Did Humans Cause the Madagascar Extinctions? Or Not?

Stone tools and foraging in northern Madagascar challenge Holocene extinction models

Authors:

1. Robert E. Dewar (a)
2. Chantal Radimilahy (b)
3. Henry T. Wright (c,d)
4. Zenobia Jacobs (e)
5. Gwendolyn O. Kelly (f)
6. Francesco Berna (g)

Affiliations:

a. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8277;

b. Institute des Civilisations–Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie, L’Université d’Antananarivo, BP 564, Isoraka, Antananarivo, Madagascar;

c. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079;

d. The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501;

e. Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia 2522;

f. Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706; and

g. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6

Abstract:

Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar’s environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements, made on cherts and obsidian, some brought more that 200 km. 14C dates are contemporary with the earliest villages. No food remains are preserved. Lakaton’i Anja near Antsiranana in the north yielded several stratified assemblages. The latest assemblage is well dated to A.D. 1050–1350, by 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dating and pottery imported from the Near East and China. Below is a series of stratified assemblages similar to Ambohiposa. 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates indicate occupation from at least 2000 B.C. Faunal remains indicate a foraging pattern. Our evidence shows that foragers with a microlithic technology were active in Madagascar long before the arrival of farmers and herders and before many Late Holocene faunal extinctions. The differing effects of historically distinct economies must be identified and understood to reconstruct Holocene histories of human environmental impact.

I would think I would have heard this all over the place.  Its a bit odd that I have not.  Its a pretty important: when was Madagascar settled?  If it was settled as the conventional wisdom states, then people are the direct driver of the extinctions.  We show up and BOOM. If it was settled earlier, it was the later farmer culture which caused the extinctions.

Since no food traces have been found, that leave sa lot of questions.  Since no skeletal remains or burials sites have been found, I have to wonder...is there any history of forest folk or trolls or such Madagascar?  It would be amusing if there was another hominin...one which made it into historic times.  Yes, that counts as a crazy thought.  However, I need to fix issues with Crazy Thought 4.