Changing Human Impact during the Period of Agriculture in Central Europe: The Case Study Biesdorfer Kehlen, Brandenburg, Germany

Abstract

The onset of agricultural practices during the Neolithic Times brought about significant changes in the environment. Woodland clearance and subsequent farming facilitated soil erosion. Run off, caused by heavy rainfalls could erode the soils on the bare arable land. The accumulation sequences of these soil erosion events can be found on colluvial fans of gullies or in small sedimentary basins. These sedimentary records can be investigated using four dimensional landscape analysis. In Central Europe peaks of soil erosion due to human impact have been reconstructed for the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, late Medieval Times and Modern Times (Bork et al., 1998). The example of the Biesdorfer Kehlen in Brandenburg, Germany, shows that three main phases of land use induced gully erosion and hill slope erosion from prehistoric times until 1991 happened. From the Iron Age until early Medieval Times a stable period of three-thousand years with intensive soil formation indicates the absence of farming in the investigation area. These investigations, together with the quantification of landscape changes, can help to obtain better knowledge of past and possible future impacts of agriculture on the landscape. The data may also be used to validate soil erosion models and landscape evolution models.