Human impact and landscape utilization from the Mesolithic to medieval time traced by high spatial resolution pollen analysis and numerical methods

Pollen analysis in relation to archaeological excavations has been carried out by the coast of central Norway to investigate for the first time long-term human impact on the vegetation in this region. A total of 297 samples from eleven archaeological sites and connected bogs/peat profiles reveal the vegetation development from the Mesolithic until today. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to identify and elucidate the development through time and space, and the results of pollen diagrams from bogs are compared to the results of on-site pollen data. Human impact has transformed the vegetation to a varying degree in different time periods. A dense population connected to the shoreline is slightly visible as opening-up of the forest in the Mesolithic, whereas re-use of Mesolithic settlement sites for cultivation and grazing in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (from c. 2300 cal BC) is clearly documented by palaeobotany but weakly recorded in the archaeological record. Areas for settlement and cultivation are found from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and pollen analysis contributes to a detailed picture of utilization of the landscape. The investigation shows the potential of combining archaeological and botanical data and analysing several small pollen sequences within an excavation area to reveal spatial patterns in vegetation development and human impact through time.     

Original DocumentsCharter of Cuthwulf,Bishop of Hereford

The investigation of a Late Bronze Age occupation layer on the banks of the Thames below Wallingford, on a number of occasions since 1949, has yielded an assemblage of Late Bronze Age pottery, flints, small finds including metalwork, and animal bones. The environment of the site, and the sequence of alluviation, have been elucidated by molluscan analysis.

The precise character of the settlement is unknown, but it can be compared with other British later Bronze Age settlements in respect of both its riverside location and the presence of a ‘midden’ deposit. The site bears directly on the question of riverine finds of Bronze Age metalwork; it is concluded that settlement erosion does not account for much of this material. The site is one of the few Late Bronze Age settlements to have been indentified in the Upper Thames Valley, and represents an early phase in the Iron Age settlement sequence of this area.     

Agricultural and household activities in Vestfold,Southeast Norway,as illustrated by pollen data and the charred remains of crops and wild plants

This paper presents and interprets two data sets from Vestfold, Southeast Norway: the pollen record is from a small lake basin, isolated from the sea in Mid Mesolithic (8100–6400 cal BC), and with a record of sediment deposition up to recent time. Charred plant remains from six settlement sites ranging in date from the Late Neolithic (2400–1800 cal BC) to the Merovingian Period (cal AD 570–800). Soil from archaeological contexts that was recovered from several prehistoric settlement features (two- and three-aisled houses, a rock shelter and a pit) has also been investigated. The number and concentrations of identifiable charred macro remains are low from all features except one, but the records contribute to the interpretation of agriculture and wild plant use. Carbonised cereals dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age are reported from a two-aisled house. Naked barley was the main cereal identified and a few weed seeds were found with the cereal grains. In a rock shelter nearby, cereals and seeds of flax were found, demonstrating cultivation in the Late Bronze Age. Pollen of ribwort plantain recorded in lake deposits in Nordbytjern, 0·5?km to the southwest, also indicates agricultural activity in the southern part of Vestfold during the Late Bronze Age. Archaeobotanical samples from Early Iron Age houses contained low concentrations of carbonised cereal remains, mainly hulled barley, but also wheat and oat. Seeds/fruits of weeds, plants of moist/wet habitats and grasses increase in abundance from the end of Roman Period. The high concentration of hulled barley found in a pit at the site of Ringdal 13 confirms that hulled barley was a cereal used in the Iron Age. Throughout the Iron Age, cereal pollen has a continuous curve in the Nordbytjern pollen diagram, demonstrating the significance of cereal cultivation in Vestfold. Flax was also cultivated in the vicinity of and probably processed in Nordbytjern. Large numbers of rush seeds and sedge nutlets indicate a possible involvement in basketry and cordage making and/or as animal fodder.     

Paleoclimate,Geology, Geomorphology,and Middle Holocene Settlement Systems in the Delice Valley of North-Central Anatolia

The Delice Valley in north-central Anatolia is one of the regions where Hatti societies lived during the Early Bronze Age. This region has rarely been explored in terms of its geology, geomorphology, and human-environment interactions throughout the Bronze Age. The focus of the Delice Valley Survey is to build a holistic approach to assess complex socio-ecological dynamics in the region from the perspective of the longue durée. This paper examines the paleoclimatic conditions, the settlement systems, the production capacity of agropastoral systems, and the changes in the political economy in the Delice Valley during the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The results of the first season of fieldwork suggest that the Delice Valley was settled intensively only during certain periods. Although paleoclimatically suitable for denser settlement, the area showed significantly lighter settlement patterns during the Middle and Late Bronze ages.     

The Early Bronze Age at Tel Nagila

The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a limited view of ceramic tradition that was common at the site. The following paper will present the stratigraphic and ceramic information available, and suggests a rather early date within Early Bronze III of the remains, as well as evidence for Early Bronze Age I occupation of the site.     

The Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia

The Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia, with comprises Denmark and Southern Sweden, has been an attractive area for research for several reasons, including the good preservation conditions at many sites. Most of the work has been concentrated on the southwestern part of Southern Scandinavia, but results from more recent investigations mean that other areas can also be analyzed. New finds in the last few years have given us a greater understanding of the Late Paleolithic settlement and of its relation of the Mesolithic. For the Early Mesolithic (10,000–8000 B.P.), interest has focused primarily on the small inland bog sites in the southern part of the area, where the coast has since been submerged. Farther north, where the land has been uplifted, evidence of coastal settlement has been documented. The Late Mesolithic (8000–6000 B.P.) is known chiefly on the basis of its large coastal settlements. In this period, there is also a larger and more varied collection of finds, which makes it possible to discern clear regional differences. There has also been considerable research on the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic.     

Use of ulan-khada bay at lake baikal in the holocene (based on fauna remains)

The article presents the results of studies of faunal remains from the Ulan-Khada multilayered settlement – one of key habitation sites in the Cis-Baikal region providing information for reconstructing environmental and cultural changes during the Holocene. A complete analysis of the fauna assemblage obtained over the course of long-term excavations is given. For the fi rst time, the site's ichthyofauna is described. The mammalian species composition is revised. Species diversity is evaluated across the time span from the Final Mesolithic to the Late Iron Age. These studies have demonstrated that the main activities at the site during the Neolithic and Bronze Age included seal and ungulate (roe and red deer) hunting. Fishing was also important, especially 4.2–3.8 thousand years ago (Bronze Age).     

Catalogue of the Emblems of Saints

This report describes the excavations of a 4ha multi-period site situated in the parish of Heslerton, North Yorkshire, on the southern edge of the Vale of Pickering. The site came to light in 1977 and a rescue excavation project, sponsored by the Department of the Environment through North Yorkshire County Council, continued on a seasonal basis from 1978 until December 1982.

Occupation at the site began during the late Mesolithic with a flint knapping area, which was also used during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age. During the Late Neolithic a series of shallow gullies may represent the first attempts to establish a field system, and domestic activity may be indicated by two pairs of refuse pits. Other pits of this period demonstrate the presence of an ill-defined avenue of very large post pits running across part of the site. During the early Bronze Age two barrow cemeteries were present. The excavation of Barrow Cemetery 1, besides providing an important series of stratified carbon 14 dates, has produced an important series of Beakers and Food Vessels.

After the barrow cemeteries went out of use, woodland regenerated in the area prior to the late Bronze and early Iron age when the central part of the site became the setting for extensive occupation dispersed along the line of a major boundary which, once established, continued to function, though on a lessening scale through the Roman period when much of the site was turned over to agriculture. During the early Anglo-Saxon period a cemetery was established, focused upon Barrow Cemetery 2, which must have contained well over two hundred individuals, and is associated with a nearby settlement. During the later medieval and post-medieval periods the site continued in use as part of the agricultural landscape. A gradual accumulation of blown sands, associated with periods of denudation, prevented plough damage from disturbing the deposits over much of the area examined.     

Mobility in Central European Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age: tibial cross-sectional geometry

An absence of settlement features during the Central European Corded Ware period (Late Eneolithic, 2900–2300 BC) has been interpreted as a reflection of mobile pastoral subsistence. Recent analyses of the Late Eneolithic archeological context reveal that the Late Eneolithic exhibit evidence of sedentary agricultural activities similar to the Early Bronze Age. Since the archeological analyses are not clear cut, we tested mobility pattern differences between the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age using biomechanical analysis of the tibial midshaft cross-sections. The total sample of the 130 tibiae representing five archaeological cultures was used. The results of the tibial midshaft geometry do not support the hypothesis about different mobility in the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age. This conclusion is supported by nonsignificant differences between the Corded Ware females and the Early Bronze Age females. Higher absolute values for the Corded Ware males should be explained either by stochastic variation or by differing amounts of physical demands despite a generally similar pattern of subsistence of the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age. One of the Early Bronze Age samples, the Wieselburger group, is an exception because the individuals show both reduced overall size and bending resistance of the tibial parameters not only in comparison with the Late Eneolithic but also to the rest of the Early Bronze Age. The results suggest that the behavioral processes which affected the tibial midshaft biology operated during the Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age as a mosaic across time and between/within cultures.     

PREHISTORIC RESIDENTS IN MARGINAL AREAS — AN EXAMPLE FROM WEST SWEDEN

Summary. The purpose of this article is to give an idea of the settlement history of a marginal area of the Swedish West coast. The presence of Stone Age man is evidenced by a great number of hitherto unknown, very small quartz quarries throughout the area. The Bronze and Iron Age settlements are evidenced by the ancient grave monuments. As the location at different altitudes of these graves cannot be explained by a lowering sea level, another explanation has to be sought. The area seems to have developed away from contact with the coastal zones and there is no evidence of settlement expansion.     

Length of the Cubit

Abstract

From excavations of Bronze Age Levantine sites only rarely has there been archaeobotanical evidence of a specific dietary event which may be seen to reflect the daily life of the people against the background of their farming economy. Even more rare is one that may be examined scientifically for evidence of dried or preserved foodstuffs. An Early Bronze Age archaeobotanical assemblage at Tell es-Sa'idryeh in the Jordan valley has provided an opportunity for such an investigation on food remains burnt by the sudden conflagration of the room in which they were found. Scanning electron microscopic examination and experimental replication of the charred remains have provided new and vital information regarding the role of pickled and stored plant foods within the diet at the site during the period. The results have also contributed towards a revised interpretation of the room containing the plant remains as well as a wider understanding of agricultural practices at the site.     

THE ANATOLIAN TRADE NETWORK AND THE IZMIR REGION DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

Summary.   The monumental Early Bronze Age settlement at Liman Tepe (Levels VI–IV) (predecessor of the classical site of Klazomenai), on the southern shore of the Gulf of Izmir, is a good indication of the emergence of settlements with centralised organisation on the west coast of Anatolia. Similar developments can also be followed in Troy at the northernmost limit of the western coastline, on the islands of the north and east Aegean, and at the inland site of Küllüoba in north-west Anatolia. Over a much wider geographical area, extending from south-eastern Anatolia via central and western Anatolia, the islands of the east Aegean, the Cyclades, and mainland Greece, a distinctive set of cultural features emerged at the end of Early Bronze Age II. An explanation of the cultural changes taking place along the west Anatolian coastline at this time should thus be sought in the perspective of this wider sphere. These features can be summarised as follows:

• • 

  organised settlement structures indicating the presence of a central authority;

       
  
  

Genesis,age and archaeological significance of a pedosediment in the depression around Tell Mozan,Syria

A pedosedimentological profile from the ditch surrounding the lower town of the Bronze Age site of Mozan is investigated for its soil and sedimentological characteristics and has been dated in order to gain information on the use of the ditch and on the landscape development surrounding the settlement. The depression did not contain large amounts of water (flowing or stagnant) and probably was used for agricultural purposes. Accumulation – that in part includes anthropogenically-derived, redeposited, and bioturbated debris – started at around 2800 cal. BC or later, and was especially intensive at some time between 2800 and 1000 cal. BC. Deposition may have been caused by intensive agricultural use of the landscape during the urban explosion of the Early Bronze Age or in the early Middle Bronze Age.     

Original DocumentsRalph Lord Cromwell

The excavation of four ploughed-out round barrows in Milton Keynes has produced evidence of relevance to barrow design, ceramic chronology, economy, settlement patterns and population in the second millennium B.C.

The chronological usefulness of Longworth's Collared Urn Classification is considered and a long survival of All-Over-Cord Beaker tradition in southern Britain is suggested. Three of the sites produced a mixed flint assemblage ranging in date from Mesolithic to Bronze Age. A local pastoral economy, possibly associated with transhumance, is indicated at two sites. It is suggested that barrow distribution coincided with settlement distribution. An estimate is made of the proportion of the population who received barrow burial and a formula is derived for computing the size of local Bronze Age populations.     

Bronze Age Field Systems in the Thames Valley

In the last two decades excavation along the River Thames has shown the remarkable survival of Bronze Age field systems. A managed farming landscape emerged in this lowland area during the Middle Bronze Age and continued to develop until the end of the Late Bronze Age. In the latter period the field systems were divided into several regional groups in each of which there was a high status settlement and a concentration of river metalwork. They provide evidence for a predominantly pastoral economy in the Thames Valley on a scale which may have supported an increasingly hierarchical society. Settlements and field systems were abandoned during the Late Bronze Age, and by the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition new sites were largely confined to the extreme upper reaches of the Thames, an area which had been peripheral to the alliance and exchange system that had operated downstream.     

Context for a carnyx: excavation of a long-lived ritual site at Leitchestown,Deskford, Moray,north-east Scotland

Excavations at the findspot of the Deskford carnyx, a major piece of Iron Age decorated metalwork found in a bog in the early nineteenth century, revealed a special location with a long history. Early Neolithic activity on the adjacent ridge consisted of massive postholes and pits, suggesting a ceremonial site. An Early Bronze Age cremation became the focus for a feasting event in the Middle Bronze Age. Around this time, peat began to form in the valley, with vessels of pot and wood smashed and deposited there; these activities on ridge and bog may be connected. Activity in the bog intensified in the later Iron Age, when offerings included quartz pebbles, the dismantled carnyx head, and two unusual animal bone deposits. The ridge was cut off at this period by a complex enclosure system. This Iron Age activity is interpreted as communal rituals at a time of increasing social tension. The site’s significance in this period may stem from its unusual landscape character, with flowing water to one side and a bog to the other. The area saw occasional activity in the Early Medieval period, but its significance had waned.     

When the Giant Falls: Endurance and Adaptation at Çadır Höyük in the Context of the Hittite Empire and Its Collapse

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 b.c., the Hittite Empire of Anatolia collapsed. While that collapse has been well studied, the effects on Hittite-held lands are less so, with many archaeologists positing an abandonment in Hittite territories for a period of time early in the Iron Age. Recent excavations at Çad?r Höyük, 70 kilometers from the Hittite capital, have revealed both typical Hittite material culture belonging to the Late Bronze Age, including mass-produced ceramics and massive fortifications, as well as evidence suggesting that the site’s residents faced challenges, and adapted accordingly, in the wake of Hittite withdrawal and collapse, during the Early Iron Age. The architecture, ceramics, and zooarchaeological evidence from this rural settlement suggest ways in which residential continuity, cultural resilience, and technological and economic adjustments allowed inhabitants to survive and rebound in the face of political instability.     

Settlement, Landscape and Social Identity: The Early-Middle Bronze Age Transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly.     

“Anthropogenic” Pollen Assemblages from a Bronze Age Cemetery at Linga Fiold,West Mainland,Orkney

Pollen analyses from a variety of contexts in a Bronze Age cemetery are used to reconstruct aspects of activity around the site during mound construction and use. Various tests are used to assess the reliability of the pollen assemblages recovered, and error analysis used to determine whether perceived differences between contexts are significant and therefore able to support an archaeological interpretation. The data suggest that the mounds were constructed on pasture land, that pyre fuel was predominantly turf, from both heathland and grassland sources, and that polleniferous material including sources ofPlantago lanceolata and cereal pollen were deposited on some cist floors before they were filled.