Charcoal analyses as an environmental tool for the study of Early Medieval sunken houses infills in Roztoky near Prague, Czech Republic

The oldest Czech fishpond discovered? An interdisciplinary approach to reconstruction of local vegetation in mediaeval Prague suburbs

“…According to the results of pollen, wood and charcoal analyses, all of these types of forest vegetation were probably present in the vicinity of the study site. An analogous species composition has been recorded from other Prague Mediaeval sites (Beneš et al, 2002;Kozáková & Pokorný, 2007;Kozáková et al, 2009;Novák et al, 2012). The results originating from both charcoal and wood analyses revealed a lower number of species than the pollen analysis.…”

“…Estimated abundance of mussels and Daphnia are plotted as black dots; the size of dots (small, medium and big) corresponds to the estimated quantification. The level of aquatic pollution is expressed by index of saprobity (dimensionless quantity) calculated according to diatom spectrum Hydrobiologia (2014) 730:191-213 207 use of firewood originating in close proximity of the site (Théry-Parisot et al, 2010;Novák et al, 2012). In contrast, the species composition of wood often reflects local vegetation cover, e.g.…”

“…Each of these methods naturally has its own advantages as well as limits resulting from different source areas of material, taphonomy and different determination levels (for more details see e.g. Birks & Birks, 2006;Gaillard, 2007;Novák et al, 2012;Théry-Parisot et al, 2010); therefore, it is advisable to combine them (for some examples see Sadori et al, 2010or Święta-Musznicka et al, 2013.…”

Unrecognized Taphonomy as a Problem of Identification and the Scale of Contamination of Archaeobotanical Assemblages – the Example of Prague – Zličín Migration Period Burial Ground

“…The size of many charcoal pieces was very small (2-3 mm); this is probably connected to some re-deposition of the material. The species spectrum corresponds with the average charcoal rain on prehistoric as well as medieval archaeological sites in the region (Novák et al 2012). The composition of the charcoal species is characteristic of the dominance of oak and pine.…”

“…Novák et al 2012). The structure of woods and charcoals was different both in terms of which species was most dominantly represented, and in their species spectrum.…”