Multiproxy Analyses of Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironment of the Late Palaeolithic Grabow Floodplain Site, Northern Germany

Abstract

Changing river courses and fluctuations of the water table were some of the most fundamental environmental changes that humans faced during the Late Glacial, particularly as these changes affected areas intensively used for settlement and resource exploitation. Unfortunately, only a few stratigraphies have been documented in the North European plain that show the interaction between river development, vegetation history, and occupation by Late Palaeolithic humans. Here, we present the results of detailed stratigraphical studies (pedology, archaeology, chrono‐, tephra‐, and palynostratigraphy) at the Federmesser site Grabow 15 located in the broad Elbe River valley. The research aimed to produce a model of site formation based on a multiproxy approach, relating the local evidence to the palaeoenvironmental and settlement history of the wider region. After deposition of fluvial sands during the Late Pleniglacial in a braided setting, the river course developed locally toward a meandering system at the transition from the Older Dryas to the Allerød, while periodic flooding led to the deposition of floodplain sediments during the early Allerød. The floodplain was settled by people of the earliest “Federmessergruppen,” who are believed to have chosen this open floodplain area along the river for collecting and processing amber of local origin. Their artifacts became embedded in the aggrading floodplain sediments. In the late Allerød, floodplain sedimentation ceased and a Fluvisol‐type soil developed, indicating a trend toward geomorphic stability. The Fluvisol was then covered by silty floodplain sediments due to a rising water level during the late Younger Dryas resulting in the cessation of human occupation in the area. Subsequent organic‐rich Late Glacial/Holocene sediments preserved the settlement remains to the present.

Examination of Late Palaeolithic archaeological sites in northern Europe for the preservation of cryptotephra layers

“…1. (a) (Weber et al, 2010;Brock et al, 2011;Housley et al, 2012Housley et al, , 2013Housley et al, , 2014aTolksdorf et al, 2013;MacLeod et al, 2014;Tipping et al, 2014) this paper focuses on only the broad patterns.…”

Tephra studies and the reconstruction of Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic cultural trajectories

“…As horizon markers, they capture snapshots in time and, equally as important, across space, thus theoretically solving many of the archaeological issues described above. Studies published by RESET members (Lowe et al, 2012;Housley et al, 2013;Tolksdorf et al, 2013) have demonstrated the utility of addressing cultural chronologies through the use of tephra identification and analysis. While they do have considerable potential, it is also important to keep in mind that tephras have limitations.…”

Environmental development and local human impact in the Jeetzel valley (N Germany) since 10 ka BP as detected by geoarchaeological analyses in a coupled aeolian and lacustrine sediment archive at Soven

“…To estimate the stratigraphical order of the channel generations, samples were taken from the basal lacustrine sediments of the channel fills for palynological investigations. The species composition was compared to records from the Jeetzel valley (Lesemann 1969, Christiansen 2008, Turner 2012, Turner et al 2013, Tolksdorf et al 2013b to estimate their biostratigraphical position. Based on these results, a palaeochannel with the onset of lacustrine sedimentation in the early Holocene was identified at the outskirts of the dune as potential archive for the reconstruction of the local vegetation development during the Holocene (Fig.…”