A chronology of landsliding based on archaeological and documentary data: Pavlovsk\xe9 vrchy Hills, Western Carpathian Flysch Belt

Michal Bíl,Oldřich Krejčí,Vladimíra Krejčí,Jan Martínek,Jiří Svoboda,Lukáš Dolák

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-57551-4

Abstract

Pavlovské vrchy Hills represent a distinctive elevation near the Czech-Austrian border where the active, dormant and relict landslides cover 12% of the area. Here we focused on the chronology of landsliding in this area using geological, archaeological and historical evidence. The earliest records of landsliding were determined in locations underlying the dated archaeological settlements. The Upper Paleolithic settlement complex dated between 37–24 ka cal BP, was originally deposited over these landslides. It was consequently destroyed in certain places by additional landslides preceding the last (Upper Pleniglacial) loess deposition (22 ka cal BP). These landslides took place before and after the Upper Paleolithic occupation of this area. This Pleistocene landslide event ranks among the oldest (albeit indirectly) dated landslide within the Czech part of the Western Carpathian Flysch Belt. The chronology of later, historical, landsliding was determined using written records (chronicles, official reports, archival evidence, etc.). Continuous records of landsliding were available as of the middle of the seventeenth century. The major concentration of landslides occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century (1910–1915). The 1663 landslide is currently the oldest landslide, in the Czech part of the Western Carpathian Flysch Belt, which was dated on the basis of documentary data.

Highlights

The Western Carpathian Flysch Belt (WCFB) ranks among the areas most susceptible to landsliding in the Czech Republic[1,2,3,4,5]
Exceptions include the slopes of Kabátice in the Moravskoslezské Beskydy Mts.; and the Malenik Ridge in the Moravian Gate[22], where the Upper Pleistocene mass movements (47,704 ± 2346 cal b2k) were dated
The earliest dated archaeological artifacts in the Pavlovské vrchy Hills belong to the Early Upper Paleolithic, here we focus on the subsequent Middle Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian), the most extensive and the best dated archaeological unit

Summary

Introduction

The Western Carpathian Flysch Belt (WCFB) ranks among the areas most susceptible to landsliding in the Czech Republic[1,2,3,4,5]. We synthetized data and built a chronology of landsliding for this part of the Czech WCFB from prehistory to the recent times This area (located in Moravia, i.e., eastern part of CR; Fig. 1) has been systematically surveyed by archaeologists as of the 1920s. Landslides were mentioned a number of times along with the abundant archaeological findings[28,29,30] It was inhabited up until the end of World War II by a German population which carried out detailed reports, often mentioning natural processes, in their chronicles. Such systematic observations, including reports on landsliding, are not available for the rest of the Czech WCFB until the first quarter of the twentieth century

Results

Discussion

Conclusion