Reconstructing Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene Environmental Change at Page-Ladson, Florida Using Diatom Evidence

Geoarchaeological framework of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites in the Aucilla River Basin, Northwest Florida, USA

“…Pollen Zone 1a at Page‐Ladson (Perrotti et al, 2019), correlates to Stratum 3, for which pollen and diatoms indicate a cool dry environment with a shallow pond in the sink. Macrobotanicals and paleontology demonstrate the pond was popular with megafauna, and the archaeology demonstrates that it was used at least once by pre‐Clovis people.…”

“…Some archaeological material is found in the lowest portions of 4a and 4b, but there is more than a meter of culturally‐sterile material in 4c. These fine‐grained sediments contain diatoms indicative of wet pond conditions, benthic gastropod species, and pollen showing a warmer, wetter environment along with ample dung fungus spores indicative of megafauna activity around the waterhole (Perrotti et al, 2019). At Wayne's Sink, a date of ca.…”

“…The landscape was immensely different for the first Floridians. This area would have been far inland and far upland throughout the late Pleistocene and early Holocene (Figure 1), and the modern fluvial systems did not form until sometime after 8000 calbp (Perrotti et al, 2019). Flora and fauna biomes were also extremely different at the end of the Pleistocene, as what are today temperate, subtropical, and tropical species have been found in association with each other and with numerous extinct taxa (Halligan, 2013).…”

“…Analytical samples were not extracted from near sample edges to avoid potential water column exposure. From these materials, we have conducted geochemical, microstratigraphic, micro and macrobotanical, microfaunal, and isotopic analyses (Bentley, 2019; Halligan et al, 2016; Hollingshead, 2019; Perrotti et al, 2019; Perrotti, 2018; Smith, 2020).…”

“…More than a hundred radiocarbon ages have confirmed the age of the seven major stratigraphic units at the site (Figure 6 and Table 1) and the well‐preserved strata underwater contained a wealth of paleoenvironmental proxy data, including pollen, diatoms, macrobotanicals, and Sporomiella . Micro‐ and macro‐botanical analyses were performed (Hansen, 2006; Newsom, 2006; Perrotti et al, 2019; Perrotti, 2018) on these sediments to discuss environmental change at the site through time. Sediment analyses showed that shallow pond and fluvial processes deposited several of the strata, but colluvial input has been very important in the older deposits within the center of the sink (Halligan et al, 2016; Kendrick, 2006).…”