Historical field systems are an essential part of the traditional cultural landscape of societies with primarily agricultural subsistence. They embody many functions and values, as they affect the ...productional, ecological and hydrological functioning of the landscape, its cultural values, the way people perceive the landscape, and their impact on present-day farming. As an aspect of the historical landscape, field systems are a topic investigated in landscape archaeology, environmental studies, historical geography, landscape ecology, and related disciplines. Historical field systems can form many complex spatial structures, shapes and patterns. This paper focuses on identifying environmental and historical/cultural driving forces during the formation and the historical development of various field pattern types. We worked with 523 settlements established in the medieval to the early modern period (approx. 900-1600 AD) in the present-day Czech Republic. We have determined the proportions of different field pattern types in the examined cadastres and have statistically compared them with a variety of environmental and geographical predictors. Our results indicate a strong influence of environmental predictors (terrain undulation, cadastre size), the impact of specific historical events and associated social changes (e.g. land confiscations by the state in the seventeenth century), and a significant relationship between field pattern types and settlement layout types. Furthermore, we have observed the different adaptations of field pattern types to similar environmental conditions, as well as the impact of social and political factors on the processes of landscape formation. Our paper provides the first detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of traditional field systems on the scale of an entire modern state, and emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary research on cultural landscapes.
The reconstruction of the settlement´s hinterland and acquisition of plant resources is one of the crucial questions in the field of environmental archaeology. Our study is focused on the ...reconstruction of the settlement's structure and character of the environment from which the site drew resources. These research questions were addressed by the interpretation of plant macroremains, charcoals, and the results of the spatial model. We have focused on the maximum size of the settlement that the surrounding countryside was able to withstand. Our results clearly demonstrated significant deforestation and intensive land use in the vicinity of the Late Bronze Age study site. As the weed taxa showed, a wide range of crops was grown in rather dry or less often in damp fields. Based on our archaeobotanical results, we were able to reconstruct several types of grasslands: dry pastures and fallow fields on plateaus and slopes, wet pastures or meadows in the floodplain. Acidophilous oak forests, alluvial forests, and shrubs were reconstructed as the most common forest habitats in the vicinity of the study site. Based on the archaeological knowledge of the region, we assume relatively low population density during the Late Bronze Age, and thus only a small part of the more or less forested landscape was significantly affected by human activities.
Settlement history is an interdisciplinary topic which connects history, archaeology, paleoecology, historical geography and other scientific disciplines. In Central Europe, one of important ...questions regards the dating of origin of medieval settlements. In 2020, our team published a study comparing the dating obtained from medieval written records with archaeological data (Fanta et al., 2020). Recently, Kolář and Szabó (2021) wrote a comment in which they criticised several aspects of our original study. They also suggested a new interpretation of our data based on their own reanalysis, the results of which are strikingly different from ours. We admit that many remarks raised by our colleagues are relevant and meaningful (filtering and selection of archaeological data, pottery chronology); that said, we believe that most of them have a negligible effect on the main results of our study. The reanalysis of our data by Kolář and Szabó is, however, fundamentally flawed. Their conclusion that “time lag between historical and archaeological dating can increase with time” has no backing in data; it is a mere statistical artifact produced by using inappropriate calculations and misinterpreting the results. In conclusion: A careful and correct analysis of our data indicates that the systematic upward bias in dating based on written sources is larger for earlier settlements.
In various research fields, from archaeology to landscape history and ecology, it is important to know the date of the origin of historical settlements (i.e. towns, villages, hamlets, isolated farms) ...as precisely as possible. In Central Europe, there are two primary ways to obtain the date when a settlement was founded: “historical dating” (based on historical written sources) and “archaeological dating” (based on archaeological findings). Historical dating usually does not reflect the real time of origin, since the first reference to a settlement in written sources can be recorded many years after the real origin of the settlement. However, the time lag is unknown. Until now, no study has attempted to show exactly how the time lag differs in different centuries, or whether the time lag has been affected by any geographical factors.
This paper compares the dates of origin from archaeological data and from written sources of medieval and early modern settlements (n = 527, AD 850–1600) in the present-day Czech Republic. We also tested the influence of local environmental conditions on the time lag. Our comparison shows that the time lag has been decreasing with the passing of calendar years (from a time lag of 250 years for AD 1000 to approx. 80 years for AD 1400). Towns and places close to major towns also have a shorter time lag in their historical dating (the difference is almost 100 years).
These results make an interpretation of the historical dating of medieval towns and villages more complicated. The length of the time lag and its dispersion means that, for the purposes of settlement dating, historical dating needs to be combined with other dating methods (especially in the medieval period). Our results also identify a possible bias in the chronology of landscape transformation.
•Written sources are not reliable for dating medieval settlements in Central Europe.•We have assessed the concordance between written sources and archaeological data.•The usual time lag in written sources decreases with increasing calendar year.•Around AD 1200, the typical time lag of written sources is 150 years.•Around AD 1600, written sources agree with archaeological data in 70% of the cases.
The Late Neolithic palafitte site, Ustie na Drim, in the northern part of Lake Ohrid (North Macedonia), excavated in 1962, offered ceramic fragments of large, flat, elongated pans. These artifacts ...could be dated by relative chronology to roughly around 5200–5000 BC. According to their shape and technological traits, the ceramic pans were probably used for baking. The attached materials on the surface of studied pan fragments were sampled for consequent chemical and microscopical analyses (i.e., analyses of starch, phytoliths, and microscopic animal remains). An immunological method revealed the presence of pork proteins in samples. The presence of organic residues of animal origin was, moreover, confirmed by the detection of cholesterol using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Analysis of detected microscopic botanical objects revealed starch grains of several plants (i.e., oak, cattail, and grasses). An interesting find was the hair of a beetle larva, which could be interpreted contextually as the khapra beetle, a pest of grain and flour. Based on our data, we suppose that the ceramic pans from Ustie na Drim were used for the preparation of meals containing meat from common livestock in combination with cereals and wild plants.
•Historical land-use was reflected by anthropogenic chemical signatures in the soil.•The most enriched built-up area soils contrasted with the most depleted forest soils.•All soils were affected by ...sub-recent lead deposition.•The content of the elements was correlated between the A, B, and C horizons.
Past human activities can be reflected in the elemental composition of contemporary soils. We asked how much historical land-use identified according to historical maps is reflected by the multi-elemental signatures of soils in an originally medieval village abandoned after WWII.
Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, we determined the content of 24 elements in soil samples from former arable fields, field boundaries, forests, built-up area, and permanent grasslands.
Previous human activities were connected with the accumulation of 13 elements such as the usually thus interpreted P, Ca, Zn, and Cu, but also with elements rarely used in archaeological studies such as Mg, K, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Rb, Zr, and Sr.
The content of P, Ca, Cu, Zn, Ni, Fe, V, Cr, and Zr decreased on former fields with the distance from the most enriched built-up area. This can be explained by the most intensive deposition of biomass ashes and manuring of gardens and fields close to the village. With the exception of Pb accumulated sub-recently because of aerial deposition, the lowest content of anthropogenic elements was recorded in continuous forest.
The chemical signatures recorded were much stronger than those in previously studied medieval villages in the Czech Republic abandoned in the 15th or 16th centuries. This is because of the long period of the settlement’s existence since medieval times and in addition because of the short time since its abandonment. Although frequently neglected, the multi-elemental composition of soils in deserted settlements can be considered as cultural heritage similarly to the relicts of buildings or still visible field patterns.
In this study, a soil from two ceramic vessels belonging to Corded Ware culture, 2707⁻2571 B.C., found in a cremation grave discovered in Central Moravia, Czech Republic, was analyzed using ...matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization⁻mass spectrometry (MALDI⁻MS) combined with advanced statistical treatment (principal component analysis, PCA, and orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis, OPLS-DA) and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). MALDI⁻MS revealed the presence of triacylglycerols in both vessels. This analytical technique was used for the analysis of the soil content from archaeological ceramic vessels for the first time. Targeted ELISA experiments consequently proved the presence of milk proteins in both ceramic vessels. These results represent the first direct evidence of the use of milk or dairy products in the Eneolithic period in Moravian Corded Ware Culture and help to better understand the diet habits and living conditions of Eneolithic populations in Central Europe.
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