"Environmental changes in southern Nigeria during the Late Holocene:
possible causative factors"

Professor Adebisi Sowunmi
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology

4:00 p.m., HUMN 150, Tuesday April 29

Palynological studies have shown that mangrove forest, dominated by the
red mangrove, /Rhizophora,/ was abundant in the west African coast in
the early and middle Holocene. In the late Holocene, this mangrove
either disappeared abruptly or became drastically reduced. Along with
the disappearance of /Rhizophora /were the establishment of coastal
savannas, decrease in rain forest and increase in secondary forest.
Archaeological evidence from southern Nigeria seems to support the
palynological indication that this very drastic change in vegetation,
though primarily caused by natural factors, was likely to have been
exacerbated by human action from some time after ca. 3,109 ± 26 BP. The
significance of the human factor in the destruction of this important
coastal ecosystem is highlighted.