The Black Death is the most reknown pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed ha... more The Black Death is the most reknown pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe's population. However, despite the advances in ancient DNA research that allowed for the successful identification of the pandemic's causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death is still limited, based primarily on medieval texts available for single areas of Western Europe. In our study we remedy this situation and we focus in particular on the scale of the Black Death mortality. We collected data on landscape change from 261 coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located in 19 European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that half of the population died within a single year in each of the 21 regions we studied. We discovered that while the Black Death had devastating impact in some regions, it had negligible...
The Black Death (1347–1352ce) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to... more The Black Death (1347–1352ce) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacteriumYersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, ‘big data palaeoecology’, which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death’s mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of ...
ABSTRACTGeoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m t... more ABSTRACTGeoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub‐aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr bc. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre‐scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed ‘earthquake storm’ in the eastern Mediterran...
Disc beads from ostrich eggs from the Mesolithic site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60), Jebel Sabaloka (Centr... more Disc beads from ostrich eggs from the Mesolithic site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60), Jebel Sabaloka (Central Sudan) Ostrich eggs are sought after not only for their nutrition content, but also for use in artefact industries. The egg shells can be used to make containers or items of personal decoration, such as pendants and disc beads. The latter artefacts and the process of their manufacturing were studied on the material gained through excavation in 2012 of Sounding 2 (20 m2) at the Mesolithic settlement and burial ground of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) at Jebel Sabaloka (West Bank) in central Sudan. Sudan – Sabaloka – Mesolithic – production in prehistory – chaîne opératoire – personal (body) decoration – identity Súdán – Sabaloka – mezolit – výroba v pravěku – chaîne opératoire – zdobení těla – identita Lenka Varadzinová Suková (lenka.sukova@ff.cuni.cz) Český egyptologický ústav, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Karlova v Praze Zdeňka Sůvová (zsuvova@gmail.com) nezávislá badatelka Václav Cílek (cilek...
Abstract We present a new chironomid record from sediments of former Lake Svarcenberk in South Bo... more Abstract We present a new chironomid record from sediments of former Lake Svarcenberk in South Bohemia (412 m asl, Czech Republic), located in the oceanic-to-continental macroclimatic transitional zone of eastern Central Europe. We provide estimates of Weichselian Late Glacial and Early Holocene (ca. 15–8 ka BP) mean July air temperatures on the basis of changes in the fossil assemblage using a joint Norwegian-Swiss transfer function. In our study, the climate was found to be relatively cold during the Late Pleniglacial, with July temperatures ranging between 11.2 and 12.3 °C. With the exception of the youngest section of this interval, temperatures during the Bolling-Allerod interstadial were relatively stable and warm, with values around 13.3–14.5 °C. During the Younger Dryas (YD), July temperatures varied between 12.7 and 16 °C, and these particular results are in agreement with other climatic reconstructions from the central to the eastern part of the European continent showing no or moderate summer temperature decrease during the YD, or even a slightly warming trend. A relatively warm and climatically stable early YD phase was followed by a variable and overall cooler younger phase. At the beginning of the Early Holocene, our reconstructed July temperatures increased to 17.7 °C. We demonstrate that general patterns of temperature changes inferred from chironomids during the Last Glacial Termination are similar to various multi-proxy reconstructions in Europe but we observe two unusually strong and abrupt cooling events: one that may be linked with the Gerzensee oscillation at the end of the Bolling-Allerod Interstadial and another that probably corresponds to the Preboreal Oscillation, although the temperature decreases in these intervals were much more pronounced than observed in other chironomid records from Europe, suggesting that local climatic factors and ecosystem responses may have overamplified these cold events in the temperature reconstruction. However, other proxies (geochemistry, pollen) support the interpretation of climatically driven palaeoenvironmental changes such as the development of vegetation cover, changes in lake productivity, pedogenesis and erosion.
SummaryGrass silica short cell (GSSC) phytoliths appear to be the most reliable source of fossil ... more SummaryGrass silica short cell (GSSC) phytoliths appear to be the most reliable source of fossil evidence for tracking the evolutionary history and paleoecology of grasses. In recent years, modern techniques have been used to quantitatively assess phytolith shape variation. This progress has widened opportunities with respect to the classification of grass fossil phytoliths. However, phylogenetic, ecological and intraindividual variability patterns in phytolith shape remain largely unexplored.The full range of intraindividual phytolith shape variation (3650 2D outlines) from 73 extant grass species, 48 genera, 18 tribes, and 8 subfamilies (with special attention paid to Pooideae) was analysed using the geometric morphometric analysis based on the semilandmarks spanning phytolith outlines.Although we showed that 2D phytolith shape is mainly driven by deep-time diversification of grass subfamilies, a closer look uncovered distinct phytolith shape variation in early-diverging lineages ...
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest... more Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 bc. In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 bc, but recent radiocarbon dating of a dozen 'early' grains cast doubt on these claims. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals that millet was common in Europe from the 2nd millennium bc, when major societal and economic transformations took place in the Bronze Age. We conducted an extensive programme of AMS-dating of charred broomcorn millet grains from 75 prehistoric sites in Europe. Our Bayesian model reveals that millet cultivation began in Europe at the earliest during the sixteenth century bc, and spread rapidly during the fifteenth/fourteenth centuries bc. Broomcorn millet succeeds in exceptionally wide range of growing conditions and completes its lifecycle in less than three summer months. Offering an additional harvest and...
The main objective of the article is to present knowledge of newly discovered sites in the mounta... more The main objective of the article is to present knowledge of newly discovered sites in the mountainous environment of Šumava (Bohemian Forest). The fieldwork in 2011–2019 identified a total of 30 new sites that can be dated to the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The research of prehistoric settlement of the mountainous regions of Bohemia remained a neglected topic for many years. The presence of hunters-gatherers in the mountains in the Mesolithic was documented by isolated finds from the Ore Mountains and a far greater number from Šumava in south Bohemia. This study presents the result of research conducted in three identified locations: in the floodplains of the Roklanský Stream, the Upper Vltava (Moldau) and the Křemelná Stream. The article documents that the network of sites in this space is relatively dense. Although remnants of intact situations are documented in rare cases, the dating of the majority of sites is based solely on lithic assemblages of varying size. Du...
Background and Aims The relative contributions of inter- and intraspecific variation to phytolith... more Background and Aims The relative contributions of inter- and intraspecific variation to phytolith shape and size have only been investigated in a limited number of studies. However, a detailed understanding of phytolith variation patterns among populations or even within a single plant specimen is of key importance for the correct taxonomic identification of grass taxa in fossil samples and for the reconstruction of vegetation and environmental conditions in the past. In this study, we used geometric morphometric analysis for the quantification of different sources of phytolith shape and size variation. Methods We used landmark-based geometric morphometric methods for the analysis of phytolith shapes in two extant grass species (Brachypodium pinnatum and B. sylvaticum). For each species, 1200 phytoliths were analysed from 12 leaves originating from six plants growing in three populations. Phytolith shape and size data were subjected to multivariate Procrustes analysis of variance (A...
AimsReconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Descr... more AimsReconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Description of major diversity patterns, testing their predictors, and their interpretation in the palaeoecological and biogeographical context. Testing the assumption that pollen record is informative with respect to plant diversity in our study area.MethodsFossil pollen extracted from 18 high-quality profiles was used as a proxy of past plant diversity. Pollen counts of tree taxa were corrected by pollen productivity, and pollen assemblages were resampled to 100 grains per sample and 150 grains per 500-years time window. SiZer analysis was used to test and visualize multi-scale diversity patterns. Linear modelling was used to identify the best predictors. SiZer maps and pollen composition were analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling. K-means clustering and indicator species analysis were used to interpret ordination results.ResultsMean Holocene plant diversity is significantly pr...
Pronounced climatic warming associated with the Late Weichselian Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial tran... more Pronounced climatic warming associated with the Late Weichselian Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial transition caused considerable environmental changes throughout the former periglacial zones (in Europe ~53°–46°N). During permafrost degradation and subsequent ground subsidence (i.e. thermokarst processes), the landscape changed rapidly. In this study we investigated a flat mid‐altitude area in south Bohemia, Czech Republic, lying close to the southern limit of the Weichselian permafrost. We discovered palaeo‐lake basins with sedimentary infillings up to 11 m in depth. According to radiocarbon and palynostratigraphical dating, these basins were formed at the onset of the Late Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial transition, whereas the smaller depressions were formed later. We suggest that the basins resulted from thermal and fluvio‐thermal erosion of the former permafrost and represent remnants of discontinuous gullies and possibly collapsed frost mounds (pingo/lithalsa scars). The formation of th...
The Black Death is the most reknown pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed ha... more The Black Death is the most reknown pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe's population. However, despite the advances in ancient DNA research that allowed for the successful identification of the pandemic's causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death is still limited, based primarily on medieval texts available for single areas of Western Europe. In our study we remedy this situation and we focus in particular on the scale of the Black Death mortality. We collected data on landscape change from 261 coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located in 19 European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that half of the population died within a single year in each of the 21 regions we studied. We discovered that while the Black Death had devastating impact in some regions, it had negligible...
The Black Death (1347–1352ce) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to... more The Black Death (1347–1352ce) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacteriumYersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, ‘big data palaeoecology’, which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death’s mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of ...
ABSTRACTGeoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m t... more ABSTRACTGeoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub‐aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr bc. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre‐scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed ‘earthquake storm’ in the eastern Mediterran...
Disc beads from ostrich eggs from the Mesolithic site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60), Jebel Sabaloka (Centr... more Disc beads from ostrich eggs from the Mesolithic site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60), Jebel Sabaloka (Central Sudan) Ostrich eggs are sought after not only for their nutrition content, but also for use in artefact industries. The egg shells can be used to make containers or items of personal decoration, such as pendants and disc beads. The latter artefacts and the process of their manufacturing were studied on the material gained through excavation in 2012 of Sounding 2 (20 m2) at the Mesolithic settlement and burial ground of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) at Jebel Sabaloka (West Bank) in central Sudan. Sudan – Sabaloka – Mesolithic – production in prehistory – chaîne opératoire – personal (body) decoration – identity Súdán – Sabaloka – mezolit – výroba v pravěku – chaîne opératoire – zdobení těla – identita Lenka Varadzinová Suková (lenka.sukova@ff.cuni.cz) Český egyptologický ústav, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Karlova v Praze Zdeňka Sůvová (zsuvova@gmail.com) nezávislá badatelka Václav Cílek (cilek...
Abstract We present a new chironomid record from sediments of former Lake Svarcenberk in South Bo... more Abstract We present a new chironomid record from sediments of former Lake Svarcenberk in South Bohemia (412 m asl, Czech Republic), located in the oceanic-to-continental macroclimatic transitional zone of eastern Central Europe. We provide estimates of Weichselian Late Glacial and Early Holocene (ca. 15–8 ka BP) mean July air temperatures on the basis of changes in the fossil assemblage using a joint Norwegian-Swiss transfer function. In our study, the climate was found to be relatively cold during the Late Pleniglacial, with July temperatures ranging between 11.2 and 12.3 °C. With the exception of the youngest section of this interval, temperatures during the Bolling-Allerod interstadial were relatively stable and warm, with values around 13.3–14.5 °C. During the Younger Dryas (YD), July temperatures varied between 12.7 and 16 °C, and these particular results are in agreement with other climatic reconstructions from the central to the eastern part of the European continent showing no or moderate summer temperature decrease during the YD, or even a slightly warming trend. A relatively warm and climatically stable early YD phase was followed by a variable and overall cooler younger phase. At the beginning of the Early Holocene, our reconstructed July temperatures increased to 17.7 °C. We demonstrate that general patterns of temperature changes inferred from chironomids during the Last Glacial Termination are similar to various multi-proxy reconstructions in Europe but we observe two unusually strong and abrupt cooling events: one that may be linked with the Gerzensee oscillation at the end of the Bolling-Allerod Interstadial and another that probably corresponds to the Preboreal Oscillation, although the temperature decreases in these intervals were much more pronounced than observed in other chironomid records from Europe, suggesting that local climatic factors and ecosystem responses may have overamplified these cold events in the temperature reconstruction. However, other proxies (geochemistry, pollen) support the interpretation of climatically driven palaeoenvironmental changes such as the development of vegetation cover, changes in lake productivity, pedogenesis and erosion.
SummaryGrass silica short cell (GSSC) phytoliths appear to be the most reliable source of fossil ... more SummaryGrass silica short cell (GSSC) phytoliths appear to be the most reliable source of fossil evidence for tracking the evolutionary history and paleoecology of grasses. In recent years, modern techniques have been used to quantitatively assess phytolith shape variation. This progress has widened opportunities with respect to the classification of grass fossil phytoliths. However, phylogenetic, ecological and intraindividual variability patterns in phytolith shape remain largely unexplored.The full range of intraindividual phytolith shape variation (3650 2D outlines) from 73 extant grass species, 48 genera, 18 tribes, and 8 subfamilies (with special attention paid to Pooideae) was analysed using the geometric morphometric analysis based on the semilandmarks spanning phytolith outlines.Although we showed that 2D phytolith shape is mainly driven by deep-time diversification of grass subfamilies, a closer look uncovered distinct phytolith shape variation in early-diverging lineages ...
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest... more Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 bc. In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 bc, but recent radiocarbon dating of a dozen 'early' grains cast doubt on these claims. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals that millet was common in Europe from the 2nd millennium bc, when major societal and economic transformations took place in the Bronze Age. We conducted an extensive programme of AMS-dating of charred broomcorn millet grains from 75 prehistoric sites in Europe. Our Bayesian model reveals that millet cultivation began in Europe at the earliest during the sixteenth century bc, and spread rapidly during the fifteenth/fourteenth centuries bc. Broomcorn millet succeeds in exceptionally wide range of growing conditions and completes its lifecycle in less than three summer months. Offering an additional harvest and...
The main objective of the article is to present knowledge of newly discovered sites in the mounta... more The main objective of the article is to present knowledge of newly discovered sites in the mountainous environment of Šumava (Bohemian Forest). The fieldwork in 2011–2019 identified a total of 30 new sites that can be dated to the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The research of prehistoric settlement of the mountainous regions of Bohemia remained a neglected topic for many years. The presence of hunters-gatherers in the mountains in the Mesolithic was documented by isolated finds from the Ore Mountains and a far greater number from Šumava in south Bohemia. This study presents the result of research conducted in three identified locations: in the floodplains of the Roklanský Stream, the Upper Vltava (Moldau) and the Křemelná Stream. The article documents that the network of sites in this space is relatively dense. Although remnants of intact situations are documented in rare cases, the dating of the majority of sites is based solely on lithic assemblages of varying size. Du...
Background and Aims The relative contributions of inter- and intraspecific variation to phytolith... more Background and Aims The relative contributions of inter- and intraspecific variation to phytolith shape and size have only been investigated in a limited number of studies. However, a detailed understanding of phytolith variation patterns among populations or even within a single plant specimen is of key importance for the correct taxonomic identification of grass taxa in fossil samples and for the reconstruction of vegetation and environmental conditions in the past. In this study, we used geometric morphometric analysis for the quantification of different sources of phytolith shape and size variation. Methods We used landmark-based geometric morphometric methods for the analysis of phytolith shapes in two extant grass species (Brachypodium pinnatum and B. sylvaticum). For each species, 1200 phytoliths were analysed from 12 leaves originating from six plants growing in three populations. Phytolith shape and size data were subjected to multivariate Procrustes analysis of variance (A...
AimsReconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Descr... more AimsReconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Description of major diversity patterns, testing their predictors, and their interpretation in the palaeoecological and biogeographical context. Testing the assumption that pollen record is informative with respect to plant diversity in our study area.MethodsFossil pollen extracted from 18 high-quality profiles was used as a proxy of past plant diversity. Pollen counts of tree taxa were corrected by pollen productivity, and pollen assemblages were resampled to 100 grains per sample and 150 grains per 500-years time window. SiZer analysis was used to test and visualize multi-scale diversity patterns. Linear modelling was used to identify the best predictors. SiZer maps and pollen composition were analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling. K-means clustering and indicator species analysis were used to interpret ordination results.ResultsMean Holocene plant diversity is significantly pr...
Pronounced climatic warming associated with the Late Weichselian Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial tran... more Pronounced climatic warming associated with the Late Weichselian Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial transition caused considerable environmental changes throughout the former periglacial zones (in Europe ~53°–46°N). During permafrost degradation and subsequent ground subsidence (i.e. thermokarst processes), the landscape changed rapidly. In this study we investigated a flat mid‐altitude area in south Bohemia, Czech Republic, lying close to the southern limit of the Weichselian permafrost. We discovered palaeo‐lake basins with sedimentary infillings up to 11 m in depth. According to radiocarbon and palynostratigraphical dating, these basins were formed at the onset of the Late Pleniglacial‐to‐Lateglacial transition, whereas the smaller depressions were formed later. We suggest that the basins resulted from thermal and fluvio‐thermal erosion of the former permafrost and represent remnants of discontinuous gullies and possibly collapsed frost mounds (pingo/lithalsa scars). The formation of th...
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