The post-glacial fate of central European grasslands has stimulated palaeoecological debates for a century. Some argued for the continuous survival of open land, while others claimed that closed ...forest had developed during the Middle Holocene. The reasons behind stability or changes in the proportion of open land are also unclear. We aim to reconstruct regional vegetation openness and test the effects of climate and human impact on vegetation change throughout the Holocene. We present a newly dated pollen record from north-western fringes of the Pannonian Plain, east-central Europe, and reconstruct Holocene regional vegetation development by the REVEALS model for 27 pollen-equivalent taxa. Estimated vegetation is correlated in the same area with a human activity model based on all available archaeological information and a macrophysical climate model. The palaeovegetation record indicates the continuous presence of open land throughout the Holocene. Grasslands and open woodlands were probably maintained by local arid climatic conditions during the early Holocene delaying the spread of deciduous (oak) forests. Significantly detectable human-made landscape transformation started only after 2000 BC. Our analyses suggest that Neolithic people spread into a landscape that was already open. Humans probably contributed to the spread of oak, and influenced the dynamics of hazel and hornbeam.
•Pollen record and archaeological data infer open land cover in the past.•Continuous presence of grasslands throughout the Holocene.•Maintenance of open land by climate and human impact.•Neolithic people inhabited already open landscape.
Seemingly empty spaces in various archaeological settings have left many unanswered questions. This paper focuses on the appearance, maintenance and possible function of a large empty area situated ...at the summit plateau of the Iron Age oppidum Bibracte in France. Multidisciplinary research of the infill of the ditch that delimited this area in the 1st century BC has provided evidence on the primary function and the formation processes of the structure itself, and for the reconstruction of the appearance, maintenance and function of the area it enclosed. The results allow us to gain insight into a variety of topics, including the role of trees, hygiene measures and waste management strategies at this urbanised hilltop centre. This paper demonstrates that multi-proxy analyses provide detailed insight into the function of archaeological features in a local environmental context and the potential of such approaches in archaeology.
The natural setting and prehistoric human activity on Holocene floodplains in Central Europe is a compelling issue from several points of view. This environment presents an important sedimentary ...archive reflecting past human behaviour in interactions with climate change. Two sedimentary sections recorded in the alluvial zone of Svratka River (Moravia) with a buried soil dated to the time span between the Neolithic and Late Bronze Age, and comprising one paleo-catena, were investigated using a multiproxy approach. The buried paleo-catena presents evidence of long-term (ancient) soil development, and the use of the site for human settlement and farming ca. 4500 BC until 1000 BC. Buried soil horizons indicate (climate) stability, which according to archaeological evidence lasted for at least 3500 years, until at least 1000 BC. The architecture and the lithology of the river floodplain changes approximately 0 AD. Anthropogenic settlement activity was not detected at the site in the subsequent period, and this is very likely to be associated with increased sedimentation rates and less optimal conditions for human settlement.
Mountain summits in the Slovak part of the Western Carpathians bear evidence of human presence from the Late Bronze to the Late Iron Age. According to fire-induced changes in archaeological record ...and finds of weaponry, some of the extreme upland sites (EUS) were viewed as places of safety or
violently destroyed within a short period. We have focussed on three sites with summits at 1300–1550 m a. s. l. and found out that two of them were used in 650–400 calBC and 390–150 calBC, respectively. By the first systematic use of
C dating and targeted
C sampling, we have overcome the inherent chronological imprecision of their artefactual record and opened new vistas for interpretation of this type of sites.
•In Celtic oppida even the “empty spaces” were subject to high erosion in the past.•Modifications of soil morphology is mainly the result of human action.•Relicts of former landscape were recognized ...using micromorphology and geochemistry.•Landscape of La Terrasse has been well stabilized since the onset of the Middle Ages.
The area of La Terrasse is located at one of the higher parts of the Celtic oppidum Bibracte. No traces of building activities, except for the fortification system which surrounds the plateau from three sides, were archaeologically detected and the area can be therefore labeled as “empty space” with an enigmatic history. Multiproxy investigations of sediments in trenches cutting across various parts of the enclosed area and excavated during the 2019 season revealed a complicated history of the formation, being influenced by erosion and by anthropogenic stabilization.
Although the recent relief of the La Terrasse area appears quite stable, there is evidence that the site (and Bibracte oppidum in general) were subject to intense erosion in the past and that the former surface with the archaeological soil dated to the Late Iron Age is preserved only as a relict expressed geochemically by the increase of CEC. The reason for the recent surface stability is the presence of the Iron Age ramparts, which enclose the area and protect it against erosion. An OSL sample collected from the surface of the buried archaeological soil dates the overburden not later than to the early Medieval period (AD 561). The archaeological soil represented by the overburden did not reveal any significant geochemical signal indicative of intensive use despite its location in the most suitable and stable area of the site.
It is clear that the detection of former surfaces in eroded and exposed archaeological sites and the properties of the archaeological soils is always a complex matter and can only be addressed through a combination of field observations, geochemical and micromorphological proxies.
The history and continuity of lowland woodlands in Central Europe is closely connected with human activities. We studied a small wetland situated directly in a low-elevation oak-dominated woodland to ...evaluate the history and impact of humans on an oak woodland in south-eastern Slovakia. We used different proxies to obtain evidence of woodland history spanning at least 8,500 years. Pollen, diatom and physical analysis, including micromorphology, were used to study infill sediments and to determine the processes causing the influx of material into the wetland basin from its surroundings. The oak-dominated woodland community occurred throughout the Holocene, but its detailed history is impossible to trace because of reverse chronology caused by mixing of deposits. The stability of the oak woodland was determined by anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing. These disturbances are indicated by pollen taxa, signals of soil erosion in the deposits, and local development of the wetland that acted as drinking and hemp retting basin. The recent decline of human pressure has led to gradual changes in the species composition of the wetland itself (shrub encroachment) and of understory of the surrounding oak woodlands.
Using a multi-proxy analysis of a postglacial sedimentary sequence from a lowland wetland, we address the possible drivers of change in the wetland habitats and surrounding landscapes of southwestern ...Slovakia. A 5 m-deep core in the Parížske močiare marshes was investigated for pollen, plant macro-remains, molluscs, organic content and magnetic susceptibility. The palaeoecological record extends from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (≥11,200 cal. BP) to the 5th millennium cal. BP and was correlated with a macrophysical climate model (MCM) and archaeological data. Our results show the transformation of an open parkland landscape with patches of coniferous forest to a temperate deciduous forest at the onset of the Holocene. The record is remarkable for an early occurrence of Quercus pollen and macro-remains around 11,200 cal. BP and its early expansion (10,390 cal. BP) in the vegetation. Such an early spread of Quercus has not previously been recorded in the region, where Corylus is usually the first to expand among temperate trees. This unusual development of forest communities was most probably triggered by a short-lived increase in precipitation and decrease in temperature, as reconstructed by the MCM model. Higher moisture availability and low temperature inhibited Corylus and favoured the spread of Quercus. Later, the climate became drier and warmer, which, together with fires, supported the expansion of Corylus. Since 7300 cal. BP, human activities became most likely the dominant influence on the landscape. Deforestation contributed to soil erosion, which halted the accumulation of organic material after 5520 cal. BP, followed by the accumulation of clay sediments.
•New δ15N values from prehistoric and Medieval cereal grains from Czech Republic.•New data from modern cereal crop agricultural experiments.•Comparison of prehistoric European δ15N values of cereals ...grains.•Different approach to manuring of various cereals, predominantly barley.•Rotation of fields and settlements as an alternative way of fertilization.
The study presents nitrogen isotope data from prehistoric and Medieval charred cereal grains and grains from modern experiments in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The results are consistent with δ15N values of cereals from other European countries. Various crops were manured differently, perhaps according to specific societal needs. Surprisingly, the highest (but also the lowest) δ15N value is found in barley. In modern experiments, means of fertilisation other than farmyard manure were tested. Based on these findings, and on soil analysis and prehistoric settlement activity observed within an agricultural landscape, we propose an alternative method for maintaining soil productivity by the periodic movement of fields within the settlement areas into places intensively fertilised by abandoned habitation areas, and vice versa.
The results of the isotopic analysis of more than 700 archaeobotanical samples of cereal grains from Europe show that the improvement and maintenance of good soil productivity by adding organic material has been practised everywhere, to a greater or lesser extent, since the very beginnings of agricultural history, and confirm the high level of skill in prehistoric and Early Medieval farming practices.
There is still not enough palaeoecological data from the southwestern part of the Western Carpathians, where mountain ridges steeply rise from the dry and warm Pannonian basin. The reason is a low ...availability of sites with sediments harbouring fossil remains. In the Považský Inovec Mts, two small protected calcareous wetlands occur in different geographical position and contain suitable sediments. One represents a foothill site (initiated ca 13,000 cal. BP) whereas the other a low-mountain site (initiated ca 7,400 cal. BP). We investigated fossil pollen, spores, and macroscopic remains of plants and molluscs from their sediments. We further reviewed archaeological data, constructed a macrophysical climate model (MCM) and confronted it with other palaeoclimatic proxies. Temperate deciduous trees (Quercus, Corylus and Ulmus) occurred since the Allerød, but their expansion was blocked by a harsh climate in Younger Dryas, when Larix, Pinus and Betula nana still occurred. The climate firstly moistened at ca 9,500 cal. BP and more distinctly at ca 8,500 cal. BP, which was reflected by a strong calcium carbonate precipitation and expansion of Tilia cordata t., Hedera helix, and Ustulina. Although the MCM predicted a rather stable climate since 8,000 cal. BP, certain changes in aquatic mollusc abundances may indicate hydrological fluctuations, as they are paralleled by changes in climate humidity indicated by other evidence from the Western Carpathians. Younger hydrological fluctuations may be alternatively explained by human activities as they correspond with macro-charcoal abundance and indicators of wetland openness. During their existence, both fens harboured only few fen plant and mollusc species specialized to low-productive sedge-moss fens. In the Middle Holocene both sites were encroached by woody plants (Alnus, Picea and Salix), as most other spring fens in the Western Carpathians. Contrary to some other spring fens with similar site conditions in the Western Carpathians, few fen specialists established in the study sites since deforestation, presumably because of severe disturbances caused by grazing and/or hemp retting instead of the usual mowing.
The population boom-and-bust during the European Neolithic (7000–2000 BC) has been the subject of lively discussion for the past decade. Most of the research on this topic was carried out with help ...of summed radiocarbon probability distributions. We aim to reconstruct population dynamics within the catchment of a medium sized lake on the basis of information on the presence of all known past human activities. We calculated a human activity model based on Monte Carlo simulations. The model showed the lowest level of human activity between 4000 and 3000 BC. For a better understanding of long-term socio-environmental dynamics, we also used the results of a pollen-based quantitative vegetation model, as well as a local macrophysical climate model. The beginning of the decline of archaeologically visible human activities corresponds with climatic changes and an increase in secondary forest taxa probably indicating more extensive land use. In addition, social and technological innovations are important, such as the introduction of the ard, wheel, animal traction and metallurgy, as well as changes in social hierarchy characterizing the same period.
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