From Mesolithic hunters to Iron Age herders: a unique record of woodland use from eastern central Europe (Czech Republic)

0532496 - BÚ 2022 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Ptáková, Michaela - Pokorný, P. - Šída, P. - Novák, J. - Horáček, I. - Juřičková, L. - Meduna, P. - Bezděk, Aleš - Myšková, E. - Walls, M. - Poschold, P.
From Mesolithic hunters to Iron Age herders: a unique record of woodland use from eastern central Europe (Czech Republic).
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. Roč. 30, č. 2 (2021), s. 269-286. ISSN 0939-6314. E-ISSN 1617-6278
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA17-07851S
Institutional support: RVO:67985939 ; RVO:60077344
Keywords : enviromnemtal archaeology * Holocene * wood pasture
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7); History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings) (BC-A)
Impact factor: 2.552, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00784-0

In a continuous, perfectly stratified sedimentary sequence which was discovered under a large sandstone overhang in northern Bohemia, Czech Republic, we analysed multiple biological remains, archaeological features and artefacts. This multi-proxy record has allowed us to examine the interactions between woodland and humans in a permanently wooded environment throughout almost the entire Holocene. We paid most attention to massive finds of dung pellets from sheep, goats or pigs and bedding layers which show that the site was used as a pen and shelter for livestock which grazed in the woods. Our results imply that such practices have occurred since the Neolithic, but the most robust evidence of these is for the Iron Age and early Middle Ages. Detailed analyses of the dung indicate woodland grazing and foddering with branches, acorns, beechnuts and crop processing remains. In addition, the wide palaeoenvironmental range of this detailed investigation provides evidence of the impact of wood pasturing on ecological functions, taxon composition and diversity of the local woodland ecosystem in the Holocene.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0319145