Columbus’ footprint in Hispaniola: A paleoenvironmental record of indigenous and colonial impacts on the landscape of the central Cibao Valley, northern Dominican Republic

•We show a first 1100-yr multi-proxy record along the ‘Ruta de Colón’ in the DominicanRepublic.•Indigenous slash-and-burn small-scale agriculture produced clearings in a forested landscape during Pre-Columbian times.•European colonization caused the abandonment of indigenous agricultural fields.•Colonial land use shows the rapid implementation of cattle grazing and the progressive cultivation of Old World crops.