Testing deforestation narratives in the Pare Mountains of Tanzania; archaeological and geoarchaeological perspectives.

The earliest European travellers to visit the Pare Highlands in northeastern Tanzania during the mid- to late nineteenth century remark with surprise that the area had few forests, and assume that this resulted from deforestation by the local population. Noting the extent and variety of local cultivation, extensive areas of agricultural terracing, and numerous small-scale ironworking areas, these travellers suggest that deforestation may be relatively recent, and attribute the largely tree-less landscape to a combination of
clearances for agriculture and to charcoal production by iron smiths and smelters. Work on colluvial deposits outlined in this session by Heckmann, however, suggests that changes to the vegetation in and around North Pare led to severe erosion from the Early Iron Age onwards, becoming more pronounced during the last 1000 years. This paper will present details of archaeological features such as iron smelting and smithing furnaces that can be stratigraphically located within these colluvial sequences recorded by Heckmann, and in doing so aims to help date periods of soil erosion, and to relate these to human actions within the landscape.