scholarly journals Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Schwörer ◽  
Erika Gobet ◽  
Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen ◽  
Sarah Bögli ◽  
Rachel Imboden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Fire Dynamics

AbstractObserving natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of Pinus sylvestris and Betula with continental Larix decidua and Pinus cembra established in the region around 13,450 cal bp, replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was Ulmus at 11,800 cal bp, followed by Quercus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia and Corylus ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica established at ca. 6,000 cal bp, coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal bp. Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.

scholarly journals Human impact and population dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Multi-proxy evidence from north-western Central Europe

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1596-1606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Feeser ◽  
Walter Dörfler ◽  
Jutta Kneisel ◽  
Martin Hinz ◽  
Stefan Dreibrodt
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Relative Population ◽  
Erosion History ◽  
North Western

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of increasing and decreasing human activity are understood as ‘boom and bust’ phases in population density/size. Based on the comparison of the three proxies, we identify five phases of growing (boom) and four phases of decreasing (bust) population. The boom phases date to ca. 4000–3500, 3000–2900, 2200–2100, 1450–1300 and 1000–750 cal. BC. The bust phases to ca. 3200–3000, 2400–2300, 1650–1500 and 1200–1100 cal. BC.

The reconstruction of past forest dynamics over the last 13,500 years in SW Sweden

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1791-1800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina E Hannon ◽  
Karen Halsall ◽  
Chiara Molinari ◽  
John Boyle ◽  
Richard HW Bradshaw
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Forest Composition ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Deciduous Trees ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Forest Continuity ◽  
Saproxylic Species

Evidence for unbroken continuity of tree taxa over the last c. 13,500 years is presented from a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ nature reserve in south-west Sweden. Forest composition, continuity, fire and disturbance events are reconstructed using palaeoecological methods. A lake record reveals that Pinus sylvestris, Betula spp., Salix spp., Populus tremula and Hippophae rhamnoides were the initial trees scattered in a semi-open, steppe environment. This developed into forest with Pinus, Betula, Corylus, Alnus, Ulmus and Populus with evidence for frequent fires. Deciduous trees became more significant as fires became less frequent and Quercus, Fraxinus and Tilia expanded. Fire frequencies increased again in the Bronze Age probably associated with anthropogenic use of the forest, and the first Fagus sylvatica pollen was recorded. Burning continued through the Iron Age, but charcoal is briefly absent for a period often referred to as the ‘Late Iron Age Lull’. The forest re-expanded with successions involving Juniperus, but with an altered composition from the earlier mixed deciduous community, to one dominated by Fagus. This is coincident with the first pollen records for Picea abies. The early Holocene mixed forest with frequent low-intensity fires is potentially associated with the greatest diversity of red-listed insect species. Forest continuity and the fragmented reservoir populations of old deciduous trees in the Fagus-dominated forest today are likely to have been critical in preserving the present-day, species-rich, rare epiphytic flora, wood-inhabiting fungi and invertebrate communities. As many of these forest fragments may become more vulnerable with future climate change, tree diversity with some disturbance may become essential for survival of the endangered saproxylic species.

Rediscovering the Body: Cremation and Inhumation in Early Iron Age Central Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Cultural Entity

The Late Bronze Age Urnfield Period in Central Europe (BA D, Ha A/B, c.1300 to 800 BC) is characterized by the dominance of cremation as a burial rite. The simple appearance of urn burials give an impression of simplicity, but they are the endpoint of a chain of actions and practices that constitute the funerary ritual, many of which may not be simple at all, but include a large number of people and resources. The washing, dressing, and furnishing of the body as it is laid out prior to cremation leave no traces. The funerary pyre, as spectacular as it may have looked, smelled, and felt during the cremation, preserves only under exceptional circumstances. The rituals and feasts associated with selecting the cremated remains from the funerary pyre and placing them in a suitable organic container or a ceramic urn prior to their deposition do not leave much evidence. The large-scale spread of cremation during the Late Bronze Age has traditionally been explained by the movements of peoples (e.g. Kraft 1926; Childe 1950), or a change in religious beliefs (e.g. Alexander 1979). More recently, a change in how the human body is ontologically understood and how it has to be transformed after death is seen as the more likely underlying cause (Harris et al. 2013; Robb and Harris 2013; Sørensen and Rebay-Salisbury in prep.), although a simple and single reason is rarely the driver of such pan-European developments. This chapter will be concerned with another transition, the change from cremation back to inhumation, several hundred years later during the Early Iron Age, and investigates its background and causes. In Central Europe, cremation is given up as the solitary funerary rite, and a range of different options, including inhumations in burial mounds, bi-ritual cemeteries, and new forms of cremation graves emerge. This change happens at a different pace in the various areas of the Hallstatt Culture and adjacent areas, which will be surveyed here. Despite doubts about the validity of the term ‘Hallstatt Culture’ as a cultural entity (e.g. Müller-Scheeßel 2000), it remains a convenient shorthand to the Early Iron Age in Central Europe, c.800–450 BC, in eastern France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of northern Italy.

scholarly journals The prehistoric human impact on slope development at the archaeological site in Smólsk (Kuyavian Lakeland)

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Kittel
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Slope Deposits ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractPeriods of intense human impact on the relief and lithology of the area of the Smólsk site were recorded during geoarchaeological research accompanying archaeological field work. The phases of occupation of the area are known in detail from the results of the large-scale archaeological research of the site. The slope deposits with buried soils were recorded at the site area and researched in detail with the use of sedimentological, geochemical and micromorphological analyses. Beside geochronological deterioration, the chronology of the artefacts found in layers played an important role in the strict recognition of the age of deposits. The lower part of the studied slope cover is constituted by deluvium and the upper part by tillage diamicton. The origin and the development of the slope deposits are correlated with the phases of an intense prehistoric human impact as defined by the archaeological research. Four main phases of acceleration of slope processes were documented at the site and date to the Early Neolithic, the Middle Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals 6200 years of human activities and environmental change in the northern central Alps

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens von Scheffer ◽  
Annika Lange ◽  
François De Vleeschouwer ◽  
Joachim Schrautzer ◽  
Ingmar Unkel
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Enrichment Factors ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Central Alps ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Palaeoenvironmental Change ◽  
Metallurgical Activities

Abstract. In this study, we combine erosion and anthropogenic proxies (Ti, Pb) from calibrated portable XRF with pollen and radiocarbon chronologies in peat from mires of the Kleinwalser Valley (Kleinwalsertal, Vorarlberg, Austria) to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental change and human impact in the northern central Alps. Favoured by a wetter climate, two analysed mires formed 6200 years ago in a densely forested valley. Landscape opening suggests that the first anthropogenic impact emerged around 5700 to 5300 cal BP. Contemporaneously, lead enrichment factors (Pb EFs) indicate metallurgical activities, predating the earliest archaeological evidence in the region. Pollen and erosion proxies show that large-scale deforestation and land use by agro-pastoralists took place from the mid- to late Bronze Age (3500 to 2800 cal BP). This period was directly followed by a prominent peak in Pb EF, pointing to metallurgical activities again. After 200 cal CE, a rising human impact was interrupted by climatic deteriorations in the first half of the 6th century CE, probably linked to the Late Antique Little Ice Age. The use of the characteristic Pb EF pattern of modern pollution as a time marker allows us to draw conclusions about the last centuries. These saw the influence of the Walser people, arriving in the valley after 1300 cal CE. Later, the beginning of tourism is reflected in increased erosion signals after 1950 cal CE. Our study demonstrates that prehistoric humans were intensively shaping the Kleinwalser Valley's landscape, well before the arrival of the Walser people. It also demonstrates the importance of palaeoenvironmental multiproxy studies to fill knowledge gaps where archaeological evidence is lacking.

scholarly journals Palaeobotanical studies on Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation development and transformations of the ‘Wielkie Błoto’ mire near Gołdap (north-eastern Poland)

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek ◽  
Piotr Kołaczek ◽  
Renata Stachowicz-Rybka
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Vegetation Development ◽  
Carpinus Betulus ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Late Glacial And Holocene ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of palynological, macrofossil and peat analyses that were conducted on deposits from a profile collected from the Wielkie Błoto mire near Bałupiany (north eastern Poland). The investigation revealed that the recorded changes of vegetation span the period from the decline of the Younger Dryas (ca 9600 cal. yr BC) to the late Subboreal or early Subatlantic chronozone, but due to a 40 cm long sediment gap a complete reconstruction was not possible. At the beginning, the area was occupied by steppe and tundra communities together with abundant Juniperus stands. A subsequent expansion of birch (Betula) woodlands with pine (Pinus sylvestris) took place in the Preboreal chronozone in which a rise in the water level and/or basin deepening was recorded at the site as well. The domination of such woodlands lasted to the end of the Boreal chronozone when Corylus avellana expanded rapidly. In the Atlantic chronozone multispecies deciduous forests developed with Tilia cordata and Quercus, while Ulmus together with Alnus spread in damp habitats. During this chronozone, traces of the occurrence of Carpinus betulus were detected in the macrofossil analysis, while the pollen analysis failed to record its presence. The expansion of Carpinus betulus and Picea abies was characteristic of the Subboreal chronozone when both taxa presented antagonistic optima. Alone in north-eastern Poland, there was a re-expansion of deciduous forest in the younger part of the Subboreal chronozone caused probably by low human impact, which is reflected in the whole profile. The first probable traces of human activity were noticed in the Atlantic chronozone and attributed to peoples of the Mesolithic or Early Neolithic cultures, while the first evidence of cultivation was correlated to the Bronze Age. However, the low resolution of the radiocarbon dates did not allow a more precise reconstruction of the chronology. The analysis of macrofossils and tissues indicated two episodes of oligotrophication of the mire. The first one took place during the Boreal chronozone, while the second fall in trophy was triggered by spruce expansion in the Subboreal chronozone. On the other hand, a rise in human impact during the first Carpinus betulus maximum caused eutrophication of the mire.

Late-glacial and Post-glacial history of the Chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent

1964 ◽  
Vol 248 (745) ◽  
pp. 135-204 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Valley Floor ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Arable Farming ◽  
History Of

This paper describes the morphology of a small piece of the Chalk escarpment near Brook in east Kent, and reconstructs its history since the end of the Last Glaciation. The escarpment contains a number of steep-sided valleys, or coombes, with which are associated deposits of chalk debris, filling their bottoms and extending as fans over the Gault Clay plain beyond. Here the fans overlie radiocarbon-dated marsh deposits of zone II (10 000 to 8800 B.C.) of the Late-glacial Period. The debris fans were formed and the coombes were cut very largely during the succeeding zone III (8800 to 8300 B.C.). The fans are the products of frost-shattering, probably transported by a combination of niveo-fluvial action and the release of spring waters; intercalated seams of loess also occur. The molluscs and plants preserved in the Late-glacial deposits give a fairly detailed picture of local conditions. The later history of one of the coombes, the Devil’s Kneadingtrough, is reconstructed. The springs have effected virtually no erosion and have probably always emerged more or less in their present position. In the floor of the coombe the periglacial chalk rubbles of zone III are covered by Postglacial deposits, mainly hillwashes. They are oxidized and yield no pollen, but contain rich faunas of land Mollusca, which are presented in the form of histograms revealing changing local ecological and climatic conditions. During most of the Post-glacial Period, from the end of zone III until about the beginning of zone VIII, very little accumulation took place on the coombe floor. But below the springs there are marsh deposits which span much of this interval. They yield faunas of considerable zoogeographical interest. The approximate beginning of zone VII a (Atlantic Period) is reflected by a calcareous tufa, which overlies a weathering horizon, and represents an increase in spring flow. Two clearance phases are deduced from the molluscan record. The first may have taken place at least as early as the Beaker Period (Late Neolithic/earliest Bronze Age); the second is probably of Iron Age ‘A’ date. In Iron Age times the subsoil was mobilized and a phase of rapid hillwashing began. As a result the valley floor became buried by humic chalk muds. The prime cause of this process was probably the beginning of intensive arable farming on the slopes above the coombe; a possible subsidiary factor may have been the Sub-Atlantic worsening of climate. The muds yield pottery ranging in date from Iron Age ‘Kentish first A’ ( ca . 500 to ca . 300 B.C.) to Romano-British ware of the first or second centuries A.D. Evidence is put forward for a possible climatic oscillation from dry to wet taking place at about the time of Christ. In the later stages of cultivation, possibly in the Roman Era, the valley floor was ploughed and given its present-day form.

scholarly journals Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (30) ◽  
pp. 17710-17719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Krajcarz ◽  
Maciej T. Krajcarz ◽  
Mateusz Baca ◽  
Chris Baumann ◽  
Wim Van Neer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Trophic Ecology ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Isotopic Signature ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Domestic Cats ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Early Farmers

Cat remains from Poland dated to 4,200 to 2,300 y BCE are currently the earliest evidence for the migration of the Near Eastern cat (NE cat), the ancestor of domestic cats, into Central Europe. This early immigration preceded the known establishment of housecat populations in the region by around 3,000 y. One hypothesis assumed that NE cats followed the migration of early farmers as synanthropes. In this study, we analyze the stable isotopes in six samples of Late Neolithic NE cat bones and further 34 of the associated fauna, including the European wildcat. We approximate the diet and trophic ecology of Late Neolithic felids in a broad context of contemporary wild and domestic animals and humans. In addition, we compared the ecology of Late Neolithic NE cats with the earliest domestic cats known from the territory of Poland, dating to the Roman Period. Our results reveal that human agricultural activity during the Late Neolithic had already impacted the isotopic signature of rodents in the ecosystem. These synanthropic pests constituted a significant proportion of the NE cat’s diet. Our interpretation is that Late Neolithic NE cats were opportunistic synanthropes, most probably free-living individuals (i.e., not directly relying on a human food supply). We explore niche partitioning between studied NE cats and the contemporary native European wildcats. We find only minor differences between the isotopic ecology of both these taxa. We conclude that, after the appearance of the NE cat, both felid taxa shared the ecological niches.

scholarly journals An Atlantic streamer in stratospheric ozone observations and SD-WACCM simulation data

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klemens Hocke ◽  
Franziska Schranz ◽  
Eliane Maillard Barras ◽  
Lorena Moreira ◽  
Niklaus Kämpfer
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surf Zone ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Sudden Increase ◽  
Nonlinear Transport

Abstract. Observation and simulation of individual ozone streamers are important for the description and understanding of nonlinear transport processes in the middle atmosphere. A sudden increase in mid-stratospheric ozone occurred above Central Europe on December 4, 2015. The GROunbased Millimeter-wave Ozone Spectrometer (GROMOS) and the Stratospheric Ozone MOnitoring RAdiometer (SOMORA) in Switzerland measured an ozone enhancement of about 30 % at 34 km altitude from December 1 to December 4. A similar ozone increase is simulated by the Specified Dynamics-Whole Atmosphere Community Climate (SD-WACCM) model. Further, the global ozone fields at 34 km altitude from SD-WACCM and the satellite experiment Aura/MLS show a remarkable agreement for the location and the timing of an ozone streamer (large-scale tongue like structure) extending from the subtropics in Northern America over the Atlantic to Central Europe. This agreement indicates that SD-WACCM can inform us about the wind inside the Atlantic ozone streamer. SD-WACCM shows an eastward wind of about 100 m/s inside the Atlantic streamer in the mid-stratosphere. SD-WACCM shows that the Atlantic streamer flows along the edge region of the polar vortex. The Atlantic streamer turns southward at an erosion region of the polar vortex located above the Caspian Sea. The spatial distribution of stratospheric water vapour indicates a filament outgoing from this erosion region. The Atlantic streamer, the polar vortex erosion region and the water vapour filament belong to the process of planetary wave breaking in the so-called surf zone of the Northern mid-latitude winter stratosphere.

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