Sedimentary sequences in western Uganda as records of human environmental impacts

Relatively few sediment-based studies in equatorial Africa have as their focus improved understanding of the history of human-enviromnent interrelationships. Instead their emphasis has tended to be reconstructions of past climate or vegetation, or in some cases both. A review of this previously published work for western Uganda reveals evidence for forest clearance and changes in soil conditions that can be attributed to human activity. Human-induced signals remain strong in periods of concomitant climate change. A holistic view of environmental change results from a combination of this evidence with palaeoclimatic and archaeological information from independent sources and leads to the conclusion that environmental factors contributed to some changes in human activity. None of the sediment records described in this paper were originally collected as part of archaeological studies and the sediments may include as yet uncovered evidence of human-environment interrelationships. There is a need for sediment-based studies that are closely tied to archaeological research, and for the development and incorporation within these of a much wider range of models and proxies of humanenvironment interrelationships than is presently the case.