Prehistoric Pinus woodland dynamics in an upland landscape in northern Scotland: the roles of climate change and human impact

Pollen, microscopic charcoal, palaeohydrological and dendrochronological analyses are applied to a radiocarbon and tephrochronologically dated mid Holocene (ca. 8500–3000 cal b.p.) peat sequence with abundant fossil Pinus (pine) wood. The Pinus populations on peat fluctuated considerably over the period in question. Colonisation by Pinus from ca. 7900–7600 cal b.p. appears to have had no specific environmental trigger; it was probably determined by the rate of migration from particular populations. The second phase, at ca. 5000–4400 cal b.p., was facilitated by anthropogenic interference that reduced competition from other trees. The pollen record shows two Pinus declines. The first at ca. 6200–5500 cal b.p. was caused by a series of rapid and frequent climatic shifts. The second, the so-called pine decline, was very gradual (ca. 4200–3300 cal b.p.) at Loch Farlary and may not have been related to climate change as is often supposed. Low intensity but sustained grazing pressures were more important. Throughout the mid Holocene, the frequency and intensity of burning in these open Pinus–Calluna woods were probably highly sensitive to hydrological (climatic) change. Axe marks on several trees are related to the mid to late Bronze Age, i.e., long after the trees had died.     

Temporal cultural landscape dynamics in a marginal upland area: agricultural expansions and contractions inferred from palynological evidence at Yttra Berg, southern Sweden

Agrarian history and local cultural landscape dynamics have been documented through pollen analysis of a peat core within the hamlet of Yttra Berg, which is situated in an upland area of southwest Sweden. The sequence covers the last 5,000 years, from Neolithic to modern time. Wood pasturing started at 2000 b.c., followed by grazing and small-scale cultivation with 500 year cycles from 650 b.c., and permanent fields of agriculture from a.d. 1150. The area was abandoned during the period a.d. 1350–1550. Three cycles of succession related to land-use have been identified for the period 650 b.c. to a.d. 1550. Correlation with frequent clearance cairns in the area is discussed. Recessions of agriculture/settlement during the late Middle Ages and late modern time are documented. Pollen data indicate increased landscape and plant diversity since the Neolithic, closely linked to openness of the agrarian landscape. These results are important for landscape restoration.     

Shieling Areas: Historical Grazing Pressures and Landscape Responses in Northern Iceland

Historical domestic livestock grazing in sensitive landscapes has commonly been regarded as a major cause of land degradation in Iceland. Shieling areas, where milking livestock were taken to pasture for the summer, represented one element of grazing management and in this paper we consider the extent to which historical shieling-based grazing pressure contributed to land degradation. Based on a grazing model to assess pressures and tephrochronology -based soil accumulation rates allied to micromorphology as a proxy for land degradation, our findings suggest that the shieling sy stem contributed to the maintenance of upland vegetation cover and related productivity levels without causing land degradation from settlement through to ca. AD 1300. As land degradation accelerated from ca. AD 1477 it is likely that shieling management continued to operate effectively contributing to the overall resilience of livestock farming.     

Hierarchical Bayesian methods estimate invasive weed impacts at pertinent spatial scales

Invasive weed impact estimates are needed to determine whether or not weeds warrant costly control measures. Typically, land managers seek local weed impact estimates (e.g. ranches, parks) and policy-makers want to know how weeds are impacting entire regions. Our goal was to provide local and regional impact estimates for a ubiquitous invasive weed: leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.). The specific impacts we looked at related to desired species biomass production, livestock carrying capacities, and grazing land values. Our basic approach was to use an empirical model that characterizes weed biomass across the landscape in combination with another empirical model that predicts weed impact from weed biomass. Our investigation revealed that, without on-site plant biomass data, site-specific leafy spurge impacts are highly uncertain. Supplementing our general predictive model with small quantities of on-site data increased precision considerably. For the 17-state region we considered, 95% Bayesian credibility intervals indicated leafy spurge reduces cattle carrying capacities by 50–217 thousand animals a year and reduces grazing land values by 8–34 million dollars a year. Additional plant biomass data from randomly selected, leafy spurge-infested sites would shrink these fairly wide intervals.     

Economy and environment of Bronze Age settlements – Terramaras – on the Po Plain (Northern Italy): first results from the archaeobotanical research at the Terramara di Montale

The paper presents a synthesis of the on-site archaeobotanical investigations of the Terramara di Montale, one of the most important sites of the Terramara cultural system which characterised the Po Plain in the Middle-Late Bronze Age (1650–1200 b.c.). Samples for pollen analysis and macroremains, including seed/fruit and wood/charcoal records, were collected from stratigraphic sequences and occupation levels during the excavations 1996–2001. The results permitted the reconstruction of the main characteristics of the landscape which at the onset of the Terramara rapidly passed from a natural, more forested landscape with mixed oak wood and conifers to a more open and anthropic landscape characterised by cereal fields, pastures and meadows. People felled oaks and other trees such as Populus/Salix and Fraxinus to make piles or walls for houses. Wood from these species was also recorded as charcoal in the hearths. Palynological and carpological data show that the inhabitants of the Terramara largely founded their economy on cereals (mainly Triticum aestivum/durum, T. dicoccum and Hordeum vulgare). They also grew a few legumes (Vicia faba var. minor, Vicia sp. and Lens culinaris). There was also grazing by domestic animals, mainly ovicaprines but also pigs and cattle, and these were fed exploiting wild plants such as Carpinus. In the paper the four main steps of the history of the Terramara are described (before the Terramara, the onset, the Terramara phase, the decline) during which both human influence and climatic changes were important. At the onset of the Terramara (around 1600 b.c.) a warm and possibly dry phase occurred. The intense use of the territory and a climatic deterioration at around 1300 b.c. might have triggered the decline of the Terramara di Montale.     

Long-term changes in floristic diversity in southern Sweden: palynological richness, vegetation dynamics and land-use

The rarefaction technique is applied to two Holocene pollen sequences (covering the last 12,000 calendar years) from two lakes in southern Sweden. One represents an open agricultural landscape, the other a partly wooded and less cultivated landscape. The inferred palynological richness is interpreted as an approximate measure of floristic diversity at the landscape scale. The overall trend is an increased diversity from the mid-Holocene to the Modern period, which is linked to a parallel rise in human impact. The pattern is similar for the two sites with peaks corresponding to archaeological periods characterised by deforestation and expanding settlement and agriculture. The highest diversity was reached during the Medieval period, about a.d. 1,000–1,400. Declining diversity during the last 200 years characterises the agrarian landscape. These results confirm, for southern Scandinavia, the “intermediate disturbance” hypothesis for biodiversity at the landscape scale and on millennial to century time scales. They have implications for landscape management in modern nature conservation that has the purpose of maintaining and promoting biodiversity.     

Does habitat structure matter? Spatially explicit population modelling of an Iberian gypsum endemic

Habitat heterogeneity may influence plant demography because conditions for survival, growth, and reproduction vary within a species’ range. We assessed the role of microhabitat spatial structure on the demography of Helianthemum squamatum, a shrubby gypsum specialist endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. We evaluated the demographic effect of microhabitat spatial variation using an approach that combined cellular automata with matrix population models, and included environmental and demographic stochasticty. We collected data on seed bank (2003–2005), seedling emergence (2003–2006), and adult survivorship (2004–2007) for H. squamatum in two independent blocks with different grazing intensity in Belinchón (Cuenca, Spain). We built spatial scenarios for each block based on field data of cover and spatial pattern of four microhabitats: lichenic crust, litter, H. squamatum, and shrub. Seedling survivorship was affected by year, block, and microhabitat, with individuals emerging under conspecifics having the highest survival rate and on litter the lowest in both blocks, whereas the effect of crust and other shrubs differed across blocks. Our models indicated population increase in the block with low grazing, but population decline in the block with intense grazing. We hypothesize that higher pressure of livestock grazing and trampling leads to a shift in relative microhabitat suitability for crust and shrub. This potential effect of grazing on spatial demographic variation opens interesting questions for future research. We emphasize the importance of considering microhabitat spatial structure when evaluating management and conservation strategies. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Two millennia of changes in human ecology: archaeobotanical and invertebrate records from the lower Ica valley, south coast Peru

This paper presents archaeobotanical and invertebrate evidence from the flotation and analyses of 46 archaeological contexts from six middens from the Samaca and Ullujaya basins, lower Ica Valley, south coast of Peru. This is part of one of the world’s driest deserts and organic remains can enjoy extraordinary preservation in its hyperarid climate. Each of these contexts represents snapshots with which to piece together a picture of changing human ecology in the lower Ica Valley over nearly two millennia, from Ocucaje Phases 3/4 of the Early Horizon (c. 750 b.c.); through to Early Nasca Phases 2/3 (c. a.d. 100–450); Late Nasca Phases 6/7 (c. a.d. 450–600) and Middle Horizon Epoch 2 (c. a.d. 900). They also offer proxy evidence of wider ecological changes in these basins. Read together with geoarchaeological and pollen data, the archaeobotanical data we present show a gradual intensification of agriculture from small-scale Early Ocucaje societies subsisting mainly on gathered marine and terrestrial resources, through to sophisticated irrigation agriculture by Nasca times, but culminating in a collapse of agricultural production and a return to the gathering of wild marine and plant resources much later, during the Middle Horizon. This trajectory of human ecology is consistent with the model presented elsewhere of a gradual removal of Prosopis dominated riparian woodland for the purpose of increasing agricultural production, which in time exposed the landscape of the lower Ica Valley to high-energy, episodic flood events and of one of the world’s strongest and most persistent wind regimes.     

Introduced and native herbivores have different effects on plant composition in low productivity ecosystems

Questions

Understanding how livestock grazing alters plant composition in low productivity environments is critical to managing livestock sustainably alongside native and introduced wild herbivore populations. We asked four questions: (1) does recent livestock and rabbit grazing reduce some plant attributes more strongly than others; (2) does grazing by introduced herbivores (i.e. livestock and rabbits) affect plants more strongly than native herbivores (i.e. kangaroos); (3) do the effects of recent livestock grazing differ from the legacy effects of livestock grazing; and (4) does the probability of occurrence of exotic plants increase with increasing net primary productivity (NPP)?

Location

South‐eastern Australia.

Methods

We measured the recent grazing activity of co‐occurring livestock (cattle, sheep, goats), rabbits and kangaroos by counting faecal pellets; historic grazing activity by measuring livestock tracks; and derived NPP from satellite imagery. We used a hierarchical GLMM to simultaneously model the presence or absence (i.e. probability of occurrence) of all plant species as a function of their attributes (growth form, lifespan and origin) to assess their average response to recent grazing, historic grazing and productivity in a broad‐scale regional study.

Results

Recent and historic livestock grazing, rabbit grazing and increasing NPP reduced the average probability of occurrence of plant species, although responses varied among plant attributes. Both recent and historic livestock grazing strongly reduced the average probability of occurrence of native species, and forbs and geophytes, but differed in their relative effects on other growth forms. Recent livestock grazing, rabbit grazing and NPP had similar effects, strongly reducing native species and forbs, geophytes, shrubs and sub‐shrubs. The overall effects of recent kangaroo grazing were relatively weak, with no clear trends for any given plant attribute.

Conclusion

Our results highlight the complex nature of grazing by introduced herbivores compared with native herbivores on different plant attributes. Land managers need to be aware that domestic European livestock, rabbits and other free‐ranging introduced livestock such as goats have detrimental impacts on native plant communities. Our results also show that kangaroo grazing has a relatively benign effect on plant occurrence.     

Sustainable Rangeland Grazing in Norse Faroe

The introduction of domestic livestock, particularly sheep, and rangeland grazing by Norse settlers to Faroe during the ninth century has generally been described as a major pressure on a sensitive landscape, leading to rapid and widespread vegetation change and contributing to land degradation. This view has, however, been developed without consideration of Norse grazing management practices which may have served to minimize grazing impacts on landscapes as well as sustaining and enhancing vegetation and livestock productivity. These alternative scenarios are considered using a historical grazing management simulation model with Faroese climate and vegetation inputs and given archaeological, historical and palaeoenvironmental parameters. Three contrasting rangeland areas are investigated and, based on the maximum number of ewe/lamb pairs the rangeland could sustain, modeling suggests that utilizable biomass declined with the onset of grazing activity, but not to a level that would cause major changes in vegetation cover or contribute to soil erosion even under climatically determined poor growth conditions. When rangeland areas partitioned into what are termed hagi and partir are modeled, grazing levels are still within rangeland carrying capacities, but productivities are variable. Some rangeland areas increase biomass and livestock productivities and biomass utilization rates while other rangeland areas that were too finely partitioned were likely to suffer substantial decline in livestock productivity. Partitioning of rangeland is a likely contributor to long-term differentiation of landscapes and the relative success of settlements across Faroe beyond the Norse period.     

Changes in cereal cultivation during the Iron Age in southern Sweden: a compilation and interpretation of the archaeobotanical material

Macrofossil data from 73 sites dating to the south Swedish Iron Age (500 b.c.–a.d. 1100) have been compiled and analyzed in order to elucidate long term changes in cereal cultivation. The analyses indicate that “permanent field” agriculture was established at the end of the Bronze Age utilizing Hordeum vulgare var vulgare as a primary crop and Triticum aestivum ssp vulgare/compactum, Triticum spelta/dicoccum/monococcum, Avena sativa and Secale cereale as secondary crops. An observed change towards the end of Roman Iron Age (1–a.d. 400) is the expansion of Secale cereale and Avena sativa cultivation. Evidence also suggests that winter sowing of the former commenced at the latest during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries a.d. The introduction of winter sowing possibly coincided with the establishment of crop rotation agriculture. During most of the Iron Age southern Sweden displays significant regional variations with regards to cereal cultivation practice. There is however evidence that a more homogenous agriculture appeared across the investigated area from the beginning of the Viking Age (a.d. 800–1100) onwards.     

Grazing impacts and woodland management in Eriksfjord: Betula, coprophilous fungi and the Norse settlement of Greenland

This paper focuses on the impact of Norse settlement on vegetation and landscape around the head of Tunulliarfik (Eriksfjord) in southern Greenland. Pollen, radiocarbon, microscopic charcoal and fungal spore data are presented from a peat monolith which was collected close to the ruins of a large Norse farm complex (group ?39 at Qinngua in the former Eastern Settlement). Landnám is identified at ca. cal. a.d. 1020 by a small decrease in pollen from Betula, a slight increase in Poaceae, and the appearance of pollen from Norse apophytes (native plants favoured and spread by human activity) and anthropochores (not native and unintentionally introduced by people). Increases in microscopic charcoal and palynological richness are also apparent. This pattern is broadly consistent with that seen in other pollen diagrams from this region. The sequence is unusual for Greenland, however, in that relatively high Betula pollen percentages (average 20% TLP) are recorded throughout the period of settlement, up to the end of the 14th century a.d. before the profile becomes truncated. If these data are primarily representative of the dry land vegetation, then they suggest that birch woodland and scrub may well have persisted close to the farm throughout the Norse period. Given the potential resource value of woodland to the settlers, this may imply that birch was being managed sustainably, as was the case in Iceland during the medieval period. Coprophilous fungal spores typically found on animal dung are abundant during the early phase of settlement, yet subsequently decline in abundance. This may indicate a likely decrease in grazing intensity or livestock numbers over time, possibly in response to climatic deterioration and/or soil erosion that is expected to have placed increased stress on the pastoral farming system.     

Mid- to late-Holocene vegetation history of Greater Exmoor,UK: estimating the spatial extent of human-induced vegetation change

This paper presents the results from three pollen profiles from a group of small spring mire sites on the southern edge of Exmoor in south west England. The size and topography of these sites allow detailed local landscape histories around each site to be reconstructed which broadly cover the mid- to late-Holocene. Comparison of the individual local landscape histories demonstrates the scale of spatial variation in vegetation around the upland edge, and facilitates understanding of human-landscape interactions from the early Neolithic onward. In the early Neolithic significant short-term woodland disturbance is recorded around the upland fringe, including clearance of oak-hazel-elm woodland, suggesting that the shift from Mesolithic to Neolithic is not marked by a gradual environmental transition. Following this, there is clear evidence of Neolithic management of upland heath using fire, presumably for the management of upland grazing. Woodland clearances are recorded throughout the later Prehistoric period; however, the use of multiple profiling suggests that woodland clearance is spatially discrete, even within an area of 4 km². Pastoral land use is dominant around the uplands until around 900–1,000 a.d., and there is no discernible Roman or post-Roman period impact in the vegetation, suggesting cultural stability from the late Iron Age to the early Medieval period. By 1,100 a.d., there is a shift to mixed arable-pastoral farming which appears to continue well into the post-Medieval period.     

Holocene tree-line variability in the Kauner Valley, Central Eastern Alps, indicated by dendrochronological analysis of living trees and subfossil logs

The altitude of the Alpine tree-line has often been used as proxy for the climatic conditions in the Holocene epoch. The usual approach for establishing a record for this proxy is the analysis of pollen and macro remains. We analysed living trees and subfossil logs from the timberline ecotone in the innermost Kauner valley in the Central Eastern Alps in order to assemble a Holocene dendrochronological tree-line record. Data sets comprising age and height of living Stone Pines (Pinus cembra L.) were collected at one site. Sections of 170 subfossil Stone Pine logs from five other sites were dendrochronologically analysed and dated. Besides using dendrochronological analyses, radiocarbon dating served as a means of obtaining the age of some logs. For most of the samples we could provide dendrochronological dates (1-year dating precision, back to 5125 b.c.) or wiggle matched dates (between approx. 7100 and 5040 b.c., dating precision with 95% probability: ±7 years). In the first half of the 19th century the tree-line was located at about 2180 m a.s.l. in the innermost Kauner valley. After approximately a.d. 1860 the altitude of the upper limit of the occurrence of Pinus cembra individuals (tree-species-line) and, being closely linked, also that of the tree-line both rose. The current tree-line (trees >2 m) is located at 2245 m a.s.l. due to climatic conditions around 1980. Additionally we observed saplings up to a present (a.d. 2000) tree-species-line at approx. 2370 m a.s.l. The dendrochronologically analysed subfossil logs found at up to 2410 m a.s.l. date from within the last 9000 years (between approx. 7100 b.c. and a.d. 1700). In the space of the last 4000 years the dendrochronological tree-line record is not continuous, probably due to human impact. Tree-line positions similar to or slightly above the 1980 tree-line are established for the time periods approx. 1000 to 640 b.c. and a.d. 1 to 330 respectively. For the time period between approx. 7100 and 2100 b.c. the dendrochronologically analysed logs show nearly continuous evidence of a tree-line above the 1980s limit. Very high elevation of the tree-line, between 120 and 165 m above the 1980s level (2245 m a.s.l.) and even higher than the a.d. 2000 tree-species-line (2370 m a.s.l.), are recorded for the periods 7090–6570, 6040–5850, 5720–5620, 5500–4370 b.c., approx. 3510–3350 b.c. and 2790–2590 b.c. Additionally, a tree-line which was located at least 50 m above the 1980s limit can be shown for the periods 6700–5430, 4920–3350 and 3280–2110 b.c. The dendrochronological record from the Kauner valley, showing high and very high tree-line positions between approx. 7100 and 2100 b.c. with only two gaps (around 6490 b.c. and from 3350 to 3280 b.c.), suggests that summer temperatures as observed in the late 20th century were at the normal or the lower limit of the temperature range which can be assumed for long periods of the early and middle Holocene epoch.     

T’ef (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Eragrostis tef</Emphasis>) in Ancient Agricultural Systems of Highland Ethiopia

T’ef ( Eragrostis tef ) in Ancient Agricultural Systems of Highland Ethiopia. T’ef (Eragrostis tef) has been cultivated in the Horn of Africa for at least 2,000 years. The earliest known agricultural systems in this region date to the Pre-Aksumite period (800–400 b.c.) and appear to have focused on Near Eastern crops, with indigenous African species increasing in importance during Aksumite times (400 b.c.–a.d. 700). While palaeoethnobotanical data are available from Pre-Aksumite and late Aksumite periods, macroscopic botanical remains from the site of Ona Nagast, northern Ethiopia, provide a first glimpse of agricultural systems dating to Proto-Aksumite (400–50 b.c.), Early to Classic (50 b.c.–a.d. 340), and Post-Aksumite (a.d. 700–900) times. Archaeological t’ef remains from Ona Nagast are examined in detail. Guidelines are developed for the identification of t’ef grains preserved on archaeological sites, with a focus on how to differentiate them from seeds of wild Eragrostis species. Charring experiments reveal that in some cases t’ef may not survive high temperatures tolerated by larger cereal grains, such as wheat and barley. The domestication history of t’ef appears to be different from some other cereals, a factor which may explain the preponderance of indeterminate Eragrostis seeds in archaeological samples. Selection of large seed size and intensified tillage were not key factors in t’ef domestication. Early cultivators were likely selecting for increased branching and higher percentage seed set under conditions of minimal tillage.     

Small-scale species richness and its spatial variation in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

We investigated how the high small-scale species richness of an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, is maintained. This area is characterized by strong wind and severe cold during long winters. In winter, most livestock is grazed on dead leaves in small pastures near farmers’ residences, whereas in the short summer, livestock is grazed in mountainous areas far from farmers’ residences. The number of plant species and the aboveground biomass were surveyed for three adjacent pastures differing in grazing management: a late-winter grazing pasture grazed moderately from 1 February to 30 April, an early-winter grazing pasture grazed lightly from 20 September to late October, and a whole-year grazing pasture grazed intensively throughout the entire year. In each pasture, we harvested the aboveground biomass from 80 or 100 quadrats of 0.01 m² along a transect and classified the contents by species. We observed 15.5–19.7 species per 0.01 m², which is high richness per 0.01 m² on a worldwide scale. The species richness in the two winter grazing pastures was higher than that in the whole-year grazing pasture. The spatial variation in species richness and species composition in the two winter grazing pastures in which species richness was high was greater than that in the whole-year grazing pasture in which species richness was lower. Most of the leaves that are preserved on the winter grazing pastures during summer are blown away by strong winds during winter, and the remaining leaves are completely exhausted in winter by livestock grazing. A pasture with a high richess is accompanied by a high spatial variation in species richness and species composition. There is a high possibility that the characteristic of spatial variation is also caused by traditional grazing practices in this area.     

Late holocene environments in Las Tablas de Daimiel (south central Iberian peninsula,Spain)

The use of a high resolution pollen record in combination with geochemical data from sediments composed mainly of layers of charophytes alternating with layers of vegetal remains plus some detrital beds permits the reconstruction of the environmental evolution of the last 3000 years in an inland wetland of the Mediterranean domain, thus introducing a new climatic dataset for the Late Holocene. Hydrological fluctuations, reflected in the relationship between emerged and aquatic vegetation and inorganic and organic C and N changes, can be related to aridity or humid phases, while relations among arboreal taxa (Quercus and Pinus) and Artemisia are used as temperature indicators. Five climatic periods have been identified: a Subatlantic Cold Period (<150 b.c.), cold and arid; the Roman Warm Period (150 b.c.–a.d. 270), warmer and wetter; the Dark Ages (a.d. 270–a.d. 950), colder and drier; the Medieval Warm Period (a.d. 950–a.d. 1400), warmer and wetter; and the Little Ice Age (>a.d. 1400) indicated by a cooling and drying trend. Despite the lack of any direct evidence of human action, there are some episodes related to deforestation during the Reconquista (Middle Ages) that mask the real climatic signal.     

Late Neolithic agriculture in eastern Austria: archaeobotanical results from sites of the Baden and Jevišovice cultures (3600–2800 b.c.)

The article presents archaeobotanical results from six late Neolithic excavation sites in eastern Austria. Two of the sites belong to the Jevišovice culture (3200–2800 cal b.c.), the remaining four to the Baden culture (3600–2900 cal b.c.). Results show that farmers around 3000 cal b.c. were relying on the use of Triticum monococcum and Hordeum vulgare as principal cereals, with Triticum dicoccum and Panicum miliaceum as additional crops. Common millet was found in quantity at one of the Jevišovice sites and shows the remarkably early westward spread of this species. Single records of Triticum spelta are discussed in the light of the recently proposed ideas about an independent central European origin of spelt. Another record concerns the “new-type” glume wheat, providing further evidence for the once widespread occurrence of this cultivar. Triticum aestivum (hexaploid naked wheat) and Setaria italica (foxtail millet) were found as rare admixtures at the Jevišovice settlements. Pulses were represented by Pisum sativum and Lens culinaris, oil plants by Papaver somniferum and Linum usitatissimum. One of the Jevišovice sites offered a good opportunity for a study of the undisturbed spatial distribution of charred plant remains within a burnt house. Among wild plants, the occurrence of Stipa sp., Teucrium chamaedrys, Asperula cynanchica and Plantago media point to the presence of dry steppe grassland in the vicinity of the settlements, which was probably used for grazing. Woodland plants were mainly represented by fruit-bearing plants growing in clearings and forest edges, reflecting both the deliberate collection of wild fruits and the growing human impact on the vegetation.     

Flax for oil or fibre? Morphometric analysis of flax seeds and new aspects of flax cultivation in Late Neolithic wetland settlements in southwest Germany

The transition from the early to the middle phase of the Late Neolithic (fourth–third millennium b.c.) is closely connected with the term “secondary products revolution”, which involves the adoption of animal traction and an increased production of rendered animal commodities such as wool and dairy products. Based on measurements of Linum usitatissimum L. (flax) seeds and their abundance in 32 wetland settlements in southwest Germany, we presume that the introduction of a new flax variety, maybe a better flax for fibre, and the intensification of flax cultivation were also a part of this process. The morphometric analysis shows that flax seed sizes in the early phase of the Late Neolithic (4000–3400 cal. b.c.) differ significantly from those of the middle and latest phase (3400–2400 cal. b.c.).