Palaeoecological Evidence for Possible Pre-European Settlement in the Falkland Islands

Abstract It is widely assumed that the first human presence in the South Atlantic Falkland Islands was European, yet Hawkins in 1594 noted a populated island with “many Fires” and Darwin observed in 1834 that canoes were among the driftwood on the Falklands, presumably having come from Tierra del Fuego. We present palaeoecological evidence of burning from East Falkland dating back to before 4780±80  BP and raise the possibility of humanly caused fires.