Abstract
Colluvial deposits, as the correlate sediments of human-induced soil erosion, depict an excellent archive of land use and landscape history as indicators of human–environment interactions. This study establishes a chronostratigraphy of colluvial deposits and reconstructs past land use dynamics in the Swabian Jura, the Baar and the Black Forest in SW Germany. In the agriculturally favourable Baar area multiple main phases of colluvial deposition, and thus intensified land use, can be identified from the Neolithic to the Modern times. In the unfavourable Swabian Jura increased colluvial deposition began later compared to the more favourable areas in the Baar. The same holds true for the unfavourable areas of the Black Forest, but intensified land use can only be reconstructed for the Middle Ages and Early Modern times instead of for the Bronze and Iron Age as in the Swabian Jura. Land use intensity and settlement dynamics represented by thick, multilayered colluvial deposits increase in the Baar and the Black Forest during the Middle Ages. In between those phases of geomorphodynamic activity and colluviation, stable phases occur, interpreted as phases with sustainable land use or without human presence.
Highlights
The spread of agriculture through central Europe, starting about 7500 years ago, changed food production and population densities [1]
This study aims to reconstruct human–environment interactions by analysing land use dynamics in SW Germany through a series of ‘site biographies’ that are primarily based on optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of colluvial deposits and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-14C dating of included charcoal fragments
This process to assess the geomorphodynamic situation leads to the interpretation of geomorphodynamically stable and instable phases, concerning soil erosion and deposition triggered by land use
Summary
The spread of agriculture through central Europe, starting about 7500 years ago, changed food production and population densities [1]. It led to increased alteration of the natural landscape [3,4] This crucial change of the relationship between humans and the environment can be traced with archaeopedological methods. The used methods do not allow to infer the type of land use and the term land use comprises all forms of human land use such as deforestation, mining, village establishment or infrastructure building, and farming (i.e. cultivation and animal husbandry). The latter marks the beginning of a more intense and permanent anthropogenic land use, which led to widespread formation of colluvial deposits. Larsen et al [12] state that land use, rather than soil erosion rates and discharge into the oceans, controls temporary sediment storage on slopes, which means the analysis of colluvial deposits on slopes and in depressions is ideal to reconstruct land use change
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