Multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing local pastoral activities: an example from the Pyrenean Mountains (Pays Basque)

International audienceIn this study archaeology, history and palaeoecology (modern and fossil data sets of pollen and nonpollen palynomorphs) were used to reconstruct small-scale pastoral activities in the Pyrenees Mountains during the last two millennia. Modern pollen assemblages from the major vegetation units (both natural andanthropogenic) are studied on one restricted watershed area. A correlative model (RDA) of 61 modern pollen spectra and 35 external variables distinguishes two groups of taxa, providing information on the nature and spatial extent of human impact on the landscape. The first pool indicates local pastoral activities, and the second one implies regional input from outside the studied watershed, and is not characteristic of a specific land use. These pools are described as 'Local Pastoral Pollen Indicators' (LPPI) for this particular mountain region on crystalline bedrock and 'Regional Human Activities Pollen Indicators' (RHAPI). The modern data set is used to aid interpretation of the local pollen sequence of Sourzay that covers the last 2000 calendar years BP, using RDA reconstructions, and best modern analogues as a means of comparing modern and fossil spectra. The study also demonstrates agreement between the independent interpretations of two fossil proxies, LPPI and coprophilous fungi

Seventy-five mosses and liverworts found frozen with the late Neolithic Tyrolean Iceman: Origins, taphonomy and the Iceman’s last journey

The Iceman site is unique in the bryology of the Quaternary. Only 21 bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) grow now in the immediate vicinity of the 5,300 year old Iceman discovery site at 3,210m above sea level in the Ötztal Alps, Italy. By contrast 75 or more species including at least ten liverworts were recovered as subfossils frozen in, on and around the Iceman from before, at and after his time. About two thirds of the species grow in the nival zone (above 3,000m above sea level) now while about one third do not. A large part of this third can be explained by the Iceman having both deliberately and inadvertently carried bryophytes during his last, fatal journey. Multivariate analyses (PCA, RDA) provide a variety of explanations for the arrivals of the bryophytes in the rocky hollow where the mummy was discovered. This is well into the nival zone of perennial snow and ice with a very sparse, non-woody flora and very low vegetation cover. Apart from the crucial anthropochory (extra-local plants), both hydrochory (local species) and zoochory (by wild game such as ibex of both local and extra-local species) have been important. Anemochory of mainly local species was of lesser importance and of extra-local species probably of little or no importance. The mosses Neckera complanata and several other ecologically similar species as well as a species of Sphagnum (bogmoss) strongly support the claim that the Iceman, took northwards up Schnalstal, South Tyrol, as the route of the last journey. A different species of bogmoss, taken from his colon is another indication the Iceman’s presence at low altitude south of Schnalstal during his last hours when he was first high up, low down and finally at over 3,000m

Reconstruction of mass balance and firn stratigraphy during the 1996–2011 warm period at high altitude on Mount Ortles, Eastern Alps: a comparison of modelled and ice core results

Paleoclimatic glacial archives in low-latitude mountain regions are increasingly affected by melt, which leads to heavy percolation and can remove snow and firn accumulated across months, seasons, or even years. Proxy system models, used for improved interpretation of glacial proxies and paleoclimatic reconstructions, generally do not account for melt because they are optimized for sites where snow layer removal by melting is negligible. In this paper, we present a mass balance model applied to the Mt Ortles drilling site, at 3859 ma.s.l. in the Eastern Italian Alps, with the aim of building a pseudo-proxy of atmospheric conditions during the formation of snow layers that survived to ablation. This pseudo-proxy is useful for improved dating and environmental interpretation of firn layers (&lt; 15 m depth), affected by significant melt in the period 1996–2011, which includes the extremely warm summer of 2003. Here we show that the model significantly improves the interpretation of the firn stratigraphy. This is fundamental for detecting melted layers and for refining the dating of the core based on traditional annual layer counting of stable isotope and pollen seasonal oscillations.</p

Plant economies and village life in Neolithic lake dwellings at the time of the Alpine Iceman

This paper gives an overview of domesticated and wild plants used during the 2nd half of the 4th millennium B.C. (cal.) in a region within a semicircle of ca. 100 km radius around the find spot of the Iceman. The landscape considered lies north of the main alpine chain and includes Central to Eastern Switzerland and SW-Germany (mainly sites at the lakes Zug, Zürich, Constance, Upper Swabia (the Federsee region) and western Bavaria). From this part of Central Europe the plant remains of many well preserved Lake dwelling sites were investigated during the last decades and much is known about the daily life in these villages. Probably contemporaneous with the Iceman&rsquo;s lifetime is one of the best investigated settlements, Arbon Bleiche 3 at the southern shore of Lake Constance. A comparison of the Iceman´s artefacts and plant macro remains with the findings in the considered lake dwellings shows striking similarities, but also differences. Based on domestic plants found with the Iceman his southern provenience can be corroborated. He used domestic as well as wild plants, very similar as the contemporaries of the lakeside villages. The detailed knowledge of the manifold activities in the lakeshore village of Arbon Bleiche 3 allows us to show a rather realistic picture about the daily life circumstances at the time of the Iceman

The Late Neolithic settlement of Latsch, Vinschgau, northern Italy : subsistence of a settlement contemporary with the Alpine Iceman, and located in his valley of origin

Archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses conducted on Late Neolithic settlement layers at Latsch provide the first data on the subsistence strategy, diet and environmental conditions in the valley of origin of the Alpine Iceman. The results prove that during the Late Neolithic, the valley was occupied by an agro-pastoral society based on the cultivation of Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum monococcum (einkorn), T. dicoccum (emmer) and Pisum sativum (pea), as well as on the rearing of Ovis vel Capra, Ovis orientalis f. aries (sheep), Capra aegagrus f. hircus (goat) and Bos primigenius f. taurus (cattle). The settlement was located on a river terrace of the valley floor close to a river and was surrounded by mixed pine and oak woods beside alluvial woodland