scholarly journals Last 2400 yrs. Environmental changes and human activity recorded in the gyttja-type bottom sediments of the Młynek Lake (Warmia and Masuria Region, northern Poland)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Welc ◽  
Jerzy Nitychoruk ◽  
Leszek Marks ◽  
Krzysztof Bińka ◽  
Anna Rogóż-Matyszczak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Bottom Sediments ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Climate Conditions

Abstract. In the densely forested Warmia and Masuria region (north-eastern Poland) there are many lakes characterized by small size, calm sedimentation and lack of tributaries, which makes them a very good archive of environmental data for the Holocene. For this reason, one of them – the Młynek Lake, located near the village of Janiki Wielkie, has been selected for multi-faceted palaeoenvironmental research based on a precise radiocarbon scale. Bottom sediments of this reservoir also contain unique information about anthropopression, because a defensive settlement has been operating on its northern shore since the early Iron Age to early Medieval period, which gives opportunity to correlate paleoenvironmental data with phases of the human activity in the last 2400 years. Between 3rd–2nd 2century BC the lake was surrounded by a dense forest with domination of warm and wet climate conditions. In turn of 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD forest around reservoir was much reduced, what can be associatedwith the first – early iron age – occupation phase attested on the strong hold located close to the lake. Between 2nd–9th century AD gradual restoration of forest and decline of human settlements is attested, along with lake deepening and onset of colder and humid climatic phase which correspond to global cooling episode known as Bond 1 (1.5 ka BP). Period between 9th–13th century AD indicates again intensive forest clearing around the lake in result of human activity (Middle Age settlement phase on stronghold). This period is characterized by climate change towards warming, which confirms the gradual 33shallowing of the lake (Middle Age warming period). Since 13 up to 17th century AD intensive cultivation34activity around lake tool place. The landscape is subjected to strong human transformations which means that environmental and climate changes are not so clear. However, changes in lake sedimentation can be seen around 1500, which may be associated with so called Little Ice Age - clod interval.

scholarly journals 2400 years of climate and human-induced environmental change recorded in sediments of Lake Młynek in northern Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1181-1198
Author(s):  
Fabian Welc ◽  
Jerzy Nitychoruk ◽  
Leszek Marks ◽  
Krzysztof Bińka ◽  
Anna Rogóż-Matyszczak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Forest Clearing ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Northern Poland

Abstract. In the densely forested Warmia and Masuria region (northern Poland) there are many small endorheic lakes characterized by their low sedimentation rate, which makes them excellent archives of Holocene environmental and palaeoclimatic change. Lake Młynek, located near the village of Janiki Wielkie, was selected for multi-faceted palaeoenvironmental research supported with radiocarbon dates. Sediments from this lake also contain unique information about human impact on the environment, because a stronghold has been operating on its northern shore since the early Iron Age to the early Medieval period, giving the opportunity to correlate palaeoenvironmental data with the phases of human activity over the last 2400 years. During the second and third centuries BCE the lake was surrounded by a dense deciduous forest. From the first century BCE to second century CE the forest around the lake was much reduced, which can be associated with the first pre-Roman (La Tène) and Roman occupation phase evidenced by the construction of the stronghold located close to the lake. From the second up to ninth century CE gradual restoration of the forest and a decline in human activity took place, along with lake deepening and the onset of a colder and humid climatic phase which corresponded to the global cooling episode known as the Bond 1 event (1.5 ka BP). The next intensive phase of forest clearing around the lake occurred between the 9th–13th century CE as result of human activity (Middle Age settlement phase of the stronghold). Whilst this period is marked by a warming, the human impact which has transformed the landscape likely overprints any signals of climate-driven environmental changes.

Hydrological change and human activity during Yuan–Ming Dynasties in the Loulan area, northwestern China

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1266-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangkang Li ◽  
Xiaoguang Qin ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Zhaoyan Gu ◽  
Bing Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Lop Nur ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Ancient Silk Road ◽  
Climate Transition ◽  
Changes Over Time

Human activity on arid lands has been related to oases evolution. The ancient Loulan, an important transportation hub of the ancient Silk Road, developed on an ancient oasis on the west bank of the lake Lop Nur in Xinjiang, China. Previous studies and historical documents suggest that the region has experienced dramatic natural environmental and human activity–related changes over time, transitioning from a particularly prosperous oasis to a depopulated zone with harsh environment after about 1500 a BP (before present, where present = AD 1950). Based on systematic radiocarbon (14C) dating for natural plant remains and archeological sites in the Loulan area, it was revealed that the region re-experienced oasis environment from 1260 to 1450 cal. AD, corresponding to the Yuan–Ming Dynasties, which is the climate transition stage from the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ to the ‘Little Ice Age’, encompassing a series of pulse-like flood events which cannot be identified from lacustrine deposition due to the limits of sampling resolution and dating. It was found that humans re-occupied the Loulan area and built canals to irrigate farmlands during the period. The more habitable hydrological conditions that resulted from these environmental changes present one major reason for the re-emergence of human activities in the Loulan area.

Reconstructing the Holocene paleoenvironment of the semi-arid Shiraki Plain of eastern Georgia – a center of settlement activity during the Late Bronze and Early Iron age

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgi Kirkitadze ◽  
Mikheil Elashvili ◽  
Levan Navrozashvili ◽  
Mikheil Lobjanidze ◽  
Levan Losaberidze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Large City ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Main Question

<p>Studying of the interactions between past environmental changes and former human societies delivers key information to understand the future evolution of landscapes under changing environmental conditions and increasing human stress. The combination of these two factors is especially critical for fragile landscapes such as drylands, where even small-scale climatic or anthropogenic factors can have relatively large effects on the landscape dynamics.</p><p>Holocene paleoenvironmental changes on the Shiraki Plain, located in Eastern Georgia (South Caucasus), were studied. The selected site is characterized by semiarid climate conditions (annual precipitation <500 mm per year) and an open dry steppic landscape today. Currently the area is devoid of settlements, due to absence of water resources. However, recent archaeological data collected using remote sensing and ground-proven by ongoing archaeological excavations, delivered evidences of an active former human inhabitation of this area mostly during the Late Bronze - Early Iron Ages. Several large, city-type settlements of the given period that were identified on the Shiraki Plain suggest the existence of early state formation under favorable environmental conditions.</p><p>During the conducted study we have combined stratigraphical-sedimentological investigations of sediments using drilling cores, trenches and laboratory analyses with high-resolution D-GPS measurements in the RTK mode, remote sensing using drone photogrammetric surveys, paleoecological investigations, and hydrological modeling. Our initial results clearly support the hypothesis of a large shallow lake in the center of the Shiraki Plain that was surrounded by the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age settlements. Therefore, the regional water balance of that period was obviously more positive than today. Furthermore, our investigations indicate that this period of high settlement intensity was characterized by intensive soil erosion processes that washed away the dominant Chernozem soils.</p><p>Altogether, our investigations suggest a tipping point of the landscape evolution dynamics that must have been crossed during the Late Bronze and Early Iron period, leading to the current dry steppic landscape. This also provides key information to reconstruct the archaeological past of the region, and to address the main question of rapid depopulation and further abandonment of this area.</p>

scholarly journals Environmental changes in the northern Altai during the last millennium documented in Lake Teletskoye pollen record

2007 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei A. Andreev ◽  
Roberto Pierau ◽  
Ivan A. Kalugin ◽  
Andrei V. Daryin ◽  
Lyubov G. Smolyaninova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Lake Teletskoye ◽  
Pollen Concentrations ◽  
Siberian Pine

AbstractA high-resolution pollen record from Lake Teletskoye documents the climate-related vegetation history of the northern Altai Mountain region during the last millennium. Siberian pine taiga with Scots pine, fir, spruce, and birch dominated the vegetation between ca. AD 1050 and 1100. The climate was similar to modern. In the beginning of the 12th century, birch and shrub alder increased. Lowered pollen concentrations and simultaneous peaks in herbs (especially Artemisia and Poaceae), ferns, and charcoal fragments point to colder and more arid climate conditions than before, with frequent fire events. Around AD 1200, regional climate became warmer and more humid than present, as revealed by an increase of Siberian pine and decreases of dry herb taxa and charcoal contents. Climatic conditions were rather stable until ca. AD 1410. An increase of Artemisia pollen may reflect slightly drier climate conditions between AD 1410 and 1560. Increases in Alnus, Betula, Artemisia, and Chenopodiaceae pollen and in charcoal particle contents may reflect further deterioration of climate conditions between AD 1560 and 1810, consistent with the Little Ice Age. After AD 1850 the vegetation gradually approached the modern one, in conjunction with ongoing climate warming.

scholarly journals An Early Iron Age Camp of Reindeer Hunters in the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra, Nenets Autonomous Okrug

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-84
Author(s):  
A. M. Murygin ◽  
P. A. Kosintsev ◽  
T. I. Marchenko-Vagapova
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Eolian Sand ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Reindeer Hunting ◽  
A Site

This study outlines the fi ndings of excavations at More-Yu II—a site in the northern Bolshezemelskaya tundra. The habitation layer with numerous charcoal lenses was discovered inside the layer of buried soil overlain by eolian sand. Most fi nds are ceramics and animal bones. Arrowheads, o rnaments, tools, and ritual items are very rare. On the basis of palynological and faunal analyses, environmental changes from the sub-boreal warming until the end of the sub-Atlantic period are reconstructed. The temperature regime during the formation of cultural deposits was unstable. The principal subsistence strategy was reindeer hunting. The age of reindeer suggests that habitation periods coincided with cold seasons. Radiocarbon dates generated from reindeer bones point to the Early Iron Age. The camp dwellers were native reindeer hunters inhabiting the tundra belt of northeasternmost Europe. Ceramics representing the More-Yu type belong to the early stage of the Subarctic Pechora culture. They mark the Arctic component that became part of the n orthern Glya denovo population, abruptly changing the Finno-Permic culture of the taiga part of the Pechora basin in northern Urals.

scholarly journals REMAINS OF BROWN BEAR (URSUS ARCTOS L.) FROM THE KANINSKAYA CAVE SANCTUARY IN THE NORTHERN URALS

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Kosintsev ◽  
O. P. Bachura ◽  
V. S. Panov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

Fossil remains of brown bear from Kaninskaya cave in the northern Ural are described. They were accumulated during the Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Late Iron Age as a result of human activity. We analyze the composition of skeletal elements and the nature of their fragmentation. Sex and age of individuals whose bones were apparently used in rituals are assessed, and the seasonality of these ceremonies is evaluated. The main object of ceremonial actions during all chronological periods was the head. Crania and mandibles were cracked into several parts according to one and the same fashion. Other skeletal parts were used much less often. Most postcranial bones were likewise broken into several pieces. Such practices differ from modern Ob Ugrian bear rituals. In the Bronze Age, heads of adult male and female bears were used, and the ceremonies were performed mainly in winter, less often in summer and autumn, and very rarely in spring. In the Iron Age, too, heads of adult animals, mostly males, were used, and ceremonies were held throughout the year but more often in summer and in winter. Seasonal bear rites were not practiced. Certain elements of rites, differing from those of modern Ob Ugrians, are reconstructed. Modern Ob Ugrian bear rituals were formed in the Late Iron Age.

scholarly journals Shapes of Clay Vessels As a Subject of Study. Historical-and-Cultural Approach.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ю.Б. Цетлин
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Unpublished Manuscript ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
University Departments ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Archeological Pottery

Сборник состоит из двух частей. Первая часть содержит статьи выдающегося советского и российского археолога-керамиста А.А. Бобринского, посвященные методам изучения форм глиняных сосудов и изданные в 1986–1999 гг., а также неопубликованную статью 1984 г. Вторая часть включает современные методические разработки анализа форм с  позиций историко-культурного подхода и практические их приложения к материалам эпохи бронзы, раннего железа и раннего средневековья. Публикуемые материалы представляют интерес для всех археологов, изучающих формы глиняной посуды, а также для студентов исторических факультетов университетов.  The collection consists of two parts. The first part contains articles written by famous Soviet and Russian archeoligist and expert in pottery A.A. Bobrinsky. These articles are devoted to techniques and procedures of vessel shapes study and include papers published in 1986–1999 and the unpublished manuscript written in 1984. The second part includes the current developments of procedures of vessels shapes analysis made from the perspective of cultural-historical approach and practical application of these procedures to archeological pottery of Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and Early Middle Age. The materials published in the collection are of interest for all archeologists who study vessel shapes as well as for students of university departments of history.

Archaeological Investigations at Mavis Grind, Shetland

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cracknell ◽  
Beverley Smith
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Field System ◽  
M 10 ◽  
Settlement Site

Summary The excavations revealed a stone house and showed that it was oval, 13 m × 10 m, with an interior about 7 m in diameter. In the first occupation phase the entrance was on the SE side. During the second phase this entrance was replaced with one to the NE and the interior was partitioned. The roof was supported on wooden posts. After the building was abandoned it was covered with peat-ash which was subsequently ploughed. There were numerous finds of steatite-tempered pottery and stone implements, which dated the site to late Bronze/early Iron Age. The second settlement, Site B, lay by the shore of the voe and consisted of two possible stone-built houses and a field system. Two trenches were dug across the structures and the results are reported in Appendix I. Although damaged in recent years it was in no further danger.

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