Holocene vegetation history in the Northern Vosges Mountains (NE France): Palynological, geochemical and sedimentological data

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 888-904
Author(s):  
Emilie Gouriveau ◽  
Pascale Ruffaldi ◽  
Loïc Duchamp ◽  
Vincent Robin ◽  
Annik Schnitzler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Vosges Mountains ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Geochemical Analyses ◽  
Evolution Of Vegetation

Palynological data from the Northern Vosges Mountains (NVM) are very rare, unlike for the Southern and Central Vosges Mountains, where the past vegetation history is relatively well known. As a consequence, the beginning of human activities has never been clearly identified and dated in the NVM. In order to reconstruct the evolution of vegetation in this region, multiproxy studies (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, sedimentological and geochemical analyses) were conducted in two peatlands. Overall, the results, extending from about 9500 cal. BP to recent times, show a classical vegetation succession with local particularities resulting from human activities. In the La Horn peatland, a strong human impact related to pastoralism is attested from the late Bronze Age onwards. The second phase of human occupation, mainly characterized by crop cultures, begins during the Hallstatt period. The geochemical results (x-ray fluorescence) also highlight the presence of metallic elements, which, combined with significant quantities of carbonized particles, point to potential metal working. In the Kobert-Haut peatland, human occupation began much later (1500 cal. BP), but lasted from the Gallo-Roman period to the beginning of the Modern Period. Unlike for the vegetation history of the rest of the Vosges, Pinus remains a prevailing taxon throughout the Holocene in the NVM. Another particularity is the early establishment of Picea, long before the 18th to 19th century plantations.

scholarly journals 8,000 years of climate, vegetation, fire and land-use dynamics in the thermo-mediterranean vegetation belt of northern Sardinia (Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiziana Pedrotta ◽  
Erika Gobet ◽  
Christoph Schwörer ◽  
Giorgia Beffa ◽  
Christoph Butz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Juglans Regia ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Lake Productivity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evergreen Oak ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractKnowledge about the vegetation history of Sardinia, the second largest island of the Mediterranean, is scanty. Here, we present a new sedimentary record covering the past ~ 8,000 years from Lago di Baratz, north-west Sardinia. Vegetation and fire history are reconstructed by pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal analyses and environmental dynamics by high-resolution element geochemistry together with pigment analyses. During the period 8,100–7,500 cal bp, when seasonality was high and fire and erosion were frequent, Erica arborea and E. scoparia woodlands dominated the coastal landscape. Subsequently, between 7,500 and 5,500 cal bp, seasonality gradually declined and thermo-mediterranean woodlands with Pistacia and Quercus ilex partially replaced Erica communities under diminished incidence of fire. After 5,500 cal bp, evergreen oak forests expanded markedly, erosion declined and lake levels increased, likely in response to increasing (summer) moisture availability. Increased anthropogenic fire disturbance triggered shrubland expansions (e.g. Tamarix and Pistacia) around 5,000–4,500 cal bp. Subsequently around 4,000–3,500 cal bp evergreen oak-olive forests expanded massively when fire activity declined and lake productivity and anoxia reached Holocene maxima. Land-use activities during the past 4,000 years (since the Bronze Age) gradually disrupted coastal forests, but relict stands persisted under rather stable environmental conditions until ca. 200 cal bp, when agricultural activities intensified and Pinus and Eucalyptus were planted to stabilize the sand dunes. Pervasive prehistoric land-use activities since at least the Bronze Age Nuraghi period included the cultivation of Prunus, Olea europaea and Juglans regia after 3,500–3,300 cal bp, and Quercus suber after 2,500 cal bp. We conclude that restoring less flammable native Q. ilex and O. europaea forest communities would markedly reduce fire risk and erodibility compared to recent forest plantations with flammable non-native trees (e.g. Pinus, Eucalyptus) and xerophytic shrubland (e.g. Cistus, Erica).

Small peatland with a big story: 600-year paleoecological and historical data from a kettle-hole peatland in Western Russia

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110332
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Mroczkowska ◽  
Piotr Kittel ◽  
Katarzyna Marcisz ◽  
Ekaterina Dolbunova ◽  
Emilie Gauthier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Testate Amoebae ◽  
The Past ◽  
Kettle Hole ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numerous consequences arise from these processes, the most important of which are physical and chemical denudation in the catchment and the related hydrological disturbances in the catchment and peatland. The present study determined how human activities and the past climatic variability mutually influenced the development of a small peatland ecosystem. The main goals of the study were: (1) to trace the local changes of the peatland history over the past 600 years, (2) to investigate their relationship with changes in regional hydroclimate patterns, and (3) to estimate the sensitivity of a small peatland to natural and human impact. Our reconstructions were based on a multiproxy analysis, including the analysis of pollen, macrofossils, Chironomidae, Cladocera, and testate amoebae. Our results showed that, depending on the changes in water level, the history of peatland can be divided into three phases as follows: 1/the phase of stable natural conditions, 2/phase of weak changes, and 3/phase of significant changes in the catchment. Additionally, to better understand the importance of the size of catchment and the size of the depositional basin in the evolution of the studied peatland ecosystem, we compared data from two peatlands – large and small – located close to each other. The results of our study indicated that “size matters,” and that larger peatlands are much more resilient and resistant to rapid changes occurring in the direct catchment due to human activities, whereas small peatlands are more sensitive and perfect as archives of environmental changes.

scholarly journals Sedimentation and vegetation history of a buried Meuse terrace during the Holocene in relation to the human occupation history (Limburg, the Netherlands)

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frieda S. Zuidhoff ◽  
Johanna A.A. Bos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
River Terraces ◽  
Main River Channel

AbstractDuring several archaeological excavations on a river terrace of the river Meuse near the village of Lomm (southeast Netherlands) information was gathered for a reconstruction of the sedimentation and vegetation history during the Holocene. Various geoarchaeological methods – geomorphological, micromorphological and botanical analyses – were applied, while accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating provided an accurate chronology for the sediments.During the Early Holocene, many former braided river channels were deepened due to climate amelioration. Later, river flow concentrated in one main river channel to the west, at the location of the modern Meuse. The other channels were only active during floods, and infilling continued until the Bronze Age. Because of the higher setting of the Lomm terrace, it was only occasionally flooded and therefore formed an excellent location for habitation. Humans adapted to the changing landscape, as most remains were found on the higher river terraces or their slopes, a short distance from the Maas river. The Lomm terrace was more or less continuously inhabited from the Mesolithic onwards.During the Early Holocene, river terraces were initially densely forested with birch and pine. From the Boreal (Mesolithic) onwards, dense mixed forests with deciduous shrubs and trees such as hazel, oak, elm and lime developed. During the Atlantic (Meso/Neolithic), the deciduous forests became dominated by oak. Due to human activities from the Late Subboreal (Late Bronze Age) onwards, forests slowly became more open, yet remained relatively dense in comparison to other Dutch areas. The botanical data, however, show that within the Lomm study area there was a large difference in the composition, distribution and openness of the vegetation. The spatial variation in openness came into existence during the Late Bronze Age, as soon as the higher areas started to be used for human activities (i.e. habitation, agriculture and livestock herding). Due to human activities, the northern part of the study area became very open during the Early Roman period. In the lower-situated areas of the southern part, however, forests remained present much longer, until the Early Middle Ages. Due to large-scale deforestation in the Lomm area and hinterland during the Roman period and Middle Ages, the sediment load of the river increased, large floods occurred and overbank sediments were deposited, burying the archaeological remains. The largest increase in sedimentation occurred after the Middle Ages.

Settlement and Economy in Southern Italy in the Neothermal Period

1969 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 332-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth D. Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Subsistence Economy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Made In

The post-Pleistocene archaeology of southern Italy is a rapidly developing study and for this reason, while many facets of it are still little known, others are undergoing fundamental changes as new discoveries are made. Particularly notable contributions have been made in the last 20 years by, among others, L. Cardini, P. Graziosi, A. Palma di Cesnola, E. Borzatti von Löwenstern, O. Cornaggia Castiglioni and F. Zorzi in the palaeolithic and mesolithic field, R. B. K. Stevenson, L. Bernabò Brea, D. Trump and S. Tinè in the Neolithic sphere and D. Trump, S. M. Puglisi, R.Peroni, F. G. Lo Porto and H. Muller-Karpe for the bronze age. As a result of this work it is now possible for us to reconstruct in outline the later prehistory of southern Italy. Most of the work that has been done has been on individual topics, and, while some attempts at synthesis have been made (most notably those of A. M. Radmilli, D. Trump and R. Peroni), these have taken the form of a culture-by-culture description, as it were a commentary upon a vast composite stratigraphy of the area. No attempt, however, has yet been made to produce a history of the human occupation of the land and it is towards this aim that my paper is directed.The emphasis in this paper is on settlement and economy in relation to environment. It is through the techniques of his subsistence economy that man deals with (or in evolutionary terms, adapts to) his environment, and in this sense it can be regarded as the most important factor contributing to the nature and development of society.

Dead Sea Levels during the Bronze and Iron Ages

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Joy Kagan ◽  
Dafna Langgut ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Frank Herald Neumann ◽  
Mordechai Stein
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Past ◽  
Organic Debris ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The history of lake-level changes at the Dead Sea during the Holocene was determined mainly by radiocarbon dating of terrestrial organic debris. This article reviews the various studies that have been devoted over the past 2 decades to defining the Dead Sea levels during the Bronze and Iron Ages (≃5.5 to 2.5 ka cal BP) and adds new data and interpretation. In particular, we focus on research efforts devoted to refining the chronology of the sedimentary sequence in the Ze'elim Gully, a key site of paleoclimate investigation in the European Research Council project titled Reconstructing Ancient Israel. The Bronze and Iron Ages are characterized by significant changes in human culture, reflected in archaeological records in which sharp settlement oscillations over relatively short periods of time are evident. During the Early Bronze, Intermediate Bronze, Middle Bronze, and Late Bronze Ages, the Dead Sea saw significant level fluctuations, reaching in the Middle Bronze an elevation of ≃370 m below mean sea level (bmsl), and declining in the Late Bronze to below 414 m bmsl. At the end of the Late Bronze Age and upon the transition to the Iron Age, the lake recovered slightly and rose to ≃408 m bmsl. This recovery reflected the resumption of freshwater activity in the Judean Hills, which was likely accompanied by more favorable hydrological-environmental conditions that seem to have facilitated the wave of Iron Age settlement in the region.

scholarly journals Continuous vegetation record of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (South Africa) covering the past 300 thousand years (IODP U1479)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydie M. Dupont ◽  
Xueqin Zhao ◽  
Chistopher Charles ◽  
J. Tyler Faith ◽  
David Braun
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Cape Floristic Region ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Human Origins ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. The flora of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) of South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot of global significance, and its archaeological record has contributed substantially to the understanding of modern human origins. For both reasons, the climate and vegetation history of south-western South Africa is of interest to numerous fields. Currently known paleo-environmental records cover the Holocene, the last glacial-interglacial transition and parts of the last glaciation but do not encompass a full glacial-interglacial cycle. To obtain a continuous vegetation record of the last Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, we studied pollen, spores and micro-charcoal of deep-sea sediments from IODP Site U1479 retrieved from SW of Cape Town. We compare our palynological results of the Pleistocene with previously published results of Pliocene material from the same site. We find that the vegetation of the GCFR, in particular Fynbos and Afrotemperate forest, respond to precessional forcing of climate. The micro-charcoal record confirms the importance of fires in the Fynbos vegetation. Ericaceae-rich and Asteraceae-rich types of Fynbos could extend on the western part of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP), which emerged during periods of low sea-level of the Pleistocene.

scholarly journals A multidisciplinary study of an exceptional prehistoric waste dump in the mountainous inland of Calabria (Italy): Implications for reconstructions of prehistoric land use and vegetation in Southern Italy

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1310-1331
Author(s):  
Jan Sevink ◽  
Wieke de Neef ◽  
Mauro A Di Vito ◽  
Ilenia Arienzo ◽  
Peter AJ Attema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Occupational History ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
History Of

The mountainous inland of northern Calabria (Southern Italy) is known for its sparse prehistoric human occupation. Nevertheless, a thorough multidisciplinary approach of field walking, geophysical survey and invasive research led to the discovery of a major archaeological archive. This archive concerns a rich multi-phased dump, spanning about 3000 years (Late Neolithic to Late Imperial Roman Age) and holding two Somma-Vesuvius tephra. Of these, the younger is a distinct layer of juvenile tephra from the Pompeii eruption, while the older concerns reworked tephra from the Bronze Age AP2 eruption (ca. 1700 cal. yr BP). The large dump contains abundant ceramics, faunal remains and charcoal, and most probably originated through long-continued deposition of waste in a former gully like system of depressions. This resulted in an inversed, mound-like relief, whose anthropogenic origin had not been recognized in earlier research. The tephras were found to be important markers that support the reconstruction of the occupational history of the site. The sequence of occupational phases is very similar to that observed in a recent palaeoecological study from nearby situated former lakes (Lago Forano/Fontana Manca). This suggests that this sequence reflects the more regional occupational history of Calabria, which goes back to ca. 3000 BC. Attention is paid to the potential link between this history and Holocene climatic phases, for which no indication was found. The history deviates strongly from histories deduced from the few, but major palaeorecords elsewhere in the inlands of Southern Italy (Lago Grande di Monticchio and Lago Trifoglietti). We conclude that major regional variation occurred in prehistoric land use and its impacts on the vegetation cover of Southern Italy, and studies of additional palaeoarchives are needed to unravel this complex history. Finally, shortcomings of archaeological predictive models are discussed and the advantages of truly integrated multidisciplinary research.

Marxist Historiography Today

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Hobsbawm
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Methodology Of Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter discusses Marxist historiography in the present times. In the interpretation of the world nowadays, there has been a rise in the so-called anti-Rankean reaction in history, of which Marxism is an important but not always fully acknowledged element. This movement challenged the positivist belief that the objective structure of reality was self-explanatory, and that all that was needed was to apply the methodology of science to it and explain why things happened the way they did. This movement also brought together history with the social sciences, therefore turning it into part of a generalizing discipline capable of explaining transformations of human society in the course of its past. This new perspective on the past is a return to ‘total history’, in which the focus is not merely on the ‘history of everything’ but history as an indivisible web wherein all human activities are interconnected.

Palaeoecological investigations at Ballynagilly, a Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland

1979 ◽  
Vol 286 (1013) ◽  
pp. 345-369 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Deposition Rate ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Rate Curve ◽  
Total Recovery ◽  
Pine Pollen ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Burning Charcoal

The Neolithic-Bronze Age occupation site at Ballynagilly was covered by blanket peat and surrounded by a deep mire. Stratigraphic investigations, pollen analysis and 14 C dating were used to investigate the history of the area and to relate this to the prehistoric occupations. A series of 14 C measurements from the mire were used to establish a deposition rate curve from which a time scale for the vegetational history was derived. This was also used to correlate the vegetation history with 14 C dated prehistoric occupations. Organic accumulation began in the deep mire about 8000 B.C. (the notation A.D./B.C. is used to denote a conventional 14 C age less 1950 years) and the earliest blanket peats began forming around 1000 b.c. In the early Littletonian Stage (Postglacial) a juniper phase gave way to birch and willow at *7450 B.C. (* is used to denote a date derived from the deposition rate curve). Until *6050 B.C. there was a period of low water level with a rich mire vegetation. Elm, oak, hazel and pine entered simultaneously at *6050 B.C. creating a dense forest cover. Alder first appeared at *4970 B.C. but did not expand until *3500 B.C. The mid-Postglacial was examined in detail and showed evidence of Neolithic forest clearance involving burning. Charcoal of pine, oak and hazel, 14 C dated to ca. 3200 B.C. was discovered. This date coincides with those for a Neolithic house and other associated features. The Neolithic clearance phase lasted some hundreds of years with periods of minor forest regeneration. During this phase different types of agriculture may have been used. A total recovery of the forest, albeit with a different composition, was deduced to have taken place before new clearance in Beaker times at ca. 2000 B.C. Somewhat before this, at *2200 B.C., the final decline of pine pollen occurred but was apparently unconnected with human activity. Heath began to develop at *1800 B.C. and increased in extent following Early Bronze Age clearance of scrub woodland at * 1650 B.C. Various clearance episodes from this time through to *200 B.C. caused a further progressive deforestation. Brief regeneration after *200 B.C. was followed by indications of locally wetter conditions and renewed deforestation at A.D. *450. Despite some scrub regeneration around A.D. *800 continuing pressures on the woodland culminated in a open landscape by A.D. *1500.

A 14,000 year peatland record of environmental change in the southern Gutland region, Luxembourg

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362199464
Author(s):  
Karsten Schittek ◽  
Lelaina Teichert ◽  
Katrin Geiger ◽  
Klaus-Holger Knorr ◽  
Simone Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Peat Deposits ◽  
Organic Sediment ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
History Of

A Late Pleistocene/Holocene paleoenvironmental record was obtained from the Rouer peatland (5°54′E, 49°45′N; 270 m a.s.l.), located in the Gutland area of southern Luxembourg. A total of six sediment samples were AMS radiocarbon-dated to obtain an age-depth model. XRF analyses and analyses of geochemical proxies of organic matter (TOC, TN, δ13C, δ15N) were conducted to identify major paleoenvironmental changes in the record. Pollen analysis reveals insights into the vegetation history throughout the last 14,000 cal. yr BP. The record offers unique insights into the evolution of local organic sediment/peat accumulation, as well as into the environmental history of the Gutland region and beyond. The accumulation of organic sediment and peat started at about 13,800 cal. yr BP before present. Until about 6000 cal. yr BP, periods of apparently stable climatic conditions had been interrupted repeatedly by pronounced episodes with increased input of minerogenic matter into the peat matrix (12,700–11,800 cal. yr BP; 11,500–11,300 cal. yr BP; 11,100–10,800 cal. yr BP; 9300 cal. yr BP; 8200 cal. yr BP), indicated by sudden increases of Ti/coh values. After 6000 cal. yr BP, environmental conditions stabilized. Between 4200 and 2800 cal. yr BP, during the Bronze Age, changes in the pollen spectrum indicate an increasing clearance of woodlands. Since the Roman period, an ongoing intensification of grassland farming and agriculture is evidenced. Lowest tree species abundances are witnessed during the Middle Ages. The Modern Era is characterized by enhanced sediment input due to soil erosion. In short, this record complements the Late Pleistocene/Holocene climatic history of the Gutland area and demonstrates that fen peat deposits can be valuable high-resolution paleoclimate archives.

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