title: Fire history on the California Channel Islands spanning human arrival in the Americas.
abstract: Recent studies have suggested that the first arrival of humans in the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age is associated with marked anthropogenic influences on landscape; in particular, with the use of fire which, would have given even small populations the ability to have broad impacts on the landscape. Understanding the impact of these early people is complicated by the dramatic changes in climate occurring with the shift from glacial to interglacial conditions. Despite these difficulties, we here attempt to test the extent of anthropogenic influence using the California Channel Islands as a smaller, landscape-scale test bed. These islands are famous for the discovery of the 'Arlington Springs Man', which are some of the earliest human remains in the Americas. A unifying sedimentary charcoal record is presented from Arlington Canyon, Santa Rosa Island, based on over 20 detailed sedimentary sections from eight key localities. Radiocarbon dating was based on thin, fragile, long fragments of charcoal in order to avoid the 'inbuilt' age problem. Radiocarbon dating of 49 such fragments has allowed inferences regarding the fire and landscape history of the Canyon ca 19-11 ka BP. A significant period of charcoal deposition is identified approximately 14-12.5 ka BP and bears remarkable closeness to an estimated age range of the first human arrival on the islands.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK mark.hardiman@port.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hardiman
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pinter
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: R Scott
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: UMR 6042, GEOLAB, CNRS, 4 rue Ledru, 63057 Clermont-Ferrand cedex 1, France GEOLAB, Université Clermont Auvergne, Université Blaise Pascal, BP 10448, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ejarque
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carter-Champion
authors.affiliation: Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU), Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA), University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Staff
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D002140:California; D017753:Ecosystem; D005390:Fires; D006801:Humans; D062312:Islands; D010163:Paleontology
keywords: Arlington springs man; charcoal; fire; landscape history; radiocarbon dating