Earthen mounds in the Głubczyce Forest (SW Poland) – are they prehistoric long-barrows? Geoarchaeology of the Silesian soil record and human-environment interplay in the Holocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Krupski ◽  
Maksym Mackiewicz ◽  
Cezary Kabała ◽  
Maciej Ehlert ◽  
Marzena Cendrowska
Keyword(s):  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Central European ◽  
Loess Area ◽  
Ancient Agriculture ◽  
Human Management ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture

Abstract Two earthen mounds, trapezoid in shape, oriented along the W-E/NW-SE axis and located in prominent landscape positions, were recently discovered in the Głubczyce Forest in the loess area of the Głubczyce Plateau (SW Poland). Their resemblance to long-barrows of the Funnel Beaker culture, as yet unknown in this part of Silesia prompted low-invasive research, involving ALS data analysis, magnetic prospection and a study of soil properties. The objective was to determine if these are indeed anthropogenic structures and if so, how and when were they built. The results indicate: 1) a transformation from chernozemic (Phaeozem) to clay-illuvial soil (Luvisol/Retisol) in the Głubczyce Forest area. Similar processes were identified in neighbouring Central European loess regions and linked with prehistoric climate/vegetation changes (the spread of dense, beech-dominant forests). Human management of the landscape (involving sustained deforestation), enabled the patchy preservation of chernozemic soils until the present-day, 2) both mounds are anthropogenic features, built on a Phaeozem using chernozemic soil. Their construction occurred before the soil transformation, i.e. most likely in prehistory. The development of the Głubczyce Forest may have taken place during the Migration period – a time of settlement decline in Silesia, and 3) the Głubczyce Forest bears further traces of anthropogenic activity: ancient agriculture (field systems), funerary practices, forest management and WWII combat.

scholarly journals Settlements and economy of the Funnel Beaker Culture communities. Archaeological and palynological evidence from the annually laminated lake bottom sediments (Gostynin Lake District, central Poland)

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Pelisiak ◽  
Małgorzata Rybicka
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Bottom Sediments ◽  
Lake District ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Pollen Diagrams ◽  
Lake Bottom ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture ◽  
Lake Bottom Sediments ◽  
Annually Laminated Lake Sediments ◽  
Made In

Palynological information preserved in pollen diagrams is of key importance for investigating prehistoric human activity. According to M. Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, of particular importance for assessing anthropopressure are results of the multidisciplinary research of annually laminated lake sediments carried out in Lake Gościąż and its surroundings in the Gostynin Lake District. In light of the results of human-environment analyses, the environmental disturbances recorded in laminated bottom sediments from Lake Gościąż can be described as reflecting pollen being “an account from afar”. In the analysed case, the pollen fallout may have originated from longer distances, and the recorded transformations of plant assemblages, both with respect to phase 5 and phase 6 from Gościąż, can be attributed to humans inhabiting up to 10 km from Lake Gościąż (e.g. around Lake Białe). On the other hand, the observations made in palynological sites of Białe, Lucieńskie, and Gąsak are well-correlated with the archaeological evidence of human activity. These diagrams reflect nearby activity, as the changes recorded in them correlate distinctly with the intensity of FBC settlement.

Multiple Archaean to Early Palaeozoic events of the northern Gondwana margin witnessed by detrital zircons from the Radzimowice Slates, Kaczawa Complex (Central European Variscides)

2007 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFAŁ TYSZKA ◽  
RYSZARD KRYZA ◽  
JAN A. ZALASIEWICZ ◽  
ALEXANDER N. LARIONOV
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
Central European ◽  
Late Cambrian ◽  
Gondwana Margin ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Depositional Age ◽  
Ordovician Magmatism ◽  
Early Palaeozoic ◽  
European Variscides

AbstractSIMS dating of detrital zircons from the stratigraphically enigmatic Radzimowice Slates of the Kaczawa Mountains (Sudetes, SW Poland), near the eastern termination of the European Variscides, has yielded age populations of: (1) 493–512 Ma, corresponding to late Cambrian to early Ordovician magmatism and constraining a maximum depositional age; (2) between 550 and 650 Ma, reflecting input from diverse Cadomian sources; and (3) older inherited components ranging to c. 3.3 Ga, with age spectra similar to those from Gondwanan North Africa. The new data show that the Radzimowice Slates cannot form a Proterozoic base to the Kaczawa Mountains succession, as suggested by earlier models, but was deposited, at the earliest, as an extensional basin-fill, during a relatively late stage of the break-up of this part of northern Gondwana.

scholarly journals Month-to-Month Variations in Densities and Dominance of Birds Breeding in an Extensive Pine Forest

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kopij
Keyword(s):  
Forest Type ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Line Transect ◽  
Population Densities ◽  
Bird Population ◽  
Central European ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Shannon’S Diversity Index ◽  
Forest Habitats

Abstract Month-to-month changes in avian assembages are considerable in forest habitats. In this study such changes were studied by means of the line transect method (eight transect with total length of 77.7 km) in lowland coniferous forest in SW Poland (dominant forest type in Central European Plain), in three consecutive spring months: April, May and June. Shannon’s diversity index varied between 1.31 and 2.25 in particular month, while Simpson’s diversity index and Pielou’s evenness index were almost identical everywhere: H′ = 0.92-0.93 and J′ = 0.74-0.78, respectively. In overall, the differences in mean densities of breeding species between three months on all transects pooled were not statistically significant, as were also not statistically significant such differences on particular transects. Month-to-month variations in densities in all transects pooled were statistically significant in the case of 26 out of 54 species (48.1 %). Month-to-month changes in population densities recorded on transects, only partly conform to the arrival patterns. Two counts, instead of three, would sufficed for precise estimation of bird population densities in Central European lowland pine forests: one count should be conducted in April, to register mainly resident species, and the second one in May to count mainly the migrant species.

scholarly journals Variable origin of clinopyroxene megacrysts carried by Cenozoic volcanic rocks from the eastern limb of Central European Volcanic Province (SE Germany and SW Poland)

Lithos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 382-383 ◽  
pp. 105936
Author(s):  
Magdalena Matusiak-Małek ◽  
Jacek Puziewicz ◽  
Theodoros Ntaflos ◽  
Alan Woodland ◽  
Laura Uenver-Thiele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Volcanic Province ◽  
Central European ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Eastern Limb ◽  
Central European Volcanic Province ◽  
Variable Origin ◽  
Clinopyroxene Megacrysts

Early Palaeozoic initial-rift volcanism in the Central European Variscides (the Kaczawa Mountains, Sudetes, SW Poland): evidence from SIMS dating of zircons

2007 ◽  
Vol 164 (6) ◽  
pp. 1207-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kryza ◽  
J.A. Zalasiewicz ◽  
S. Mazur ◽  
P. Aleksandrowski ◽  
S. Sergeev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central European ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Early Palaeozoic ◽  
European Variscides

scholarly journals Vegetation changes and plant wax biomarkers from an ombrotrophic bog define hydroclimate trends and human-environment interactions during the Holocene in northern Norway

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1849-1865
Author(s):  
Nicholas L Balascio ◽  
R Scott Anderson ◽  
William J D’Andrea ◽  
Stephen Wickler ◽  
Robert M D’Andrea ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chain Length ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Holocene Climate ◽  
Coprophilous Fungi ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Northern Norway ◽  
Ombrotrophic Bog ◽  
Plant Wax

Holocene climate records from northern Europe improve our understanding of important North Atlantic ocean and atmospheric circulation systems to long-term insolation-driven changes, as well as more rapid forcing and feedback mechanisms. Here we assess Holocene climate and environmental changes in northern Norway based on the analysis of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, plant macrofossils, and plant wax biomarkers from a high latitude ombrotrophic bog. We define the extent and thickness of Hollabåttjønnen Bog (0.16 km2), which is located 10 km north of Tromsø. Several cores were analyzed, including a 5.16-m core that spans the last 9.5 cal ka BP. Vegetation changes from several sites were reconstructed and the distribution and hydrogen isotopic composition (δD) of n-alkanes (C21–C33) were analyzed. Our data show several distinct climate intervals that primarily indicate changes in bog surface moisture. In the early Holocene (c. 9.5–7.7 cal ka BP), wetter conditions are defined by the presence of wetland sedges and grasses, higher concentrations of mid-chain length n-alkanes, and a similarity in δD values among homologs. A dry mid-Holocene (c. 7.7–3.8 cal ka BP) is inferred from the presence of a heath shrubland, low peat accumulations rates, and significant differences between δD values of mid- and long-chain length n-alkanes. The late Holocene (c. 3.8 cal ka BP-present) is marked by the onset of wetter conditions, lateral bog expansion, and an increase in sedges and grasses. The Hollabåttjønnen Bog record is also significant because its margins were an important location for human settlement. We correlate early Holocene environmental conditions with changes in Stone Age structures recently excavated, and we identify the occurrence of coprophilous fungi, such as Sporormiella and Sordaria, likely associated with reindeer grazing activity beginning c. 1 cal ka BP. This site therefore provides important regional paleoclimate information as well as context for evaluating local prehistoric human-environment interactions.

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