The Iron Age in the Mrągowo Lake District, Masuria, NE Poland: the Salęt settlement microregion as an example of long-lasting human impact on vegetation

Marta Szal,Wojciech Tylmann,Mariusz Wyczółkowski,Mirosława Kupryjanowicz

doi:10.1007/s00334-014-0465-z

Abstract

Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal and geochemical analyses of sediments from Lake Salet (NE Poland) were used to reconstruct vegetation changes related to the activity of the West Balt tribes during the Iron Age, in the period between the second half of the 7th century bc and the beginning of the 10th century ad. We distinguished five phases of human impact on environment. Woodland clearing around the studied lake started at the end of the 7th century bc. The most characteristic feature of this area during the whole Iron Age was a very high representation of semi-natural Betula woodlands, which was probably linked to a shifting agriculture. This type of land use lasted for over 1,500 years, until the second half of the 9th century ad. The greatest reduction in Betula woodlands took place between cal. years 650 and 450 bc. Its regeneration took place after ca. ad 830 when human activity decreased.

Highlights

In Europe, one of the most significant changes in the humanenvironment relationship took place during the Iron Age
The aim of this paper is to present the first results of interdisciplinary palaeoecological research, the main objectives of which were to study the human impact on the environment, and changes in the economy of local groups of West Balts that inhabited the area around Lake Salet during the Iron Age
Vegetation in the vicinity of Lake Salet at the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age can be reconstructed on the basis of the pollen record contained in the BetulaCarpinus local subzone (Fig. 4)

Summary

Introduction

In Europe, one of the most significant changes in the humanenvironment relationship took place during the Iron Age. it must be noted that this period is defined here in several ways (e.g. Thurston 2009). The chronological system of the Iron Age in north-eastern Poland is slightly different to that adopted for the cultural situation in both Central and Northern Europe and is based on the Tischler system of relative chronology (Tischler 1885; Tischler and Kemke 1902). In the modern system of chronology, the division of the Iron Age in this part of Poland into the early Iron Age AD 20 to mid 4th century AD; Okulicz 1973) and the Migration Period (second half of the 4th to end of the 7th century AD; Godłowski 1974; Nowakowski 1996; Bitner-Wroblewska 2010) was proposed

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