MACRO-CHARCOAL ANALYSIS OF SEDIMENT CORES TO DETERMINE FIRE USE AMONG HISTORIC AND PREHISTORIC CULTURES, CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER VALLEY, EASTERN ALABAMA

Understanding pre-historic land-environment interactions may help develop more efficient and reliable methods to manage and maintain modern environments necessary for civilization. Burning is an efficient method for clearing plots of land for agriculture and improving forage for wildlife utilized by human populations for millennia. Preserved macro-charcoal in soil and sediments provides evidence of historic and pre-historic land use practices. The Chattahoochee River Valley in eastern Alabama contains an extensive archaeological record that extends from Archaic through Mississippian to the Creek Confederacy present during European colonization.Analysis of macro-charcoal present in cores before and after European contact, noted by the Ambrosia rise, allows us to quantify the amount of burning during the time of the Creek Confederacy and compare it to the time of expansion of American agriculture and land clearing after Creek removal in 1830.

Coarse sieved (>100µm) samples from four cores were digested in a solution of 1M HNO₃ and 30% H₂O₂ and analyzed by dry combustion for total charcoal loss. The comparison of percent macro-charcoal present in Creek Era samples and post-Creek removal samples show that local Native American populations burned more than European populations. Native American populations used fire for game management, land clearing, and crop management. When European populations removed Native Americans and failed to adopt their land management practices ecosystems drastically changed, as fire was no longer present to maintain the system. Many of the forested ecosystems present today are relics of millennia of Native American influence that proper fire management can restore.