What was the ecological impact of a Trypillia megasite occupation? Multi-proxy palaeo-environmental investigations at Nebelivka, Ukraine

Abstract

Fine-resolution sampling of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microcharcoal as well as sedimentological data in a 6-m sediment core were used to reconstruct both natural conditions and human impacts in the late fifth and early fourth millennia cal bc in the environs of the Nebelivka megasite in Kirovograd Oblast, Central Ukraine. This 238-ha site, dating to the Middle (or BII) Phase of the Trypillia culture, represents one of the first low-density urban establishments in Europe. Despite what was believed to be a sizable population, local human impacts reconstructed from the multi-proxy palaeo-ecological record were moderate in character. There was no positive evidence to indicate a depositional hiatus in the P1 core and no sign of a major ecological impact at any stage in the high-resolution record. The palaeo-ecological record indicates modest settlement agglomeration with less permanent populations rather than permanent populations of tens of thousands of people.

Multi-proxy Archaeobotanical Analysis from Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Sites in South-west Ukraine

“…Tilia, and more particularly Corylus, are important taxa in palynological records (Albert et al 2019), but they were not identified among the charcoal fragments in our study. Regarding Tilia, its rarity in charcoal records compared to its representation in palynological diagrams is common at Neolithic sites, particularly in temperate Europe (Bakels 1992;Van der Sloot et al 2003;Salavert et al 2018).…”

“…In the western Ukraine area, the few existing pollen sequences that covers the Early Atlantic period (6900-4700 cal BC) are not well dated (Pashkevich 1982, Kremenetski 1995, Vinogradova and Kiosak 2007. These limited pollen studies indicate that around 5000 cal BC, the forest-steppe vegetation was characterized by thermophilous mixed-oak woodlands, mainly composed of Corylus (hazelnut), Ulmus (elm), Tilia (lime tree), Quercus and some Carpinus (Albert et al 2019). Bohn et al 2000).…”

Trypillia Megasites in Context: Independent Urban Development in Chalcolithic Eastern Europe

“…Wengrow & Graeber 2015), while the third relies on smaller-scale permanent settlement. Each model presents a variant on the Nebelivka site biography, which began with a well-established settlement network in the Southern Bug catchment, some of whose site clusters included megasites of up to 150 ha (for origins, see Chapman et al 2019), and a local settlement near the Nebelivka promontory, as attested in the Nebelivka 1B pollen core (Albert et al 2019).…”

“…A 6 m sediment core from a valley 250 m from the edge of the megasite has provided a dated sequence of local vegetation and megasite human impacts (Albert et al 2019) (Fig. 10).…”

Community negotiation and pasture partitioning at the Trypillia settlement of Maidanetske

“…Alternatively, they may have provided permanent habitation in smaller numbers of contemporaneously occupied houses (Albert et al . 2020). Houses were organised into neighbourhoods (Rassmann et al .…”