The Palaeo-Environments of Bronze Age Europe

P1: KAE Trim: 7in 10in Top: 0.75in Gutter: 0.875in × CUUS1008-02 cuus1008/Earle ISBN: 978 0 521 76466 7 April 5, 2010 17:30 34 2 The Palaeo-Environments of Bronze Age Europe Charles French With contributions by Chad Heinzel, Pal Sumegi, and Johan Ling, Gianna Ayala, Sandor Guylas, Michael Kolb, Gabriella Kovacs, and Chris Severa During the third millennium BC, a rapid and intentional destruc- tion of forests took place over wide regions of Europe to allow a new agricultural economy, often dominated by animal husbandry. By the second millennium BC, these open landscapes were evidently managed to maintain productivity. Much investment was made in infrastructure, from farm buildings and field systems to trackways. In opposition to a landscape enclosed by forests, these new open landscapes provided new avenues of visibility and interconnectiv- ity, and with innovative uses of chariots, wagons, and ships, easier and faster communications opened up. Monumental barrows and large settlements had a dramatic visual impact that could easily have defined property rights and a more visible settlement hierarchy as people moved across the landscape. However, a more permanently open landscape also introduced concerns of maintaining productivity. Soil, especially the light soils, became more prone to erosive forces as well as nutrient depletion, especially when no longer sustained by forest regeneration. Instead, fertility had to be maintained by other, cultural practices, including fallow, application of manure and forest management. Despite such care, ecological crises sometimes would strike, as happened in the heavily settled and exposed landscape of Thy on the North Sea coast of Jutland. The dominant herding economy and the demands for timber for large farm buildings led to a near-extinction of proper forests, peat was used for heating, and driftwood was sometimes used in house construction. In contrast in both central Hungary and western Sicily, agricultural intensification led to soil erosion, certainly P1: KAE Trim: 7in 10in Top: 0.75in Gutter: 0.875in × CUUS1008-02 cuus1008/Earle ISBN: 978 0 521 76466 7 April 5, 2010 17:30 from later Bronze Age times and increasing in intensity and scale over time. Thus the extensive agricultural environments of the Bronze Age 35 introduced the potential for overexploitation of the land and different the palaeo- human responses to this, as exemplified in our case studies. Environments of Each project in Scandinavia, Hungary, and Sicily had several sub- bronze age europe projects investigating subregional environmental sequences and the development of the Holocene landscape as well as the forms of cultural impact on these different landscapes. Significant issues and processes have been addressed in each subregion, particularly the nature of earlier Holocene woodland development and the associated processes of soil formation, trajectories of woodland clearance, and the impact of human settlement and agricultural activities on the vegetation and soil complex. The main chronological focus is the second and first millennia BC. These investigations help situate Bronze Age settlement with respect to contemporary land use and associated economic development in microregions. The combination of new subregional palynological investigations and the study of soil development sequences is a powerful research methodology to investigate past landscapes (French 2003:59). This project afforded the chance to use such meth- ods in close association with archaeological survey and excavations. Indeed, this approach is fundamental to make inferences about the scale and variation of landscape change through time. Extensive palynological and soil studies for the Thy region of North Jutland, Denmark, and to a lesser extent for the Tanum area of Sweden, provide a clear picture of vegetation change in the later Neolithic and Bronze Ages. New geoarchaeological survey and soil analyses were undertaken in the lower Benta valley of central Hun- gary just south of Budapest to set in context the Szazhalombatta´ tell site and the smaller Bronze Age sites from its hinterland. These studies enable the forming of a relatively complete picture of palaeo- environmental changes in each microregion. For the Sicilian study area, new and associated geoarchaeological studies in western and central Sicily, as well as existing palynological studies from Lake Pergusa, tell a good part of the Holocene landscape story for the Monte Polizzo area. The second and first millennia BC of each microregion exhibit strong landscape change, but particularly occurring in the later Bronze and Iron Ages, although with variation over time. Over- arching palaeo-environmental themes evident in each microregion P1: KAE Trim: 7in 10in Top: 0.75in Gutter: 0.875in × CUUS1008-02 cuus1008/Earle ISBN: 978 0 521 76466 7 April 5, 2010 17:30 include extensive pre-Bronze Age deforestation and the predomi- 36 nance of grassland over arable land until the end of the Bronze Age and into the mid- to late first millennium BC, when arable culti- the palaeo- Environments of vation gradually became more extensive. Similarly, from the later bronze age europe Bronze Age onward, increasing signs of disruption in those landscapes include peat growth, river channel avulsion, and soil erosion and soil aggradation in valley systems. SCANDINAVIA The Thy region, northwest Denmark Extensive palynological investigations have indicated that a once well-forested landscape with small clearings had been transformed to an extensively open and grassland landscape by the end of the second millennium BC. Nonetheless, there is much evidence for the management of the surviving woodland, but this diminishing resource must have had a real impact on human settlement activities and, indeed, the first millennium BC sees more disturbance indicators associated with fire and arable cultivation. Today, large areas of west and north Thy are covered by wind- blown sands, but these dune systems were not created until much later – from the early thirteenth century AD (Hansen 1957) – although some sand drifting had probably begun as early as the middle Neolithic (Liversage 1987). In contrast, central and eastern Thy are mainly covered by sandy and clayey tills. This area of northwestern Jutland has abundant palaeo-vegetation data, mainly thanks to the extensive palynological work of Andersen (1989, 1990, 1992, 1992–3, 1994–5, 1996–7; Andersen and Rasmussen 1996). These analyses have provided both site-specific (from buried soils beneath Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows) and more subregional pollen data from lakes, bogs, and small wetland hollows. The story of the postglacial vegetation record begins about 9000 BC with an earlier Holocene tree succession similar to other pollen sequences from Denmark and represents dense, stable forest (Ander- sen 1992–3, 1989) (Figure 2.1). A birch–pine forest gave way to hazel woodland by about 6600 BC, then developed into a lime–elm–oak– hazel–alder forest between about 6600 and 3400 BC. About 3400 to 2900 BC, the first signs of human intervention really become evident in this forested landscape. This consisted of minima of lime and P1: KAE Trim: 7in 10in Top: 0.75in Gutter: 0.875in × CUUS1008-02 cuus1008/Earle ISBN: 978 0 521 76466 7 April 5, 2010 17:30 maxima of more light-demanding tree species, such as hazel and Figure 2.1. Summary pollen dia- alder, with the occurrence of wild grasses, open-ground herbs, and gram from Thy, Denmark bracken, accompanied by abundant charcoal dust. These changes (after Andersen in J. M. Steinberg 1997). resulted from slash and burn or landnam phases of human activity in the forest in the middle to later Neolithic. Arable fields were present at this time. Then, in the early third millennium BC, there was extensive forest clearance, perhaps the most massive in northern Europe, which essentially created an open grassland landscape across Thy. Turning to the more specific and detailed record from the Hass- Figure 2.2. Detailed pollen dia- ing Huse Mose profile in the Thy region (Figure 2.2), human inter- gramme from Hassing ference with the once fully forested landscape becomes very evi- Huse Mose, Denmark (after Andersen in J. M. dent from about 2640 BC (Andersen 1992–3). Although both elm and Steinberg 1997). 37 P1: KAE Trim: 7in 10in Top: 0.75in Gutter: 0.875in × CUUS1008-02 cuus1008/Earle ISBN: 978 0 521 76466 7 April 5, 2010 17:30 lime already were much reduced in the previous Neolithic period, 38 tree pollen suddenly decreased from 91 percent to 69 percent over about 30 years and the percentages of trees stayed low (69–59 per- the palaeo- Environments of cent) throughout the late Neolithic-early Bronze Age period from bronze age europe 2640 to 1650 BC. Also, the tree pollen curves change markedly, with local populations of hazel, birch, and alder being cut away, although some coppice stands may have remained. Wild grasses and herbs of open ground (e.g., mugwort, sheep’s sorrel, goosefoot family, and rib- wort plantain) increase dramatically, and cereal pollen (barley-type) became more common. Thus there would appear to be substantial cleared areas in an increasingly opened up woodland, with both pas- ture for grazing land and bare ground for arable cultivation available. Indeed, ard marks from ploughing have been observed in the buried soils beneath Bronze Age barrows such as those at Bjergene 1 and 2, Visby, and Damsgard (Andersen 1996–7). Deforestation continued in a stepwise manner in the early Bronze Age, and again at about AD 500 and AD 1000 (Andersen 1992–3). Between about 1650 and 1200 BC in the early Bronze Age, tree pollen halved, from 69 percent to 33 percent. With comparison to the present landscape with stands of trees and no forests, but with trees account- ing for approximately 15 percent in the pollen diagram, it suggests a landscape without substantial forests towards the end of the early Bronze Age.

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