the realm of possibility and on it’s feet. The members of my supervisory committee for this dissertation, Karen Lupo, Colin Grier, Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, and especially Andrew Duff, also have my deepest thanks for their support and valuable feedback during project completion. Andrew Duff, department and committee chairperson, deserves particular acknowledgment for his oversight of the project. Without your special brand of support, attention, and iv organization, completing this project would have been even more difficult, if not impossible, and may even have been derailed at an early date. Other individuals too many to name have also contributed to this project in various ways. Katharina Neumann, Anna Maria Mercuri, Chris Kiahtipes, and several anonymous reviewers all provided helpful comments on project methodology, and assistance with valuable resources. To these, and the many additional local informants, fieldworkers, and friends not named here who contributed to this project, my warmest thanks. v DETECTION OF ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN HOLOCENE EAST AFRICA: MICROBOTANICAL AND FUNGAL PROXY EVIDENCE Abstract by Ryan Matthew Szymanski, Ph.D. Washington State University December 2017 Chair: Andrew Duff This dissertation examines landscape disturbance and modification related to food production in East Africa. Pollen, fungal spore, microcharcoal, and phytolith records are employed here to reconstruct histories of landscape change at two localities in present-day Kenya. Chronologies of anthropogenic landscape use and resource exploitation are established for the mid-Holocene coastal area of Mtwapa Creek, and the late-Holocene highland locality of Kingwal Swamp. It is determined that patterns of human land usage during the fifth and sixth millennia before present broadly conformed to patterns seen in the low hinterland plains immediately inland, where riverine valleys were exploited intensively. Further, these adaptations may have included heightened use of cultivated, if not domesticated, grains such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). At Kingwal Swamp, transitions from transhumant herding to resident pastoralism, and finally to grain cultivation are documented. Additionally, it is found that significant refinements to established archaeological and historical population chronologies may be needed. These area studies illustrate the utility of multi-proxy microbotanical and fungal analyses as a means to test archaeological hypotheses and approach problems of equifinality therein. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT ................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Study Rationale ........................................................................................... 2 Problems and Solutions? ............................................................................ 4 Structure of the Dissertation ........................................................................ 6 Human Landscape Modification: Making Our Way ..................................... 8 Conceptual Models of East African Food Production .................................. 9 Background: Existing Evidence for Early Food Production in East Africa . 12 Contribution of Plant Foods to Integrated Foodways ................................ 16 Ceramics as Agricultural Proxies .............................................................. 20 Ethnolinguistic Theories of Cultivation in East Africa ................................ 21 Archaeology of Dissertation Study Localities ............................................ 22 Mtwapa Creek ........................................................................................... 22 Mid-Holocene Landscape Use in the Coastal Hinter ................................. 24 Kingwal Swamp ......................................................................................... 26 vii Summary ................................................................................................... 34 2. PALEOECOLOGICAL METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY ........................... 35 Multi-proxy Paleoecological Datasets in Archaeology ............................... 37 Pollen Grains ............................................................................................. 39 Transport, Sorting, Deposition, and Preservation of Pollen ....................... 41 Phytoliths................................................................................................... 44 Charcoal .................................................................................................... 45 Fungal Spores ........................................................................................... 46 Background to Fungal Research ............................................................... 46 Palynological Theory: Detecting Anthropogenic Environmental Change .. 50 Laboratory and Study Methods ................................................................. 59 3. PREVIOUS PALEOECOLOGICAL AND PALEOCLIMATE RESEARCH IN EAST AFRICA ........................................................................................... 62 Foundational Studies of Climate in East Africa ......................................... 63 Paleoclimate Studies and the “Longue Durée” .......................................... 66 Recent Localized Holocene Paleoenvironmental
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