Groenewoudt, B.J. 2014: Flesh on the Bones. The landscape archaeological benefits of integrating data from poorly preserved dryland sites and alluvial wetland contexts using a LLAND diagram. (original) (raw)
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Wiebke Bebermeier, Daniel Knitter and Oliver Nakoinz (Eds.), Bridging the Gap – Integrated Approaches in Landscape Archaeology, eTopoi. Journal for Ancient Studies, Special Volume 4 (2015), Berlin: Exzellenzcluster 264 Topoi, 1–24.
Detailed historical reconstructions require high-quality data. In the traditionally densely settled higher and drier Pleistocene sandy areas (‘drylands’) of the North European Plain (the European aeolian sand belt) and comparable regions elsewhere evidence-based reconstructions are hampered by poor preservation of archaeological remains and archaeologically relevant deposits. This problem can be partially solved by combining, on a microregional level, dryland data with data from nearby wetland pockets (‘wetlands’), in particular stream valleys. This asks for an integrated and systematic inventory of all available data. For this purpose an instrument was developed: the Landscape-Land use Diagram (LLAND). Because data from dry and wet contexts are to some degree supplementary, integrated analysis is essential for obtaining information on the full range of economic and ritual practices. This is demonstrated by research carried out in the valley of the small river Regge (the Netherlands), the results of which are being treated as a stratified landscape-archaeological sample. This paper does not focus on cultural interpretation but on methodology, specifically the potential of data and the benefits of an integrated approach. http://journal.topoi.org/index.php/etopoi/article/view/198/224 http://www.topoi.org/publication/30971/
In Europe, Early Holocene bog sites play an important role in the reconstruction of Mesolithic and Early Neolithic lifestyles according to very well-preserved organic remains (bones and plant material). Still, this exceptional preservation of organic materials must not hide the archaeological complexity of these settlements. Indeed, the precise analysis of the archaeological layers, their depositional processes and their evolution in wetland context shows a complex sedimentary and taphonomic history (truncation, hiatus, chronological mixing, differential preservation...). In addition, the particular conditions of wetland archaeology (underwater intervention, limited test pits due to rising groundwater) can restrict field data recording or extensive excavations. These factors complicate the archaeological interpretation of the discovered remains, their meaning and their representativeness. Due to different views concerning the nature of the archaeological deposits, some major settlements in Europe have been, therefore, at the centre of intense debates about their place in the landscape and their role in mobility patterns. In comparison with dryland sites, can Stone Age bog sites be seen as exceptional settlements or just as exceptionally preserved occupation deposits? • This session will address the specific methodological and archaeological approaches developed to infer the function of Early Holocene wetland sites in Europe. Several questions could be discussed: • Field methodology • Taphonomic and archaeological approaches to sites and remains (environmental archaeology, dating and chronology of depositional process, analysis of organic and lithic remains...) • Reconstruction of wetland site function (specialised or temporary camps, permanent settlements, unique, stratified or mixed refuse layers) and their relationship with dryland sites. We will give priority to communications discussing one or more of these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Unique in its scope, this book provides for the first time a Southern European perspective on prehistoric wetland settlements and their natural environment. These are dwellings originally built in humid locations, i.e. on shores and in shallow water areas of lakes, bogs, marshes, rivers, estuaries and lagoons. The relevant archaeological remains are in most cases waterlogged and offer outstanding preservation conditions for organic materials and are moreover in close proximity to uninterrupted natural archives (e.g. lake or mire sediments), which allows for a broad range of transdisciplinary research approaches. The sites discussed in this book date from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (c. 5500–1000 BC), and are located in nine countries of Southern Europe, i.e. Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. Four dimensions of prehistoric wetland settlements are explored in the book – the archaeological, the dendroarchaeological, the palaeoecological and the bioarchaeological: Part I is dedicated to archaeology, i.e. the excavation of settlement remains, their transdisciplinary exploration as well as their interpretation; Part II deals with dendroarchaeology and its contribution to the understanding of occupation sequences and regional chronologies; and Part III concerns uninterrupted off-site palaeoecological records of past ecosystem change, including human–environment interactions, as well as bioarchaeological on-site approaches to subsistence strategies and land use practices. Prehistoric Wetland sites of Southern Europe showcases how different disciplines and areas of expertise from the humanities and the natural sciences meet on an equal footing to elaborate coherent pictures of the past. Besides a cross-section of research statuses of different archaeological sites, currently ongoing research as well as novel, hitherto unpublished case studies and findings are made accessible to the international research community. Drawing on a wide range of expert contributions from both archaeology and the natural sciences, this book targets scholars, professionals, and students from the fields of prehistoric archaeology and palaeo-sciences, and is furthermore of interest to cultural-heritage stakeholders.
The maar lakes of the Eifel (Germany) are well known for continous records of annually laminated sediments of the Holocene and are thus an prime archive for paleoenvironmental and paleclimatology reconstruction in central Europe . We present paleobotanical evidence from 4 lakes, which show that the oldest human settlements in the Eifel began 3700 BC, however only at the Ulmener maar. The other lakes have seen an increase in human activity during the later Neolithic and subsequent Bronce age. Clear evidence for increased farming activty becomes visisble at 1800 BC with the spread of beech. A first maximum of creals and flax was then observed during the Urnfelder culture from 1300-800; even intensified after the transition into the Hallstatt Iron age at 800 BC. The following 900 years have seen only little changes in the paleobotanical record. The Romans apparently used the Eifel mainly for timber production. Dense forests devoloped after the Roman retreat in the 5th century and the Early Medieval, but humans were present in small numbers during the entire Migration period up to the raids of Wikings in the 9cth century, when forest clearings provided land for farming and charcoal production. Land use changed after the 1342 AD millennium flash flood, when large parts of the arable land were devasted; leading to a pronounced sediment eventlayer, which contains more than 50 different paleobotanical macro remains that allow to reconstruct that flax and rye have been the most important plants for late medieval agriculture in the Eifel.
Heeringen, R.M. van & E.M. Theunissen 2007: Archaeological monitoring of (palaeo)wetlands in the Netherlands. From best practice to guidelines, in: J. Barber, C. Clark, M. Cressey, A. Crone, A. Hale, J. Henderson, R. Housley, R. Sands, A. Sheridan (eds.), Archaeology from the Wetlands: Recent Perspectives. Proceedings of the 11th WARP Conference Edinburgh 2005, Edinburgh (WARP Occasional Paper 18), 49-65.
Culturally oriented studies on raised bogs in the Netherlands and neighbouring areas either focus on regional scale levels or on site/object-based information. Interdisciplinary microregional studies are key to bridge the gap between these types of data and to reconstruct human-land relations in detail. This paper analyses which cultural and natural processes were involved in the long-term development of a raised bog near Vriezenveen (province of Overijssel), by integrating geological, palynological, archaeological and historical geographical data. The study area includes both the bog, which has largely been reclaimed, and the nearby drylands. The landscape was subject to continuous change, driven by a complex and dynamic entanglement of environmental, socio-economic and ideological factors. The research results point to differences in the pace of landscape change between wetland and neighbouring drylands, and variability in the resilience of different cultural landscape elements and practices. They also illustrate the potentials as well as the problems of producing integrated narratives of landscape change and human activity for wetland environments and how these sorts of studies might be progressed in the future.
Evidence of human impact on the vegetation obtained from pollen diagrams at sites in the process of neolithisation is often difficult to detect. Apart from aspects like site function and occupation intensity, methodological aspects play a considerable role. In the Rhine-Meuse delta in the Netherlands, neolithisation is documented at the Final Mesolithic sites Hardinxveld-Giessendam Polderweg and Hardinxveld-Giessendam De Bruin and the local Early Neolithic sites of Brandwijk-Kerkhof and the Hazendonk, covering the period of 5500–2500 cal. b.c. The off-site core from Hardinxveld-Giessendam De Bruin supports earlier results that human influence on the vegetation at Hardinxveld is restricted and difficult to distinguish from natural vegetation disturbance. Human impact is more easily recognisable in the diagrams of Neolithic phases at Brandwijk-Kerkhof and the Hazendonk that show evidence of both domestic animals and cereals. Continuing neolithisation and also research methodology, including the location of the pollen cores, may play a role in this. It is tested whether the use of a new pollen sum excluding extra-regional taxa increases the visibility of human impact. Keywords: Neolithisation, Human impact, Pollen sum, Palynological methodology, Mesolithic, Swifterbant culture.