scholarly journals Holocene vegetation record of upland northern Calabria, Italy: Environmental change and human impact

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Sevink ◽  
Corrie C Bakels ◽  
Peter AJ Attema ◽  
Mauro A Di Vito ◽  
Ilenia Arienzo
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Forest Decline ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Pollen Data ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Climatic Event ◽  
Mobile Pastoralism

Earlier studies on Holocene fills of upland lakes (Lago Forano and Fontana Manca) in northern Calabria, Italy, showed that these hold important palaeoecological archives, which however remained poorly dated. Their time frame is improved by new 14C dates on plant remains from new cores. Existing pollen data are reinterpreted, using this new time frame. Two early forest decline phases are distinguished. The earliest is linked to the 4.2 kyr BP climatic event, when climate became distinctly drier, other than at Lago Trifoglietti on the wetter Tyrrhenian side, where this event is less prominent. The second is attributed to human impacts and is linked to middle-Bronze Age mobile pastoralism. At Fontana Manca (c. 1000 m a.s.l.), it started around 1700 BC, in the higher uplands a few centuries later (Lago Forano, c. 1500 m a.s.l.). In the Fontana Manca fill, a thin tephra layer occurs, which appears to result from the AP2 event (Vesuvius, c. 1700 BC). A third, major degradation phase dates from the Roman period. Land use and its impacts, as inferred from the regional archaeological record for the Raganello catchment, are confronted with the impacts deduced from the palaeoarchives.

scholarly journals Exchange networks from close-up: The case of Lipari obsidian

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Vianello ◽  
Robert Howard Tykot
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

A systematic study on obsidian tools in Calabria and Sicily carried out by the authors have revealed the uniqueness in the patterns of production, exchange and consumption of Lipari obsidian. The study has concentrated on the Middle Neolithic primarily, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts recognised at a later stage in the research since many contexts, especially in Sicily, have been excavated by pioneering archaeologists, some over a century ago, or were mislabelled. The chronology is Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, with very few materials dating Middle Bronze Age. A review of chronological contexts is in progress, which spans from the 6th millennium BC to the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The typology of obsidian tools is very homogenous, the vast majority of used tools are small blades, bladelets and sharp flakes; there is negligible variance across time; and Lipari obsidian is preferred over other sources. The patterns of the exchanges are also unique, revealing two major types of redistribution of obsidian, one particularly intriguing because it is quite organized with a single source in Lipari, prominent and reminiscent for its stability and reach of Bronze Age redistribution dynamics associated with hierarchical societies. We present here some observations on patterns substantiated by the archaeological record, and consider possible scenarios that can explain them. This work provides an update on progressing research and reveals aspects that will need further investigation, focusing on the patterns identified so far and possible explanations. More work is certainly needed to produce a working model, but the unusual patterns deserve some attention on their own, unencumbered by an overarching explanatory model. In particular, we want to assess the Neolithic redistribution pattern suggestive as typical of hierarchical polities, and contextualize it to the specific situation of Neolithic Lipari.

An Early Neolithic Grave and Occupation, and an Early Bronze Age Hearth on the Thames Foreshore at Yabsley Street, Blackwall, London

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Coles ◽  
Steve Ford ◽  
Andy Taylor ◽  
Sian Anthony ◽  
Rowena Gale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Natural Sand ◽  
Peat Deposits ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Sand And Gravel

Excavation on the Thames floodplain in London revealed traces of Early Neolithic occupation and burial on a sand and gravel bar beneath alluvium. A large expanse of peat also buried by alluvium was recorded between these finds and the modern river Thames suggesting that the occupation was situated on or close to the foreshore. A single grave cut into the natural sand contained a poorly preserved crouched inhumation, possibly of a woman. The burial was accompanied by a fragment of carinated bowl, a flint knife, and other struck flints. A radiocarbon date from an oak retaining plank within the grave of 5252±28 BP (4220–3970 cal BC: KIA20157) makes this burial one of the earliest from the British Isles and the earliest known for London. A scatter of struck flint and pottery predominantly of Early Neolithic date was recovered from adjacent areas of the sand. A nearby hearth contained fragments of Early Bronze Age pottery pointing to later prehistoric activity nearby. Charred plant remains indicate both the collection of wild plant foods and cultivated cereals in the Early Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of the adjacent peat deposits indicated their rapid growth within the Middle Bronze Age with a marked decline in woodland cover at the start of the sequence and a rise in grassland and herb species. Cereal pollen then briefly became a significant component of the sequence before declining to more modest levels.

Charred plant remains from neolithic–bronze age Platia Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly

1993 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glynis Jones ◽  
Paul Halstead
Keyword(s):  
Hordeum Vulgare ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Triticum Dicoccum ◽  
Bitter Vetch ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Charred plant remains of middle neolithic to middle bronze age date indicate the processing for storage or consumption of emmer (Triticum dicoccum), hulled six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and acorns (Quercus sp.). Samples of emmer, barley, and bitter vetch from an early bronze age destruction level are valuable evidence for economic diversification at a household level.

The Iron Age Enclosures and Prehistoric Landscape of Sutton Common, South Yorkshire

1997 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 221-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Parker Pearson ◽  
R.E. Sydes ◽  
S. Boardman ◽  
B. Brayshay ◽  
P.C. Buckland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

The Early Iron Age enclosures and associated sites on Sutton Common on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this Early Iron Age marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent archaeological sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place.

scholarly journals Plant economy of the Trzciniec culture based on charred plant remains from Pielgrzymowice 9 site, in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Magda Kapcia
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Plantago Lanceolata ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Southern Poland ◽  
Plant Economy ◽  
Coronilla Varia ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Polygonum Lapathifolium

In the paper, new carpological data from Pielgrzymowice site 9 are presented in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland. The results were obtained from detailed analyses of 45 samples from 38 archaeological features. Only charred plant remains were taken into account as they are considered contemporaneous with the Middle Bronze Age settlement. Among the cultivated plants, Panicum miliaceum, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum and Triticum sp. were documented. Among wild plants, several taxa were found, including Chenopodium t. album, Chenopodium sp., Melandrium / Silene, Polygonum lapathifolium and Fallopia convolvulus, among others. In archaeobotanical samples, Geranium sp., cf. Lamiaceae also appeared. In addition, plants typical of grasslands, forests and ruderal areas were noted, such as Coronilla varia, Rumex acetosella, Plantago media, Plantago lanceolata, Stellaria graminea and Hypericum perforatum. These results were compared with data coming from nine sites of the Trzciniec culture from Lesser Poland to track the Middle Bronze Age plant-based economy in southern Poland.

scholarly journals Appetite for Destruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 2-11
Author(s):  
Luca Bombardieri ◽  
Marialucia Amadio
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
New Research ◽  
A Site

Destruction processes are considered ‘time capsules of material culture’ (Driessen 2013) as they freeze a site at one moment of its history providing key evidence for interpreting the archaeological record and reconstructing social, political, cultural and ideological circumstances. By focusing on selected case-studies, this paper aims at briefly discussing existing evidence of destruction events in Bronze Age contexts in Cyprus, and at a preliminary presentation of new research data resulting from ongoing interdisciplinary analyses at Middle Bronze Age Erimi.

scholarly journals The 4.2 ka BP event in the vegetation record of the central Mediterranean

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Di Rita ◽  
Donatella Magri
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Forest Decline ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
High Pressure Cell ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Abstract. In this paper, the variation in forest cover in the central Mediterranean region, reflected by percentage changes of the arboreal pollen record, has been examined in relation to the 4.2 ka BP event. A number of 36 well-dated and detailed pollen records from latitudes between 45° and 36° N were selected and their vegetation dynamics between 5 and 3 ka examined in relation to the physiographic and climatic features of the study area and to the influence of human activity on past vegetation, as suggested by anthropogenic pollen indicators. We have found that the sites located between 43° and 45° N do not show any significant vegetation change in correspondence with the 4.2 ka event. Several sites located in the Italian Peninsula between 39°–43° N show a marked opening of the forest, suggesting that a lowering of rainfall occurred during the 4.2 ka BP event, sufficiently strong to determine a forest decline. Between 36°–39° N, a forest decline is always visible around 4.2 ka BP, and in some cases it is dramatic. This indicates that this region was severely affected by a climate change towards arid conditions that lasted a few hundreds of years and was followed by a recovery of forest vegetation in the middle Bronze age. Human activity, especially intense in southern Italy, may have been favored by this natural opening of vegetation. In Sardinia and Corsica, no clear change in vegetation is observed at the same time. We suggest that during the 4.2 ka BP event southern Italy and Tunisia were under the prevalent influence of a north African climate system, characterized by a persistent high-pressure cell.

scholarly journals Middle Bronze Age land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland – A multi-proxy study of colluvial deposits, archaeological features and peat bogs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Scherer ◽  
Benjamin Höpfer ◽  
Katleen Deckers ◽  
Elske Fischer ◽  
Markus Fuchs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cereal Crops ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Pollen Data ◽  
The North ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Alpine Foreland ◽  
North Western ◽  
Land Use Practices

<p>We present a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct Middle Bronze Age (MBA, 1600-1250 BCE) land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland (SW Germany, Hegau). We combined biogeochemical proxies from multi-layered colluvial deposits and archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data within and in the surrounding of the archaeologically well-documented settlement site of Anselfingen. Offsite pollen data from two peat bogs were used to place the onsite and near-site vegetation and land use data to a regional context.</p><p>Phases of colluvial deposition were reconstructed by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon (AMS <sup>14</sup>C) dating. The first phase of major colluviation could be correlated with MBA land use followed by phases of colluvial deposition during the Iron Age, the Medieval period, and modern times. Charcoal spectra from colluvial deposits and archaeological structures indicate MBA forest management favoring Quercus in the surrounding area north of the settlement. The analysis of faecal biomarker (5ß-stanols up to 40 %) and excavated pig bones (up to 14 %) suggest the presence of a forest pasture mainly used for pig farming. In the surrounding area south of the settlement, an arable field with a buried MBA plough horizon (2Apb) could be verified by soil micromorphological features such as very dusty clay coatings and a banded microstructure and by high concentrations of grass phytoliths from leaves and stems. Agricultural practices (e.g. ploughing) focused on five staple cereal crops (Hordeum distichon/vulgare, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum, Triticum spelta, Triticum aestivum/turgidum) as indicated by the onsite archaeobotanical records. Stilted pantries, reconstructed from MBA post-holes, were interpreted as storage facilities, while excavated heat stones are likely to indicate post-harvest processing of cereal crops and other agrarian products. Higher levels of urease activity compared to microbial biomass carbon (up to 2.1 µg N µg Cmic<sup>-1</sup>), and input of herbivorous animal faeces indicate livestock husbandry on fallow land or manuring practices. The suites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their spatial distribution indicate the use of fire for various purposes, e.g. for landscape opening and maintenance, for domestic burning and for technical applications. The offsite pollen data support the onsite and near-site vegetation change. During the MBA, fire played a major role in shaping the landscape (peak of micro-charcoal during the MBA in the offsite pollen records) and anthropogenic activities promoted oak dominated forest vegetation at the expense of natural beech forests. This approves a broad regional human influence in the north-western Alpine foreland during the MBA.</p><p>Our data allow in-depth insights into the MBA subsistence economy on a local and regional scale, which was not limited to settlements at lakeshore sites. The MBA in the north-western Alpine foreland was a period of establishing settlements with sophisticated land management and land use practices also at low and mid altitude inland sites. We could further show that colluvial deposits are promising archives for the reconstruction of past land use practices.</p>

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