A charcoal record of Holocene woodland succession from sandstone rock shelters of North Bohemia (Czech Republic)
Abstract
Archaeological excavations at North-Bohemian sandstone rock shelters have uncovered complex evidence of intermittent human presence since the Late Palaeolithic to recent times. In this paper, we investigate the history of Holocene woodlands based on charcoal assemblages from stratified sandy accumulations under archaeologically investigated rock shelters.
In total, we carried out anthracological analyses of eight profiles excavated under rock shelters. Our study shows that the number of charcoal taxa correlated with local environmental diversity around the rock shelters.
Charcoals of Pinus sylvestris were abundant in all the profiles analysed. Profiles in bottom parts of valleys recorded a higher abundance of broadleaf tree charcoal.
The abundance of oak gradually decreased from the Bronze Age onwards, as oak got replaced by pine, and locally beech, fir and spruce. Today, several of the recorded woody species are rare or even absent in the sandstone region under study.
We focused on comparing anthracological results with results of pollen analyses carried out in the same areas. Our results demonstrate that when results from different types of archives are compared, it is possible to gain a more differentiated insight into local vegetation composition.
This may carry wide methodological implications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.