Waste disposal processes and landfill management in Late Bronze Age inner periphery of the central Europe: Březnice settlement site (South Bohemia)

Abstract

Waste disposal processes and landfill management are crucial subjects in the field of settlement archaeology. Our study is focused on the reconstruction of the community economy in the context of the Late Bronze Age; understanding the processes that led to the filling of these features; reconstruction of the recycling system of building materials (daub and wood) and the waste management. These research questions were addressed based on plant macroremains, charcoals, phytoliths, starch, micromorphology, phosphates and magnetic volume susceptibility. The results showed the waste character of features infills which reflected specific economy and habitats around the single households. The composition of the archaeobotanical assemblages was not determined by the type of feature, however similarities in the plant spectra could often be observed in the infill of features that were located close to each other. Charred remains of firewood inside the assemblages, also contained a proportion of burnt oak structures. The remains of various parts of uncharred plants were detected by phytolith and starch analyses. Animal proteins detected the presence of livestock meat and dung. Anomalies in soil phosphate contained different amounts of organic matter in single features. Magnetic susceptibility measurements showed that the features were backfilled in a one-time event. Sedimentological analysis showed that the infills of the different types of features were similar, but only the infills of the trenches were compacted, unlike the other features.