Abrupt climate change, hurricanes, and the rise and fall of a Taíno village

Here we provide a multi-proxy record of climate and vegetation change during the last 1500 years from a flooded sinkhole (Cenote Jennifer) on the north coast of central Cuba. The proxy data include O and C isotopes measured on benthic foraminifera, elemental composition by XRF core-scanning, and fossil pollen, with a Pb-210- and C-14-based chronology. The geochemical data records an abrupt and high-magnitude shift to drier conditions from ~900 to 1200 CE which corresponds to the Terminal Classic Droughts. Between ~1200 to 1650 CE, conditions were relatively humid, before becoming drier again between ~1650 to 1700 CE, coincident with the Little Ice Age. The pollen data show that forest pollen taxa decreased, and grasses increased, during these drier periods, indicating a response of the local vegetation to hydroclimatic change. In addition, our results have important implications for prehistoric archaeology. The region of Cenote Jennifer is home to one of the largest and best preserved prehistoric settlements in the Caribbean, Los Buchillones, which was occupied by the Taíno from ~1220 to 1640 CE. Consisting of approximately 40 collapsed houses, the site is preserved in a lagoon under approximately 1 m of water. Geoarchaeological investigations suggest that the houses were constructed on piles, possibly as an adaptation to sea level rise, coastal erosion, and episodic storm surges. The paleoclimatic data from Cenote Jennifer indicates that the beginning and end of the occupation period coincided with humid conditions between ~1220 to 1650 CE, and that site abandonment is closely associated with the onset of the Little Ice Age. This suggests a close climatic control on settlement occupation, possibly through its impact on marine resources and agriculture. Moreover, paleotempestological data from the Bahamas shows that the period from ~1220 to 1640 CE represented a time of relatively active hurricane activity, which may partly explain the presence of a pile village, again as a way to cope with flooding from episodic storms. Our paleoenvironmental and archaeological data thus permit hypotheses concerning vulnerability and resilience in coastal zones to be tested in a prehistoric context.