河南鄣邓遗址浮选碳化植物遗存分析

先商文化一直是学术界探索的重点,商代文明的诸多特征在先商文化时期已萌芽或得到加强。然而,对这一时期的经济与生业模式,相关研究尚有欠缺。本文对河南安阳鄣邓遗址先商文化时期的大植物遗存进行了分析,结果表明,粟是该时期先民最重要的作物,黍其次;小麦、大豆已被利用,但只是处于辅助地位。这些是先商文化时期农业的最直接证据,与文献记载及考古研究得出的先商农业发展状况基本一致。发轫于河北中部地区的商族最初的生计方式为渔猎畜牧,在南下的过程中逐渐学习并采纳了中原地区的生计方式,这对商族的发展壮大起到了积极的推动作用。     

Early Holocene environmental change, the presence and disappearance of early Mesolithic habitation near Zutphen (The Netherlands)

The Early Holocene landscape near Zutphen (The Netherlands) is reconstructed by means of microfossil, macroremain and bone analyses. In this area early Mesolithic sites were found on a river dune along a former river channel. AMS¹⁴C dating provided a detailed chronology for the sites and river channel deposits. Between ca. 9800–9600 B.P. open herbaceous vegetation was present on the river dunes. The residual channels were fringed by reed swamps and willow shrubs, with birch and poplar woodlands inland. During this period there are indications of natural or man-made burning of the reed swamp vegetation along the residual channel. Also trampling zones along the lake edge were more abundant. However, no archaeological sites were discovered in the vicinity. From ca. 9600 B.P. on, the area became more densely forested; willow, birch and poplar replaced the reed swamps along the residual channels, while pine colonised the river dunes. Archaeological finds show that early Mesolithic people inhabited the area between ca. 9400 and 9200 B.P. and between ca. 8900–8700 B.P. During the earlier period, records of Urtica, Plantago and coprophilous fungi may point to trampling and/or eutrophication as a result of the presence of large herbivores and people along the channel shores. After ca. 8700 B.P. people probably left the area when open water was no longer available in the vicinity.     

Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation history and dynamics as shown by pollen and plant macrofossil analyses in annually laminated sediments from Soppensee, central Switzerland

The palynostratigraphy of two sediment cores from Soppensee, Central Switzerland (596 m asl) was correlated with nine regional pollen assemblage zones defined for the Swiss Plateau. This biostratigraphy shows that the sedimentary record of Soppensee includes the last 15 000 years, i.e. the entire Late-glacial and Holocene environmental history. The vegetation history of the Soppensee catchment was inferred by pollen and plant-macrofossil analyses on three different cores taken in the deepest part of the lake basin (27 m). On the basis of a high-resolution varve and calibrated radiocarbonchronology it was possible to estimate pollen accumulation rates, which together with the pollen percentage data, formed the basis for the interpretation of the past vegetation dynamics. The basal sediment dates back to the last glacial. After reforestation with juniper and birch at ca. 12 700 B.P., the vegetation changed at around 12 000 B.P. to a pine-birch woodland and at the onset of the Holocene to a mixed deciduous forest. At ca. 7000 B.P., fir expanded and dominated the vegetation with beech becoming predominant at ca. 500¹⁴C-years later until sometime during the Iron Age. Large-scale deforestation, especially during the Middle Ages, altered the vegetation cover drastically. During the Late-glacial period two distinct regressive phases in vegetation development are demonstrated, namely, the Aegelsee oscillation (equivalent to the Older Dryas biozone) and the Younger Dryas biozone. No unambiguous evidence for Holocene climatic change was detected at Soppensee. Human presence is indicated by early cereal pollen and distinct pulses of forest clearance as a result of human activity can be observed from the Neolithic period onwards.     

“Ontellicke boomen” or “countless trees”: reconstructing the late medieval vegetation surrounding the 16th century St Margaretha Convent, Leiden, The Netherlands

At an excavation of the late medieval St Margaretha Convent in Leiden (The Netherlands), archaeobotanical results could be compared with historical data. Both wood and macroremains were analysed to reconstruct the local vegetation and seek evidence of the cultivation of plants. The historical sources available for this estate are a charter prepared in 1572, which listed all trees present just after the abandonment of the convent, and an illustration from 1574 of the convent and its grounds. The charter mentions Salix and Alnus as the most numerous trees present, followed by several other taxa. The archaeological evidence from the wood remains, mostly construction timber with a dominance of Quercus, shows the use of indigenous taxa and some non-indigenous material, which was partly re-used. It is possible that some of the Coniferae were very early home-grown specimens. The trees represented in the macroremains were most probably growing in the immediate vicinity. They specify some of the taxa found as wood or mentioned in the historical text. The identified cultivated plants could all have been grown locally. The vegetation is in general represented by ruderal taxa and plants growing in wet conditions, which form an assemblage typical of an abandoned rural area.