Forest exploitation for charcoal production and timber since the 12th century in an intact medieval mining site in the Niederpöbel Valley (Erzgebirge, Eastern Germany)

Tolksdorf, Johann Friedrich; Elburg, Rengert; Schröder, Frank; Knapp, Hannes; Herbig, Christoph; Westphal, Thorsten; Schneider, Birgit; Fülling, Alexander; Hemker, Christiane

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.10.018

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In the past, mining and ore processing activities in Europe exerted a strong pressure on woodland cover and contributed significantly to environmental changes (Monna et al, 2004a;Breitenlechner et al, 2010;P elachs et al, 2009;Ludemann, 2010;Knapp, 2012;Roepke and Krause, 2013;Py et al, 2014;Knapp et al, 2015;Tolksdorf et al, 2015). In the 80e90s, several studies carried out in the Eastern Pyrenees (southwestern France) and focused on charcoal making activity showed the importance of this phenomenon (Bonhôte and Vernet, 1988;M etaili e et al, 1988;Bonhôte and Fruhauf, 1990;Izard, 1993;Davasse and Galop, 1994;Davasse, 2000;Bonhôte et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Holocene history of woodland dynamics and wood use in an ancient mining area of the Pyrenees (Ariège, France)

Py-Saragaglia

Artigas

Métailié

et al. 2017

Quaternary International

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This paper focuses on past woodland changes and land uses in an ancient mining area of the Eastern Pyrenees (Ari ege, France). The area discussed is located at the western entrance of the Vicdessos, a valley with significant steel production, and it is crossed by the road used from the 14th c. to the end of the 18th c. for the iron-charcoal exchange with the forest Province of Couserans. The introduction of this singular exchange and the silver ore mining history of this border area raise the question of their impact on forest cover changes and changes in human practices and their link with anthropisation processes. To deal with this issue, we put in place an interdisciplinary approach involving archaeology, charcoal analysis, ecological history and geochemistry. The archaeological investigations and fourteen radiocarbon ages allowed characterising and dating of mining and charcoal-making remains. They situate the emergence of metal ore mining during the Second Iron Age and charcoal making activity between the 15th and 17th c. The geochemical analysis of 9 galena samples showed some different isotopic signatures between ores extracted in ancient times and those mined during the modern period. The charcoal analysis of (i) 2442 charcoals from 31 charcoal kilns (ii) 500 from one pedoarchaeological pit excavated in a waste heap related to firesetting, and (iii) 250 from two pedoanthracological sampling points carried out in the charcoal burning forest, permits a detailed reconstruction of the woodland cover changes from the Second Iron Age to the 19th c. Furthermore, the combination of data from different disciplines allows for a long-term reconstruction of human practices history and woodland management for different uses. In particular, the results show the transformation of the fir-beech forest, still dominated by fir around the turn of the Roman era, into pure beech wood managed on northern slopes for human daily needs, occasionally mining, lumber and mainly charcoal production until the 19th c. The elimination of fir dates back to the 17th c. This assumes the end of lumber activities in that period. Pedoanthracological and palynological data suggest that southern slopes, progressively deforested since the Bronze Age, were entirely devoted to permanent agropastoral activities probably at least since the end of the medieval period.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Holocene history of woodland dynamics and wood use in an ancient mining area of the Pyrenees (Ariège, France)

Py-Saragaglia

Artigas

Métailié

et al. 2017

Quaternary International

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“…Alluvial sediments from the medieval and postmedieval periods occur in nearly all stream and river valleys, being regionally well investigated (Hoffmann, Lang, & Dikau, 2008). Colluvial sediments occurring upon slopes (Dreibrodt, Lubos, Terhorst, Damm, & Bork, 2010) are seemingly distributed sparsely at altitudes higher than 500 m a.s.l., however, this impression can be the effect of an apparent lack of knowledge rather than a real scarcity of colluvial deposits in mountain areas (Tolksdorf et al, 2015;Tolksdorf, Kaiser, & Bertuch, 2018a;Tolksdorf et al, 2019). Pinus; 11th/12th century A.D.…”

Section: úStrašín Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The almost ubiquitous spatial character of past human impact is indicated for terrestrial sites by the regular occurrence of macro‐ and micro‐charcoal in surface soils and kilns, mostly originating from the in situ burning of former woodlands (Ludemann, Michiels, & Nölken, ; Schmidt & Noack, ). Furthermore, common evidence on long‐term environmental change is provided by local telmatic, alluvial, and colluvial geo‐archives and by dendrochronology as well as anthracology (Tolksdorf et al, ; Zolitschka, Behre, & Schneider, ). On the other hand, large upland areas are characterized by both past and recent soil erosion, often reducing the thickness and the recording (memory) capacity of the surface sediments and soils (Boardman & Poesen, ; Monger & Rachal, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cut and covered: Subfossil trees in buried soils reflect medieval forest composition and exploitation of the central European uplands

et al. 2019

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Knowledge of historic changes in vegetation, relief, and soil is key in understanding how the uplands in central Europe have changed during the last millennium, being an essential requirement for measures on forest conversion and nature conservation in that area. Evidence of forest‐clearing horizons from the medieval period could be systematically documented at four low‐ to mid‐altitudinal sites (360–640 meters above mean sea level) in the Harz (Harz Mountains), Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), and Českomoravská vrchovina (Bohemian‐Moravian Highlands). Subfossil trees with traces of human cutmarks and burning were recovered from buried wet‐organic soils (paleosols) within a context of mining and settlement archaeology, applying a multiproxy‐approach by using data from archaeology, paleobotany, geochronology, dendrochronology, and pedology. Tree stumps and trunks, as well as small‐scale wood remains represent an in situ record of local conifer stands (spruce, fir, and pine). Some deciduous tree taxa also occur. Dating of the tree remains yielded ages from the 10th/11th to the 13th/14th centuries A.D. After deforestation, the tree remains were buried by technogenic and alluvial–colluvial deposits. The reconstructed conifer‐dominated woodlands on wet soils mirror the local vegetation structure immediately before the medieval deforestation. As such wet sites are common in the uplands, conifers were significantly present in the natural vegetation even at mid and lower altitudes.

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“…Research activity in this area only resumed after the discovery of well-preserved mining features from the late 12th and 13th century in Dippoldiswalde in 2008 and led to the establishment of two German-Czech ArchaeoMontan research projects (Ziel-3 ArchaeoMontan from 2012 to 2015 and ArchaeoMontan 2018 from 2016 to 2018). In the course of these projects, local studies focussed on the medieval human impact around the town of Freiberg that have flourished as a silver mining centre since the mid 12th century (Tolksdorf et al, 2018) and the effects of mining activities together with timber and charcoal production since the late 12th century in the small mining district of Niederpöbel near Schmiedeberg in the Eastern Ore Mountains (Schröder, 2015;Tolksdorf et al, 2015). The results have indicated a strong impact in the form of deforestation, a sharp decline of tree species like Abies alba and changes in forest composition during ongoing land use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fortification, mining, and charcoal production: landscape history at the abandoned medieval settlement of Hohenwalde at the Faule Pfütze (Saxony, Eastern Ore Mountains)

Tolksdorf

Schubert

Schröder

et al. 2019

E&G Quaternary Sci. J.

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Abstract. Geoarchaeological reconstructions of land-use changes may help to reveal driving cultural factors and incentives behind these processes and relate them to supra-regional economic and political developments. This is particularly true in the context of complete abandonment of a settlement. Here we present a case study from the site of Faule Pfütze, a small catchment in the Eastern Ore Mountains (Saxony). The historical record of this site is confined to the report of a settlement called Hohenwalde in 1404 CE and two later references to the then-abandoned settlement in 1492 and 1524 CE in this area. Combined geoarchaeological studies allowed for the reconstruction of several phases of land use. While a first phase of alluvial sedimentation occurred during the late 12th century, archaeological evidence for a permanent settlement is absent during this period. The onset of settlement activity is identified during the late 14th century and included a hitherto unknown massive stone building. Mining features are present nearby and are dated to the early 15th century. The local palynological record shows evidence for reforestation during the mid 15th century and thereby corroborates the time of abandonment indicated by written sources. These processes are discussed in the context of a local political conflict (Dohna Feud) leading to the redistribution of properties and the development of a mining economy during this time. Later land use from the mid 16th century onwards appears restricted to charcoal production, probably in the context of smelting works operating in nearby Schmiedeberg as indicated by rising lead concentrations in the alluvial record.

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Forest exploitation for charcoal production and timber since the 12th century in an intact medieval mining site in the Niederpöbel Valley (Erzgebirge, Eastern Germany)

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Late Holocene history of woodland dynamics and wood use in an ancient mining area of the Pyrenees (Ariège, France)

Late Holocene history of woodland dynamics and wood use in an ancient mining area of the Pyrenees (Ariège, France)

Cut and covered: Subfossil trees in buried soils reflect medieval forest composition and exploitation of the central European uplands

Fortification, mining, and charcoal production: landscape history at the abandoned medieval settlement of Hohenwalde at the Faule Pfütze (Saxony, Eastern Ore Mountains)

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