Settlement activity in later prehistory: invisible in the archaeological record but documented by pollen and sedimentary evidence

Abstract

The paper deals with landscape and settlement development between ca. 300 BC and AD 600 in a defined area of the northern Czech Republic. Despite favourable natural conditions, human occupation of the area did not begin until the end of the first millennium BC. Natural soil and vegetation development therefore lasted longer than in the traditionally settled lowland areas. Initial settlement activity from the La Tene period caused substantial erosion of deforested luvisols and retisols, well-documented by an accumulation of eroded soil horizons in a local wetland. The erosion process continued for more than 500 years following the end of the La Tene settlement, despite the fact that archaeological research revealed no reliable evidence of occupation prior to the twelfth century AD. Pollen and sedimentary records from the wetland, however, clearly indicate the existence of settlement activity during the “archaeologically invisible” Roman and Migration periods. This case is not unique and underlines the importance of environmental analysis for the detection of settlement history, particularly during periods of poor archaeological visibility or in places that are difficult to research using standard archaeological methods. The change in conditions after the first deforestation and subsequent late prehistoric settlement triggered the degradation of the deforested luvisols and retisols and led to the diversification of the soil cover, which now also includes regosols, gleysols, and truncated luvisols and retisols.