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Radiocarbon-Dated Pollen and Sediment Records From Near the Boylston Street Fishweir Site in Boston, Massachusetts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paige E. Newby  and
Thompson Webb III
Paige E. Newby
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Box 1846, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
Thompson Webb III
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Box 1846, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
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Abstract

A radiocarbon-dated pollen record near the Boylston Street Fishweir site in Boston; Massachusetts, provides a regional and local record of vegetation changes from the middle Holocene to present. The stratigraphy begins about 5630 ± 90 yr B.P. with a marine transgression and is continuous up to the historic backfilling of the Back Bay area about 100 yr B.P. When pollen began accumulating at the site, the immediate area resembled the swamp forests growing today in southern New England. Fresh- and brackish-water vegetation was present before the area near the site was submerged. While these vegetation changes occurred locally, oak forest grew in the region. Correlation of this stratigraphy with archaeological data collected from 500 Boylston Street indicates that between 4700 and 3700 yr B.P., a number of fence-like alignments ("weirs"), were probably placed within existing channels and/or along shorelines to capture fish and other marine animals as they moved with the tidal flow.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , March 1994 , pp. 214 - 224
Copyright
University of Washington

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