Das Projekt "Detecting prehistoric fire-based farming along the Rhine valley using biogeochemical markers" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Zürich, Geographisches Institut durchgeführt. The formation of Chernozems in Central Europe traditionally is linked to climate. Recent evidence, however, indicates that also charred organic carbon from vegetation fires may form black soils. Phaeozems in the Southern part of the Lower Rhine Basin (Northwest Germany) presumably are relicts of prehistoric fire-based agricultural practices rather than relicts of former Chernozems. Here we try to i) detect the anthropogenic influences on soils by biogeochemical markers and ii) trace the input and transport of charred organic carbon in soils after fire, iii) investigating both archaeological excavations and experimental burning in field trials.
Das Projekt "A geoarchaeological approach to investigate human-environment interactions in the Valle Leventina" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Zürich, Geographisches Institut durchgeführt. The focus of the project is to improve our understanding of human-environment interactions in Southern Alpine regions by detecting biogeochemical markers in soils to reconstruct the development of a landscape that was shaped by humans since millennia. Until now, information about the chronological and spatial extent of changes from a natural to a human-dominated landscape, especially in the Southern Alpine regions, has been scarce. The results of our investigation would allow us to understand where and when (pre)historic settlers installed their agricultural land. The aims are (1) to adapt, evaluate and improve the applied methods so that we can use biogeochemical markers retained in soil material (2) to quantify the anthropogenic influence and to determine the processes of human impact on the environment such as manuring and burning, and (3) to investigate the spatial extension and chronology of agricultural sites (off-site-archaeology) in the surroundings of a Bronze Age settlement in Airolo-Madrano (e.g. agricultural terraces). The processes of human impact, or the agricultural techniques used by the settlers will be documented by the analysed marker substances and radiocarbon dating.
Das Projekt "Understanding Wetland occupation in prehistoric Europe (UWOPE)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Basel, Institut für Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie durchgeführt. Wetland environments were often preferred for the location of permanent settlements in prehistoric times. This could be for many reasons: use of local resources, ease of erecting timber houses, or defence. Such a pattern of lakeside settlement began early (4th millennium BC) in the circum-Alpine region of Europe, where it has been intensively investigated, especially because of its exceptional preservation of organic finds, and the opportunity to reconstruct its environmental setting and responses to environmental change. Although lake-dwellings remained characteristic of settlement in this area for over three millennia, intensive study has identified several short phases of abandonment, interrupting an otherwise continuous pattern. After the 7th century BC, however, such lake-dwellings ceased to be built in this area, though just at this time they began to appear in other parts of Europe. Here, they lasted only a few hundred years, and by the 3rd century BC, the majority of European settlements were built on 'dry land. A key to this question comes from Lithuania, where a well-preserved lake village has recently been discovered on Lake Luokesas. The importance of this settlement is not only that it was occupied exactly during this transitional period, but also because of its environmental and typological similarities to earlier central European lake settlements, and, most importantly, its trade links to central Europe. Hence it is possible to study the settlement from a central European perspective. Since Switzerland is the leading centre of archaeological wetland research, the aim of this project is to use the state-of-the-art techniques developed at Basel University, to find plausible explanations for the wet-to-dryland cultural change in later European prehistory. The project will answer crucial questions on wetland management and socio-economy in later European prehistory, endorsing, at the same time, multidisciplinary collaboration amongst European scholars