Questioning the relevance of shifting cultivation to Neolithic farming in the loess belt of Europe: evidence from the Hambach Forest experiment |
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Authors: | Amy Bogaard |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK. e-mail: A.M.Bogaard@sheffield.ac.uk, GB |
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Abstract: | Despite widespread criticism, the shifting cultivation model continues to inform discussion of Neolithic farming in Europe,
beginning with early Neolithic (Linearbandkeramik or LBK) communities concentrated in the loess belt of western-central Europe. Hundreds of LBK and later Neolithic sites have
been excavated in this region and many of them sampled for charred plant remains. Archaeobotanical data on the weed floras
harvested with crops provide the most direct archaeological evidence of crop husbandry practices, including the permanence
of crop fields, but have played a limited role in the debate over shifting cultivation. The Hambach Forest experiment, conducted
in the 1970s-80s near Cologne, Germany, provides valuable comparative data on the weed floras growing in newly cleared cultivation
plots in an area of longlived mixed oak woodland on loess-based soil. Correspondence analysis of the Hambach weed survey data
suggests that weed floras of fields managed under a shifting cultivation regime would be rich in perennial species, including
woodland perennials. Comparison of these results with Neolithic weed assemblages from the loess belt of western-central Europe
strongly suggests that Neolithic crop fields were not recently cleared of woodland vegetation but were long-established.
Received September 5, 2001 / Accepted February 26, 2002 |
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Keywords: | : Shifting cultivation – Hambach Forest – Experimental cultivation – Archaeobotany – Weed ecology |
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