Anne Nielsen
Projektkoordinator
Late Holocene landscape development around a Roman Iron Age mass grave, Alken Enge, Denmark
Författare
Summary, in English
Sediments from the small lake Ilsø situated in the Illerup/Alken Enge Valley were studied in order to investigate past landscape development at the time of a probably ritual human mass burial following battle during the Roman Iron Age (ad 1–400). A pollen record from Ilsø and a number of other records from Jutland were combined using the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm to reconstruct local vegetation changes through the last 2,800 years. These methods were supplemented by studies of catchment-related geochemistry of the Ilsø lake sediments. The results show a marked reforestation event associated with a strong decrease in erosion levels at the very beginning of the first century ad, contemporaneous with the finds of human remains at Alken Enge. Comparison with a pollen record 10 km away and with those from other sites, reveals that this reforestation occurs unusually early and rapidly, and is an unparalleled development in a Danish context. We suggest that the major landscape changes at the beginning of the Roman Iron Age and forest cover for the next few centuries comprise a possible example of ritual control of local land-use.
Avdelning/ar
- Kvartärgeologi
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
Publiceringsår
2017-05
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
277-292
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
Volym
26
Issue
3
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Springer
Ämne
- Archaeology
- Geology
Nyckelord
- Erosion rates
- Iron Age
- Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm
- Palaeolimnology
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0939-6314