Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD
Fluctuations in the Δ14C curve and subsequent gaps of archaeological findings at 800–650 and 400–100 BC in western and central Europe may indicate major climate-driven land-abandonment phases. To address this hypothesis radiocarbon-dated sediments from four lakes in Switzerland were studied palynolo...
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ftunivbern:oai:boris.unibe.ch:73362 2023-08-20T04:06:59+02:00 Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD Tinner, Willy Lotter, André F. Ammann, Brigitta Conedera, Marco Hubschmid, Priska van Leeuwen, Jacqueline Wehrli, Michael 2003-06 application/pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/1/QuatSciRev_22_1447.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/ eng eng Elsevier https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/ info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Tinner, Willy; Lotter, André F.; Ammann, Brigitta; Conedera, Marco; Hubschmid, Priska; van Leeuwen, Jacqueline; Wehrli, Michael (2003). Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD. Quaternary Science Reviews, 22(14), pp. 1447-1460. Elsevier 10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0> 580 Plants (Botany) info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion PeerReviewed 2003 ftunivbern https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0 2023-07-31T21:20:54Z Fluctuations in the Δ14C curve and subsequent gaps of archaeological findings at 800–650 and 400–100 BC in western and central Europe may indicate major climate-driven land-abandonment phases. To address this hypothesis radiocarbon-dated sediments from four lakes in Switzerland were studied palynologically. Pollen analysis indicates contemporaneous phases of forest clearances and of intensified land-use at 1450–1250 BC, 650–450 BC, 50 BC–100 AD and around 700 AD. These land-use expansions coincided with periods of warm climate as recorded by the Alpine dendroclimatic and Greenland oxygen isotope records. Our results suggest that harvest yields would have increased synchronously over wide areas of central and southern Europe during periods of warm and dry climate. Combined interpretation of palaeoecological and archaeological findings suggests that higher food production led to increased human populations. Positive long-term trends in pollen values of Cerealia and Plantago lanceolata indicate that technical innovations during the Bronze and Iron Age (e.g. metal ploughs, scythes, hay production, fertilising methods) gradually increased agricultural productivity. The successful adoption of yield-increasing advances cannot be explained by climatic determinism alone. Combined with archaeological evidence, our results suggest that despite considerable cycles of spatial and demographic reorganisation (repeated land abandonments and expansions, as well as large-scale migrations and population decreases), human societies were able to shift to lower subsistence levels without dramatic ruptures in material culture. However, our data imply that human societies were not able to compensate rapidly for harvest failures when climate deteriorated. Agriculture in marginal areas was abandoned, and spontaneous reforestations took place on abandoned land south and north of the Alps. Only when the climate changed again to drier and warmer conditions did a new wide-spread phase of forest clearances and field extensions occur, allowing ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland BORIS (Bern Open Repository and Information System, University of Bern) Four Lakes ENVELOPE(-126.826,-126.826,54.858,54.858) Greenland Quaternary Science Reviews 22 14 1447 1460 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
BORIS (Bern Open Repository and Information System, University of Bern) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivbern |
language |
English |
topic |
580 Plants (Botany) |
spellingShingle |
580 Plants (Botany) Tinner, Willy Lotter, André F. Ammann, Brigitta Conedera, Marco Hubschmid, Priska van Leeuwen, Jacqueline Wehrli, Michael Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
topic_facet |
580 Plants (Botany) |
description |
Fluctuations in the Δ14C curve and subsequent gaps of archaeological findings at 800–650 and 400–100 BC in western and central Europe may indicate major climate-driven land-abandonment phases. To address this hypothesis radiocarbon-dated sediments from four lakes in Switzerland were studied palynologically. Pollen analysis indicates contemporaneous phases of forest clearances and of intensified land-use at 1450–1250 BC, 650–450 BC, 50 BC–100 AD and around 700 AD. These land-use expansions coincided with periods of warm climate as recorded by the Alpine dendroclimatic and Greenland oxygen isotope records. Our results suggest that harvest yields would have increased synchronously over wide areas of central and southern Europe during periods of warm and dry climate. Combined interpretation of palaeoecological and archaeological findings suggests that higher food production led to increased human populations. Positive long-term trends in pollen values of Cerealia and Plantago lanceolata indicate that technical innovations during the Bronze and Iron Age (e.g. metal ploughs, scythes, hay production, fertilising methods) gradually increased agricultural productivity. The successful adoption of yield-increasing advances cannot be explained by climatic determinism alone. Combined with archaeological evidence, our results suggest that despite considerable cycles of spatial and demographic reorganisation (repeated land abandonments and expansions, as well as large-scale migrations and population decreases), human societies were able to shift to lower subsistence levels without dramatic ruptures in material culture. However, our data imply that human societies were not able to compensate rapidly for harvest failures when climate deteriorated. Agriculture in marginal areas was abandoned, and spontaneous reforestations took place on abandoned land south and north of the Alps. Only when the climate changed again to drier and warmer conditions did a new wide-spread phase of forest clearances and field extensions occur, allowing ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tinner, Willy Lotter, André F. Ammann, Brigitta Conedera, Marco Hubschmid, Priska van Leeuwen, Jacqueline Wehrli, Michael |
author_facet |
Tinner, Willy Lotter, André F. Ammann, Brigitta Conedera, Marco Hubschmid, Priska van Leeuwen, Jacqueline Wehrli, Michael |
author_sort |
Tinner, Willy |
title |
Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
title_short |
Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
title_full |
Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
title_fullStr |
Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD |
title_sort |
climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the alps 2300 bc to 800 ad |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/1/QuatSciRev_22_1447.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-126.826,-126.826,54.858,54.858) |
geographic |
Four Lakes Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Four Lakes Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Tinner, Willy; Lotter, André F.; Ammann, Brigitta; Conedera, Marco; Hubschmid, Priska; van Leeuwen, Jacqueline; Wehrli, Michael (2003). Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD. Quaternary Science Reviews, 22(14), pp. 1447-1460. Elsevier 10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0> |
op_relation |
https://boris.unibe.ch/73362/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00083-0 |
container_title |
Quaternary Science Reviews |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
14 |
container_start_page |
1447 |
op_container_end_page |
1460 |
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1774718363423997952 |