Paleosols and climate of the steppe zone in early iron age: Identifying short term warming of climate on slightly- sensors soils (original) (raw)
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Paleosols of Kurgans of the Early Iron Age in the Transural Steppe Zone
2008
Paleosol studies of archaeological monuments of different ages have been conducted on the Transural Plateau. The morphological and physicochemical properties of paleosols under burial mounds (kurgans) of the Early Iron Age (the fifth and fourth centuries BC) were compared with the properties of background surface soils. A paleosol of the Savromat epoch (2500 BP) is characterized by high contents of gypsum and soluble salts. The presence of humus tongues in its profile attests to the aridity and continentality of the climatic conditions during that epoch. Paleosols buried under kurgans of the Late Sarmatian epoch and the Hun epoch (about 1600 BP) are characterized by a higher content of humus and greater depth of the carbonate horizon, which attests to the humidization of climatic conditions. The evolution of soils as related to climate dynamics in the first millennium BC and the first millennium AD is characterized.
Paleosols buried under steppe kurgans of the Golden Horde period (13th–14th centuries AD) in the Lower Volga basin are characterized by an increased humus content, lower salinity and gypsum content, and higher magnetic susceptibility of the soil material in comparison with the paleosols buried in the preceding period and the background surface soils. A comparative analysis of the morphological, chemical, and magnetic properties of the buried and surface soils allows us to conclude that an increase in climatic humidity within this dry region took place in the period of the high Middle Ages, with a peak in the 13th–14th centuries AD. The climatic change was manifested in the soil evolution at the taxonomic levels of soil genera and soil subtypes (in the ecotone zones). On the basis of measured magnetic susceptibility values, the mean annual precipitation levels in the Golden Horde period have been reconstructed. According to our estimates, the mean annual precipitation in the Lower Volga basin in that time was 30–80 mm higher than at present. The favorable paleoenvironmental and paleosol conditions of the Golden Horde period were important factors that affected the ethnic and political situation in the Lower Volga region.
17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2017, Water Resources. Forest, Marine and Ocean Ecosystems, 2017
Humid and arid climatic cycles during Sub-Atlantic time in the forest-steppe area of the East European Plain were studied based on soils buried under archaeological sites of different time. The shift of the boundary between steppe and forest patches is recorded in the shift of the studied soils: Luvic Greyzemic Fhaeozems of the forest patches and Luvic Chernozems under steppe environment. The complex research is based on archaeological investigation, assemblages of morphological (marco-, mesoand micromorphological), microbiomorphic (pollen, phytoliths) and analytical features. Climatic rhythms in the Sub-Atlantic period entailed the transformation of the whole complex of landscape parameters, including soil features: development of Agric horizon, greyzemic features, characteristics of humus and carbonate profiles, C/N ratio, soil microbiomorphic complex, etc. A group of stable and dynamic indicators of climatic shifts was established by ranking soil features in their degree of transformation in various environmental conditions.
In this book summarized the materials of many-year (1976–2012) soil-archeological studies of about 200 kurgans of the Savromatian, Early, Middle, and Late Sarmatian time (VI c. BC – AD IV c.) within about 40 burial sets located in 23 landscape-geomorphologic regions of the Lower Volga and Southern Urals steppes. This allowed us for the first time to obtain detail information on the regularities of spatialtemporal variability of morphological, chemical, microbiological, magnetic properties and biological activity of paleosoils on the south Russia steppes, on the direction and rates of transformation of parameters of humus, carbonate, salt profiles, on the development of processes of humus and solonetz formation, accumulation and leaching of salts, on the variability of structure of soil cover and soil evolution, on the centennial dynamics of climate humidity during the historical time, on the role of natural environment in life of nomads of the Early Iron age.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2007
Insights into past climate changes, and corresponding evolution of soils and the environment, can be gained by multidisciplinary studies of palaeosols. Here, we focus on palaeosols buried beneath archaeological monuments, specifically, funerary mounds (kurgans), in the Russian steppe. The kurgans were constructed, and each of the palaeosols buried, over a range of different timesteps from the mid-Holocene to ∼ 600 years before present (yr BP). Integrated magnetic, mineralogical and pedological data were used to obtain estimates of past climate (especially precipitation) changes, through both time and space. A soil magnetismbased climofunction, derived previously from modern steppe soils and modern climate, was applied to each set of palaeosols, to obtain quantitative reconstructions of annual precipitation for the time at which the soils were buried. Independent soil property data (clay mineralogy, salt content, iron mineralogy from Mossbauer analysis, and optical and electron microscopy) were also obtained, in order to test and substantiate the magnetic inferences. The data obtained indicate that the climate of the Lower Volga steppe area has varied from the mid-Holocene onwards. Precipitation minima occurred at ∼ 5000, ∼ 3800, and ∼ 1600 yr BP, with intervals of enhanced precipitation at ∼ 1900 yr BP and ∼ 600 yr BP. These rainfall variations appear to occur synchronously with changes in Middle Eastern precipitation and lake levels, suggesting they are controlled by index changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation.
Paleosols buried under kurgans of the Pit-grave culture in the steppe zone of the Cis-Ural region
Eurasian Soil Science, 2008
The analysis of soil chronosequences developed from loamy and loamy sandy substrates and buried under kurgans dating back to the Pit-grave archaeological culture in the steppe zone of the Cis-Ural region demonstrated that it is possible to trace the dynamics of the soil properties and to perform paleoclimatic reconstructions for different intervals within the studied period. The properties of sandy soils changed more rapidly than the properties of loamy soils. For sandy soils, notable changes in their properties were revealed in the soil chronosequences dating back to the particular stages of the Pit-grave culture; for loamy soils, such changes could only be traced for the soils buried under the kurgans dating back to different stages of the Pit-grave culture.
Late Holocene landscape evolution at the southern frontier of the forest belt of European Russia is studied based on detailed morphological, analytical and microbiomorphic research of a soil chronosequence that included a surface soil and a soil buried under the Bronze Age kurgan. Both soils (Folic Eutric Cambisols) are formed on similar geomorphic surfaces in the same parent material and in close proximity to each other. The soil morphology and the key analytical features are controlled by low-reactive parent material and imply close similarity of the present landscapes and those of the Bronze age. At the same time the morphological features show that the buried soil was influenced by the phase of weak aridization, which led to the formation of a dark mull humus horizon. Microbiomorphic assemblages (phytoliths, pollen) support the earlier conclusion that the soils of the study area had being developed mostly under forest vegetation.
Ancient Soil Disturbances in River Valleys within the Steppe Zone of the Southeastern Urals
2005
Abstract—Soil–archaeological investigations of ancient burial sites and settlements in river valleys of the steppe zone in the southeastern Ural region proved that the local paleolandscape were strongly affected by humans in the second millennium BC, during the Late Bronze epoch. In the modern soil cover of the region, about 1% of the territory is occupied by urban soils (paleourbanozems) formed under human impacts on natural paleosols in the areas of ancient settlements. The character of the buried paleosols suggests the presence of for- est vegetation in the studied region during the Late Bronze epoch. Taking into account this fact and the presence of thick ashy layers in the habitation deposits of ancient settlements, we can suppose that the anthropogenic impact on the environment was one of the reasons for the degradation of forests and propagation of steppe veg- etation in this area. The development of steppe vegetation was also favored by some aridization of the climate.
Quaternary International, 2021
During the second half of the Holocene, the Russian Plain experienced several climatic oscillations giving rise to changing vegetation patterns. The spatial variability of vegetation changes and its effects on soils is still a matter of debate. In the present study landscape response to Holocene climatic cycles was analysed on the base of detailed morphological, chemical and microbiomorphic analyses of a paleosol buried under the kurgan of the Abashevo culture (Middle Bronze Age) and a surface soil. Both soils located at the Tokhmeyevo kurgan cemetery (the Middle Volga region, Chuvash Republic, Russia) developed from the same parent material (mantle loam), at the same elevation and in close proximity to each other. Both soils, classified as Retisols, show a similar morphology and key analytical features indicating similar environment. The pollen and phytolith spectra confirm that both buried and surface soils formed under similar forest vegetation. The buried and surface soils at the Tokhmeyevo cemetery could be compared with the previously studied soils of the Sareevo settlement of the Early Iron Age and the Taushkasy kurgan cemetery of the Bronze Age. These studies confirm the stability of the forest environment at the southern boundary of the forest belt since the Bronze Age. At the same time, the buried soil at the Tokhmeyevo cemetery has a thick mollic horizon and black organic coatings overlaying brown clay cutans in the argic horizons, which sets it apart from the surface soil. The radiocarbon dates for the humus in the mollic horizon and black coatings in the argic horizon are surprisingly close to each other (about 5.5 cal ka BP and 5.2 cal ka BP, respectively). The data indicate that the black cutans are derived from degradation of the mollic horizon caused by a sudden increase in humidity during the episodes of extreme summer rainfall events. Our study also prove that the Abashevo people had complicated burial funeral rites. The earth mounds are made of the upper horizons of soils cut off from the surface in the vicinity. The central part of the mound consists of soil bricks with albic material used for the interior, while artificially rumpled material of the argic horizon was used for coverage. The use of albic and artificially rumpled material of argic horizon for earth mound construction implies the similarity between the buried and surface soils since the Bronze Age until today. Thus, the study of such construction techniques is important both for archaeology and paleogeography (paleopedology).
Quaternary International, 2019
Landscape response to Late Holocene climatic cycles is based on detailed hierarchical morphological, analytical and micro-biomorphic research of a soil chronosequence which included a soil buried under a fortification earth wall of the Early Iron Age (Luvic Chernozem) and a surface soil (Chernic Greyzemic Luvic Phaeozem) in the southern forest-steppe area of the East European Plain. Both soils formed on similar surfaces with the same lithology (noncarbonate loess underlain by carbonate loess), at the same elevation, and in close proximity to each other. The buried soil was truncated by at 40 cm and transformed by diagenesis. Taking this into account it was possible to reconstruct the soil formed by the time of burial under the earth wall and to classify it as (Chernic) Luvic Phaeozem. Both surface and buried soils are polygenetic combining the features of humid (forest?) and steppe pedogenesis. The radiocarbon data obtained from the Humic horizon of the buried soil (6750±120 years CalBP) allows bracketing the steppe environment to the mid-Holocene (Atlantic period). Pedogenetic evolution since the Early Iron Age included the next stage of clay illuviation (formation of thin hypocoatings.) and the development of Greyzemic features. The studied Phaeozems indicate relative landscape stability at the southern boundary of the forest-steppe zone.