The Black Forest is considered to be a rather unfavorable area, having a short vegetation period, low mean annual temperatures, high precipitation, and a pronounced relief. These conditions do not favor agricultural land use and thus it is widely accepted that people only began using the land intensively during the Middle Ages. In this integrated study 17 soil profiles, two peat bogs and a database of archaeological finds were used to reconstruct past land use impacts on the environment. AMS–14C datings of charcoals, luminescence datings of colluvial deposits, archaeological finds and pollen records indicate land use already during the Neolithic. This pre‐medieval land use might be related to seasonal settlements dominated by pastoralism and the use of wood or bedrock to build settlements and infrastructure or as energy supply. There is new evidence of human activity dating back to the Bronze and Iron Age, which is a discrepancy to the absence of archaeological finds in the direct vicinity of the studied sites. With the beginning of the Middle Ages land use practices changed, most likely with the expansion and intensification of agricultural land use, which coincides with the increasing use of natural resources in the Black Forest. Hence, the main phases of colluvial deposition date to the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Increased contents of As, Cr, Cu, Pb, or Zn in medieval colluvial deposits might indicate smelting or mining, even though there are no known archeological sites pointing to such activities nearby. Whereas the pattern of colluvial deposition in the southeastern Black Forest points to distinct, but local land use in pre‐medieval times and to intensified and widespread land use since the Middle Ages, thick and multi‐layered colluvial deposits indicate intensive land use in the neighboring Baar region since the Neolithic. The different land use patterns of these two regions originate from the rather favorable conditions for agriculture in terms of soils, climate, and topography in the Baar region compared to the unfavorable conditions in the Black Forest.
Colluvial deposits, as the correlate sediments of human-induced soil erosion, depict an excellent archive of land use and landscape history as indicators of human–environment interactions. This study establishes a chronostratigraphy of colluvial deposits and reconstructs past land use dynamics in the Swabian Jura, the Baar and the Black Forest in SW Germany. In the agriculturally favourable Baar area multiple main phases of colluvial deposition, and thus intensified land use, can be identified from the Neolithic to the Modern times. In the unfavourable Swabian Jura increased colluvial deposition began later compared to the more favourable areas in the Baar. The same holds true for the unfavourable areas of the Black Forest, but intensified land use can only be reconstructed for the Middle Ages and Early Modern times instead of for the Bronze and Iron Age as in the Swabian Jura. Land use intensity and settlement dynamics represented by thick, multilayered colluvial deposits increase in the Baar and the Black Forest during the Middle Ages. In between those phases of geomorphodynamic activity and colluviation, stable phases occur, interpreted as phases with sustainable land use or without human presence.
Abstract. The present study combines archaeological data with
archaeopedological data from colluvial deposits to infer Neolithic
settlement dynamics between the Baar region, the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura.
A review of the state of archaeological research and an analysis of the
processes leading to the discovery of the Neolithic sites and thereby the
formation of the current archaeological site distribution in these
landscapes is presented. The intensity of land use in the study area is
compared with other landscapes in southern Germany using site frequencies.
Phases of colluvial deposition are dated using AMS 14C ages of
charcoals and luminescence ages of sediments and interpreted as local
proxies for a human presence. Archaeological source criticism indicates that
the distribution of the Neolithic sites is probably distorted by factors
such as superimposition due to erosion and weathering effects limiting the
preservation conditions for Neolithic pottery. A reconstruction of Neolithic
settlement dynamics is achieved by complementing the archaeological data
with phases of colluviation. Evidence for a continuous land use in the Baar region
throughout the Neolithic is provided and sporadic phases of land use on the
Swabian Jura and in the Black Forest are identified. In the late and final
Neolithic, an intensification of colluvial formation can be noticed in the
low mountain ranges.
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