The Earth's biota originated and developed to its current complex state through interacting with multilevel physical forcing of our planet's climate and near and outer space phenomena. In the present study, we focus on the time scale of hundreds to thousands of years in the most recent time interval-the Holocene. Using a pollen paleocommunity dataset from southern Lithuania (Čepkeliai bog) and applying spectral analysis techniques, we tested this record for the presence of statistically significant cyclicities, which can be observed in past solar activity. The time series of non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) scores, which in our case are assumed to reflect temperature variations, and Tsallis entropy-related community compositional diversity estimates q* revealed the presence of cycles on several time scales. The most consistent periodicities are characterized by periods lasting between 201 and 240 years, which is very close to the DeVries solar cycles (208 years). A shorter-term periodicity of 176 years was detected in the NMDS scores that can be putatively linked to the subharmonics of the Gleissberg solar cycle. In addition, periodicities of ≈3,760 and ≈1,880 years were found in both parameters. These periodic patterns could be explained either as originating as a harmonic nonlinear response to precession forcing, or as resulting from the long-term solar activity quasicycles that were reported in previous studies of solar activity proxies. Solar activity patterns, which are mostly determined by the highly complicated magnetohydrodynamics in its interior, have a major influence on decadal to (at least) millennial variability in weather, climate and biota 1,2. The primary evidence for the persistence of cyclic variation in solar activity over short time periods comes from direct satellite multispectral and visible light observations using telescopes 2-4. Long-term observations of the Sun's activity, including cyclic patterns, are mostly determined through studying fluctuations in cosmogenic 10 Be isotopes and Δ 14 C isotopic ratios, whose production is regulated by the combined effects of the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields on low-to-moderate energy cosmic rays flux into the atmosphere 5,6. Recently, nitrate (NO 3 −) concentrations in Antarctic glacier ice was suggested as an additional direct index of solar activity 7. Analyses of these direct proxies, besides the very well-known 11-year cycles, have most frequently revealed the presence of so-called DeVries (~208-year) and Gleissberg (~80-to 90-year) cycles, as well as longer cycles that modulate shorter-term periodicities 8,9. The effects of solar forcing as determined from paleoclimatic and paleobiological proxies are multifaceted and variable in magnitude and effect type. Long-term solar activity was implicated in modulating the winter precipitation patterns, and thus the glacier expansion and contraction dynamics, during the Holocene in Alaska, northwest North America and the tropical Andes 10-13. Strong support for the existence of 11-year s...

Between 2800 and 2400 cal BC pastoralists from Central Europe migrated into the eastern Baltic paving the way for the Corded Ware Culture (CWC), and a new type of economy, animal husbandry. Traditionally the CWC people were viewed as highly mobile due to the lack of substantial traces of dwellings and material culture at settlement sites; they were reliant on an economy based on animal husbandry as demonstrated by zooarchaeological and stable isotopic evidence. However, this paradigm is beginning to shift. Here, we present new AMS radiocarbon (14C) measurements, pollen and macrobotanical data from sediment samples and a portable fish screen, as well as technological, molecular and isotopic data obtained from ceramic vessels from three CWC sites in the eastern Baltic. Overall, our results indicate a de‐Neolithisation process undergone by some CWC groups, particularly in lacustrine and coastal ecotones, and a shift to hunting, gathering and fishing.

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