| 1. |
- Alenius, Teija, et al.
(författare)
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The environment they lived in: anthropogenic changes in local and regional vegetation composition in eastern Fennoscandia during the Neolithic
- 2020
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 30, s. 489-506
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding about regional versus local changes in vegetation is critical in answering archaeological questions, in particular at a time when humans are assumed to have caused higher disturbances at local scales rather than regional scales; this is the case during the Neolithic. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Neolithic land use on regional and local vegetation dynamics, plant composition and disturbance processes (e.g. fire) in eastern Fennoscandia. We apply the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA) to high-resolution pollen records from three lacustrine sediment cores that cover the Neolithic period. We calculate changes in vegetation composition and the rate of plant compositional change. Fire dynamics are estimated as an indicator of land use, although fire can result from both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Our results show that during the Early Neolithic, changes were mainly driven by natural and climate-induced factors and vegetation composition and fire activity were similar at both regional and local scales. From ca. 4000 bc onwards, trends in vegetation and fire dynamics start to differ between regional and local scales. This is due to local land uses that are overshadowed at the regional scale by climate-induced factors. The use of the LOVE model in pollen analyses is therefore very useful to highlight local land uses that are not visible by using REVEALS.
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| 2. |
- Drobyshev, Igor, et al.
(författare)
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The first annually resolved analysis of slash-and-burn practices in the boreal Eurasia suggests their strong climatic and socio-economic controls
- 2024
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 33, s. 301-312
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Slash-and-burn (SAB) was a widespread agricultural practice across large parts of the boreal region until the early 20th century. Despite its paramount importance in the procurement of food and particularly in supporting frontier populations of settlers during the colonization of the Eurasian boreal zone, analyses of spatial and temporal patterns in the use of SAB at annual and sub-annual scales are currently missing. We present the first such analysis of climatic and social controls of SAB practices in a remote region in the northern Ural mountains from 1880 to 1894. We observed a significant positive correlation between the total number of burns and the village population (p = 0.005, R-2 = 0.26), indicating that the frequency of burns directly reflected the local demand for food. The amount of agricultural land, regarded as a cumulative measure of burning activity over multiple decades, showed a strong positive correlation with the village population (p < 0.001, R-2 = 0.60). This result supported our interpretation of burns as an important food procurement tool, probably also positively affected by higher labour availability in larger villages. Villages where the number of burns were higher than predicted by the "the population vs. burns" regression tended (p = 0.15) to have larger areas of arable land than predicted by the "population vs. arable land" regression. This pattern implied that variability in the local environmental and/or socio-economic settings of the villages made some of them more (or otherwise less) favourable for agricultural activities based on SAB. Most reported burns occurred in June and July. The three years with the maximum number of reported burns had a tendency to be wetter during these months when compared to the same period during an "average" year (p = 0.19). The pattern suggested that farmers preferred conducting burns during years with a below-average climatological fire hazard. An earlier start of the fire season favoured burning activity (p = 0.10 R-2 = 0.33), while its later ending had no significant effect on the number of burns (p = 0.53). Our study documented strong climatic controls of SAB practices at the annual scale and their social controls at above-annual scales. These patterns emerged despite the common use of slash-and-burn to mitigate generally limited food availability in the northern Ural mountain region and likely conservative estimates of these practices in available records.
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| 3. |
- Dögg Eddudottir, Sigrun, et al.
(författare)
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The history of settlement and agrarian land use in a boreal forestin Värmland, Sweden, new evidence from pollen analysis
- 2021
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; , s. 1-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Shielings are the historically known form of transhumance in Scandinavia, where livestock were moved from the farmsteadto sites in the outlands for summer grazing. Pollen analysis has provided a valuable insight into the history of shielings. Thispaper presents a vegetation reconstruction and archaeological survey from the shieling Kårebolssätern in northern Värmland,western Sweden, a renovated shieling that is still operating today. The first evidence of human activities in the area nearKårebolssätern are Hordeum- and Cannabis-type pollen grains occurring from ca. 100 bc. Further signs of human impactare charcoal and sporadic occurrences of apophyte pollen from ca. ad 250 and pollen indicating opening of the canopy ca.ad 570, probably a result of modification of the forest for grazing. A decrease in land use is seen between ad 1000 and 1250,possibly in response to a shift in emphasis towards large scale commodity production in the outlands. Emphasis on bloomeryiron production and pitfall hunting may have caused a shift from agrarian shieling activity. The clearest changes in the pollenassemblage indicating grazing and cultivation occur from the mid-thirteenth century, coinciding with wetter climate at thebeginning of the Little Ice Age. The earliest occurrences of anthropochores in the record predate those of other shieling sitesin Sweden. The pollen analysis reveals evidence of land use that predates the results of the archaeological survey. The studyhighlights how pollen analysis can reveal vegetation changes where early archaeological remains are obscure.
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| 4. |
- Felde, Vivian A., et al.
(författare)
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Compositional turnover and variation in Eemian pollen sequences in Europe
- 2020
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 29:1, s. 101-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Eemian interglacial represents a natural experiment on how past vegetation with negligible human impact responded to amplified temperature changes compared to the Holocene. Here, we assemble 47 carefully selected Eemian pollen sequences from Europe to explore geographical patterns of (1) total compositional turnover and total variation for each sequence and (2) stratigraphical turnover between samples within each sequence using detrended canonical correspondence analysis, multivariate regression trees, and principal curves. Our synthesis shows that turnover and variation are highest in central Europe (47-55 degrees N), low in southern Europe (south of 45 degrees N), and lowest in the north (above 60 degrees N). These results provide a basis for developing hypotheses about causes of vegetation change during the Eemian and their possible drivers.
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| 5. |
- Filipović, Dragana, et al.
(författare)
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Triticum timopheevii s.l. ('new glume wheat') finds in regions of southern and eastern Europe across space and time
- 2024
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 33:1, s. 195-208
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Triticum timopheevii sensu lato ('new glume wheat', NGW) was first recognised as a distinct prehistoric cereal crop through work on archaeobotanical finds from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in northern Greece. This was later followed by its identification in archaeobotanical assemblages from other parts of Europe. This paper provides an overview of the currently known archaeobotanical finds of Timopheev's wheat in southeastern and eastern Europe and observes their temporal span and spatial distribution. To date, there are 89 prehistoric sites with these finds, located in different parts of the study region and dated from the Neolithic to the very late Iron Age. Their latest recorded presence in the region is in the last centuries bce. For assemblages from the site as a whole containing at least 30 grain and/or chaff remains of Timopheev's wheat, we take a brief look at the overall relative proportions of Triticum monococcum (einkorn), T. dicoccum (emmer) and T. timopheevii s.l. (Timopheev's wheat), the three most common glume wheats in our study region in prehistory. We highlight several sites where the overall proportions of Timopheev's wheat might be taken to suggest it was a minor component of a mixed crop (maslin), or an unmonitored inclusion in einkorn or emmer fields. At the same sites, however, there are also discrete contexts where this wheat is strongly predominant, pointing to its cultivation as a pure crop. We therefore emphasise the need to evaluate the relative representation of Timopheev's wheat at the level of individual samples or contexts before making inferences on its cultivation status. We also encourage re-examination of prehistoric and historic cereal assemblages for its remains.
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| 6. |
- Hagenblad, Jenny, et al.
(författare)
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The introduction history of Hordeum vulgare var. nudum (naked barley) into Fennoscandia
- 2024
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : SPRINGER. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 33:2, s. 237-245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hordeum vulgare var. nudum (naked barley) is one of the oldest and most common cereals found from Neolithic Fennoscandia. After the Bronze Age, naked barley largely disappeared and was replaced by Hordeum vulgare var. vulgare (hulled barley) and other cereals. During the early 19th century, naked barley of Asian origins was reintroduced to Fennoscandia. In this study, we have genetically characterized samples of Fennoscandian landraces of naked barley which were preserved in gene banks and museum collections. The analyses show that the Fennoscandian naked barley can be split into three groups: First, naked two-row barley, with a likely origin in Asia; second, naked six-row barley, with a likely origin in the eastern Himalayas and introduced during the 19th century; third, naked six-row barley genetically related to the original Fennoscandian hulled barley. The results suggest that this last group represents the ancient form of naked barley, which was possibly introduced in the Neolithic. At that time both naked and hulled barleys were grown and enough gene flow probably occurred between these two subspecies to create a Fennoscandian barley that is genetically distinct, irrespective of whether it is hulled or naked. This hypothesis was further supported by genotyping of the Nud gene, which is responsible for the naked phenotype. All naked barleys which we studied contained the same mutation allele, nud1.a, thus showing that naked Fennoscandian barley arose by crossings between naked and hulled barley and not by new mutations of hulled barley.
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| 7. |
- Hristova, Ivanka, et al.
(författare)
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Plant remains preserved in products of metal corrosion : source of evidence on ancient plant materials and environment from burial contexts
- 2024
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 33:1, s. 121-130
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By-products of metal corrosion, when coming into contact with organic matter, have the capacity to preserve it from decay. A pilot study was conducted aiming to explore the potential and limitations of plant remains preserved in by-products of metal corrosion for archaeobotanical research. The organic remains considered come from the surface/immediate proximity of the metal funerary artefacts of two ancient cemeteries—Varna and Messambria, Eastern Bulgaria. Metal corrosion by-products were observed and sampled, under a low magnification stereo microscope. Subsequently, the plant macrofossils recognised were analysed under reflected light and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Additionally, pollen was extracted from the metal corrosion by-products, using standard acetolysis. The analyses from the graves of both cemeteries allowed identification of textiles and plant fibres, as well as wood (Cornus sp., Pinus sp., Viburnum sp.). At Varna cemetery epidermis fragments of Juncus sp. were recognized, while at Messambria necropolis fruits of almond were found. The pollen analysis from Varna points to use of flowers in the ritual (Daphne tetrads were recorded) and shows a notably open landscape with 77% non-arboreal pollen (NAP). The palynological analysis from the Messambria necropolis revealed the use of flowers in the burial ritual indicated by clusters of Vitis, Cistus and Rosaceae pollen. The surrounding vegetation was dominated by open oak woodland and open habitats (43% NAP) with a strong presence of anthropogenic indicators. The outcome of the study proved to be promising for reconstructing details of the burial rituals including associated plant materials, as well as the surrounding plant habitats during the functioning of the cemeteries.
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| 8. |
- Klaminder, Jonatan, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Landscape of ice and fire : uniquely well-preserved scots pine trunks reveal forest fires near the retreating weichselian ice margin
- 2023
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental conditions for trees that established in central Fennoscandia shortly after the final retreat of the Weichselian ice sheet remain poorly understood. In this study we examine tree rings of five well-preserved Pinus sylvestris (Scots pines) that grew in the area in front of the retreating ice sheet in northern Sweden. They became buried in flood sediments deposited by a glacial outburst flood (jökulhlaup) about 9.5–9.9 kyr cal bp and the aim of our study was to search for information regarding damage from fires and bioclimatic conditions in their ancient tree ring records. Our analysis, providing a glimpse into the local early Holocene environment in north-central Sweden, suggests that: 1, there were repeated fires (four fire events detected) during the early Holocene; and 2, bioclimatic conditions when the ancient pines were growing resembled those of modern sub-alpine pine woods. The latter is indicated by their patterns of tree ring growth (growth rate and variation), which were statistically similar to those of pines growing in sub-alpine woods with an open canopy, but different from pines in protected and managed boreal forests. Lower δ13C for the ancient latewood in comparison to pine wood from trees growing near the Scandinavian mountains before the 1850s were probably caused both by stomata fractionation due to lower atmospheric CO2 during the early Holocene and by the moist local environment created by the nearby ancient Ancylus lake, which preceded the Baltic Sea. Periods with cloudy and cold summers were also indicated by the occurrence of ‘false rings’. Finds of charred fragments of Calluna vulgaris (heather, ling), an understory shrub that can burn even with a relatively high moisture content, suggest that heath vegetation was crucial to make fire a reoccurring ecological factor in the area during the early Holocene.
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| 9. |
- Morales, Jacob, et al.
(författare)
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Agriculture and crop dispersal in the western periphery of the Old World: the Amazigh/Berber settling of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd-15th centuries ce)
- 2023
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : SPRINGER. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Canary Islands were settled ca. 1,800 years ago by Amazigh/Berber farming populations originating in North Africa. This historical event represents the last and westernmost expansion of the Mediterranean farming package in Antiquity, and investigating it yields information about crop dispersal along the periphery of the Mediterranean world around the turn of the first millennium ce. The current study focuses on archaeobotanical evidence recorded in a series of pre-Hispanic/Amazigh sites of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd-15th centuries ce). It offers new, unpublished archaeobotanical findings and direct radiocarbon datings of plant remains from the different islands. The general goal is to gain a better grasp of how the first settlers of the Canary Islands adapted their farming activities to the different natural conditions of each island. The results suggest a shared crop package throughout the islands since at least the 3rd-5th centuries ce. This set of plants was likely introduced from north-western Africa and consists of Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum durum (durum wheat), Lens culinaris (lentil), Vicia faba (broad bean), Pisum sativum (pea), and Ficus carica (fig). The crop package probably arrived in a single episode during the initial colonisation and was not followed by any other plants. Subsequent to the initial settling and until the arrival of the European seafarers, the islands remained isolated from each other and from the outside world, a condition that over time led to a decline in crop diversity in all of the islands except Gran Canaria.
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| 10. |
- Riddell, Scott J., et al.
(författare)
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The vegetation and land use histories of two farms in Iceland : settlement, monasticism, and tenancy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : Springer. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278. ; 31:4, s. 395-414
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Palaeoecological research in Iceland has rarely considered the environmental consequences of landlord-tenant relations and has only recently begun to investigate the impact of medieval monasticism on Icelandic environment and society. Through the medium of two tenant farm sites, this investigation seeks to discern whether or not monastic landlords were influencing resource exploitation and the land management practices of their tenants. In particular, sedimentary and phyto-social contexts were examined and set within a chronological and palaeoecological framework from the late 9th century down to the 16th century. How this relates to medieval European monasticism is also considered while the prevailing influences of climate and volcanism are acknowledged. Palaeoecological data shed light upon the process of occupation at the two farms during the settlement period, with resources and land use trajectories already well-established by the time they were acquired by monastic institutions. This suggests that the tenant farms investigated were largely unaffected ecologically by absorption into a manorial system overseen by monasticism. This could be a consequence of prevailing environmental contexts that inhibited the development of alternative agricultural strategies, or simply that a different emphasis with regard to resource exploitation was paramount.
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