Evidence of prehistoric human activity in Falkland Islands  
    
    Date:  
        October 27, 2021  
    Source:  
        University of Maine  
    Summary:  
        Findings from a new study suggest that Europeans were not the  
        first people to ever set foot on the Falkland Islands. Most of the  
        evidence from the investigation indicates that Indigenous South  
        Americans likely traveled to the Falkland Islands between 1275  
        C.E. and 1420 C.E., although earlier dates cannot be ruled out.  
    
    
    
  FULL STORY  
  ==========================================================================  
  Since its first recorded sighting by European explorers in the 1600s,  
  scientists and historians have believed that Europeans were the first  
  people to ever set foot on the Falkland Islands. Findings from a new  
  University of Maine- led study, however, suggests otherwise; that human  
  activity on the islands predates European arrival by centuries.  
    
    
  ==========================================================================  
  Kit Hamley, National Science Foundation graduate research fellow with the  
  UMaine Climate Change Institute, spearheaded the first-ever scientific  
  investigation into prehistoric human presence on the Southern Atlantic  
  archipelago. She and her team collected animal bones, charcoal records  
  and other evidence from across the islands over multiple expeditions  
  and examined them for indications of human activity using radiocarbon  
  dating and other laboratory techniques.  
    
  One notable sign of pre-European human activity derived from a  
  8,000-year-old charcoal record collected from a column of peat on New  
  Island, located in the southwestern edge of the territory. According to  
  researchers, the record showed signs of a marked increase in fire activity  
  in 150 C.E., then abrupt and significant spikes in 1410 C.E., and 1770  
  C.E., the latter of which corresponds with initial European settlement.  
    
  Researchers also gathered sea lion and penguin samples on New Island  
  near the site where a landowner discovered a stone projectile point that  
  is consistent with the technology Indigenous South Americans have used  
  for the past 1,000 years. The bones were heaped in discrete piles at one  
  site. Hamley says the location, volume and type of bones indicated that  
  the mounds were likely assembled by humans.  
    
  Most of the evidence Hamley and her colleagues collected indicated that  
  Indigenous South Americans likely travelled to the Falkland Islands  
  between 1275 C.E. and 1420 C.E. Arrival dates prior to 1275 C.E.,  
  however, cannot be ruled out because some evidence dates back even  
  earlier, according to researchers. For example, the team found a tooth  
  from an extinct Falkland Islands fox called the warrah with a radiocarbon  
  date of 3450 B.C.E., the oldest for the species. Regardless, all of the  
  team's findings indicate that people landed in the archipelago before  
  British navigator John Strong in 1690, the first European to set foot  
  on the archipelago.  
    
  Indigenous people likely visited the islands for multiple short-term  
  stays, as opposed to long-term occupation, according to the UMaine  
  researchers. As a result, they left few cultural materials there, but  
  enough for Hamley and her colleagues to find a discernible anthropogenic  
  and paleoecological footprint and conduct their study.  
    
    
    
  ==========================================================================  
  "These findings broaden our understanding of Indigenous movement and  
  activity in the remote and harsh South Atlantic Ocean," says Hamley,  
  a UMaine Ph.D.  
    
  student of ecology and environmental sciences. "This is really exciting  
  because it opens up new doors for collaborating with descendant Indigenous  
  communities to increase our understanding of past ecological changes  
  throughout the region.  
    
  People have long speculated that it was likely that Indigenous South  
  Americans had reached the Falkland Islands, so it is really rewarding  
  to get to play a role in helping bring that part of the past to life of  
  the islands."  UMaine researchers who participated in the study with  
  Hamley include her adviser, Jacquelyn Gill, an associate professor  
  of paleoecology and plant ecology; Daniel Sandweiss, a professor of  
  anthropology; and Brenda Hall, a professor of glacial geology.  
    
  Other investigators involved in the research include Dulcinea Groff,  
  a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Wyoming and  
  former UMaine Ph.D. student; Kathryn Krasinski, an assistant professor of  
  anthropology at Adelphi University; John Southon; a researcher with the  
  Department of Earth System Science at the University of California-Irvine;  
  Paul Brickle, executive director of the South Atlantic Environmental  
  Research Institute; and Thomas Lowell, a geology professor with the  
  University of Cincinnati.  
    
  Science Advances published a report of their findings.  
    
  Hamley's most recent study builds on her research into the warrah  
  (Dusicyon australis), an extinct species of fox. The warrah was the  
  only native and terrestrial mammal to reside on the Falkland Islands  
  at the time of European arrival. Subsequent hunting wiped the species  
  out in 1856, making it the first extinct canid in the historic record,  
  Hamley says.  
    
    
    
  ==========================================================================  
  For years, various scholars, including Charles Darwin, have debated the  
  warrah's origins and how it came to the islands. Hamley hypothesizes  
  that humans may have introduced the species to the archipelago prior  
  to European settlement. Many previously rejected the theory based on a  
  prior lack of scientific evidence, but the latest findings from Hamley's  
  team reopens that possibility, she says. Indigenous South Americans  
  may have domesticated warrah as they have with other foxes and canids,  
  and brought them to the islands during their voyages and short-term stays.  
    
  During a 2018 expedition to the islands, Hamely and her colleagues found  
  three warrah bone samples at Spring Point Farm in West Falkland. Carbon  
  dating and isotopic analysis revealed the warrah whose bones were analyzed  
  "had a marine- based diet consisting primarily of apex marine predators"  
  like sea lions and fur seals, a similar diet to seafaring Indigenious  
  South Americans in prehistoric times, according to researchers. While  
  these findings could reflect coastal scavenging, it may exemplify the  
  food their potential human counterparts were procuring and eating,  
  researchers say.  
    
  "This study has the potential to change the trajectory of future  
  ecological research in The Falklands," says Hamley. "The introduction of  
  a top predator, like the warrah, could have had profound implications  
  for the biodiversity of the islands, which are home to ground nesting  
  seabirds such as penguins, albatross and cormorants. It also changes  
  the ever-captivating story of past human-canine relationships. We know  
  that Indigenous South Americans domesticated foxes, but this study helps  
  show how potentially important these animals were to those communities  
  extending back thousands of years."  Hamley conducted her research  
  during three expeditions to the Falkland Islands in 2014, 2016 and  
  2018. During the 2016 journey, she participated in UMaine's Follow a  
  Researcher program, through which scientists give K-12 students a glimpse  
  of their work through live expedition updates, Twitter chats and videos.  
    
  The study led by Hamley contributes to the growing body of scientific  
  investigations into the ecological, anthropological and climate history of  
  the Falklands Islands conducted by UMaine researchers. A 2020 UMaine-led  
  study discovered that the establishment of seabird colonies on the  
  islands in response to an abrupt regional cooling period 5,000 years  
  ago changed its ecosystems.  
    
  "As the world warms, we hope our growing understanding of the  
  pre-colonial history of the Falklands will help decision-makers balance  
  the needs of wildlife and people, who rely on ecotourism, fisheries  
  and other industries," says Gill, an NSF CAREER researcher who was  
  named a 2020 Friend of the Planet by the National Center for Science  
  Education. "We're only just beginning to piece together the role people  
  played in the Falklands before European settlement. Because of centuries  
  of colonialism on the mainland, a lot of the oral knowledge about this  
  period was lost. Western science needs updating, and we hope future  
  work will be done in collaboration with the modern-day Indigenous  
  people in the region; their ancestors were the first experts here."  
  ==========================================================================  
  Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Maine. Note: Content  
  may be edited for style and length.  
    
    
  ==========================================================================  
  Journal Reference:  
     1. Kit M. Hamley, Jacquelyn L. Gill, Kathryn E. Krasinski, Dulcinea V.  
    
        Groff, Brenda L. Hall, Daniel H. Sandweiss, John R. Southon,  
        Paul Brickle, Thomas V. Lowell. Evidence of prehistoric human  
        activity in the Falkland Islands. Science Advances, 2021; 7 (44)  
        DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.abh3803  
  ==========================================================================  
    
  Link to news story:  
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211027150706.htm  
    
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