Glacially overdeepened valleys in the northern Alpine Foreland preserve Middle to Late Pleistocene sedimentary sequences that may serve as valuable archives for reconstructing past environmental changes in response to shifts in climate. This study presents a multidisciplinary analysis of two sediment cores from the overdeepened Wehntal Valley at Niederweningen in northern Switzerland, integrating sedimentological, palaeobotanical (pollen, plant macroremains) and malacological data as well as luminescence dating. The basal sediments of the cores consist of lacustrine silts deposited under cold climatic conditions, associated with a treeless landscape and later with pioneer birch woodland. Previous studies have reliably attributed these deposits to the Penultimate Glaciation, that is the equivalent of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Overlying this unit, carbonate-rich silts containing a rich suite of biological remains were identified for the first time in the Wehntal Valley. These deposits suggest sedimentation in a marshy wetland bordered by mature deciduous-coniferous forest, which corresponds to the early-middle Eemian (MIS 5e). Above this, silty and peaty sediments indicate alternating lacustrine and marshy conditions under a variable climate, with a predominantly coniferous woodland, during the Early W & uuml;rmian (MIS 5d-5a). Subsequent cooling, corresponding to MIS 4, led to a return to lacustrine conditions and a more open landscape. This stratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental framework aligns with previous studies in the Niederweningen area, confirming that the 'Lower Peat' unit is of middle to late Eemian age, while the 'Upper Peat', which contains mammoth remains, dates to MIS 3. During late MIS 3 or early MIS 2, the valley-bottom lake disappeared and was replaced by a modest stream network with slope deposits from the sides of the Wehntal Valley. Although this chronostratigraphical interpretation is strongly supported by the biological proxies, luminescence dating results are in partial contradiction. The luminescence ages from one core are in fairly good agreement with the proposed sequence, while those from the other suggest that most of the sequence corresponds to the Early W & uuml;rmian (MIS 5d-5a) after c. 100 ka. Reconstructing this complex sequence has been complicated by significant erosive events linked to fluctuations in palaeolake levels that led to important sedimentary hiatuses.

Understanding the long-term drivers of biodiversity change requires datasets that expand the timescale of ecological observations. Using lake sediments as natural archives, we reconstruct plant diversity change at high temporal resolution across the Swiss Plateau, a key region for European land use history. Contiguous pollen records, from three sites, spanning 7.6 millennia, were constrained by 227 radiocarbon dates and partly annually laminated sequences, yielding decadal-scale chronologies. We examine relationships between palynological richness (PRI), a proxy for plant diversity, and reconstructed land use probability (LUP) across six cultural-historic epochs. Vegetation histories are similar across sites: while beech forests persist throughout, other deciduous trees decline and grassland taxa expand from the Neolithic onwards. Plant diversity responds strongly to land use, increasing with openings, cultivation and fire, and declining during crises such as the Migration Period and the Black Death. Medieval and early modern landscapes support the highest richness, while diversity has declined in recent decades, likely due to industrialised agriculture. Our findings show that humans have been major drivers of plant diversity change in European lowlands for more than seven millennia and that sustainable land use legacies from the past may hold the key to reversing today's biodiversity losses.

The successional patterns and vegetational processes associated with the Neolithization period remain poorly understood, particularly at high temporal resolution. To address this knowledge gap, decadal-scale, well-dated palaeoecological studies are essential to illuminate this prehistoric tipping point, when economy shifted from collection to production and pristine landscapes were increasingly shaped by human activity. We analyzed lake sediments from four small lowland lakes on the Swiss Plateau (southwestern Central Europe): Moossee (521 m a.s.l.), Burgaschisee (465 m a.s.l.), L & uuml;tzelsee (500 m a.s.l.), and H & uuml;ttwilersee (435 m a. s.l.). Two of these lakes (Moossee and Burgaschisee) contain annually laminated (varved) sediments, enabling a precise chronological framework. High-resolution palaeoecological analyses, including pollen and microscopic charcoal, were supported by extensive radiocarbon dating. This approach allowed us to investigate the timing and spatial extent of land use phases and plant successional patterns, revealing complex interactions between human activities and climate at an unprecedented temporal resolution. For millennia, mixed forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica characterized the southwestern Central European lowland vegetation. Our findings indicate that between 6500 and 4200 cal yr BP (4550-2250 cal yr BCE), three major synchronous forest disruptions occurred. These disruptions coincided with increased fire and agricultural activities around 6400-6000 cal yr BP (4450-4050 cal yr BCE), 5800-5600 cal yr BP (3850-3650 cal yr BCE), and 5100-4850 cal yr BP (3150-2900 cal yr BCE). Land use phases created open areas, typically enhancing plant diversity, and often aligned with the presence of local lake shore settlements. Each phase lasted several decades to centuries. Subsequently, arboreal vegetation recovered, with early successional species such as Corylus avellana and Betula giving way within 100-150 years to late successional mixed beech forests. Abies alba was co-dominant near the Jura and Napf Mountains (Moossee, Burgaschisee) and close to the pre-Alps (L & uuml;tzelsee) but remained rare in the Lake Constance region (H & uuml;ttwilersee). The palaeoclimatic context suggests that early agrarian societies were highly sensitive to climatic fluctuations. Climate-driven expansions or contractions in agricultural activities, mainly caused by production success or failure, respectively, likely contributed to large-scale, spatially synchronous successional patterns during this transformative period.

The site of Grandson-Corcelettes, Les Pins is located at Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland and was occupied during several phases of the Late Neolithic (between roughly 3000 and 2500 bc ). Archaeobotanical analyses of the cultural layers revealed that, besides the cultivation of food plants, the inhabitants of Grandson used wild plant resources for many purposes. An estimation of the proportion of a selection of collected wild plants within the plant diet – based on calories – showed that they accounted for more than half of the calorific intake. This is in line with similar calculations performed for other Neolithic circum-Alpine settlements. The wild food plant spectrum indicates that most of them were gathered in the woodlands and semi-open habitats close to the village, whereas the riparian forest only seemed to play a marginal role. The analysis of macrofossils and pollen from dung pellets of goat and/or sheep showed that wild plants were also important as food for domestic animals, and that grazing took place in a variety of places, including forests, fallow fields and grassland-like habitats outside the village and throughout the year. Besides, there are indications that the nearby Jura mountains (reaching 1,600 m a.s.l. near the lakeshore villages) were exploited.

Fire, an important element of human land use strategies, was part of many early industrial activities but also of burning incidents that significantly impacted settlement structures and development. The spatial proximity of the historically well-documented medieval town and sediment archive deposited in its central lake (Stadtsee) was taken to investigate the interplay of fire and socio-environmental developments during the preindustrial phase of 750−150 bp ( ad 1200–1800). The burning episodes were detected using the sediment macroscopic charcoal record (> 150 μm) and were interpreted considering sedimentological, palynological, and historical evidence. Macro-charcoal analysis revealed two main phases of biomass burning: a late Medieval one (653−533 cal bp ), followed by a distinct fire-free interval, and a second Modern Times phase (313 cal bp until today). During the late Medieval times and after ad 1750 (200 cal bp ) low-magnitude local fires coincided with high-intensity land use pressure. Major historical events like the Thirty Years’ War and the fire incident near the town ( ad 1386, 174 cal bp ) were also documented by the charcoal sedimentary record. The specific terrain morphology and the town microclimate impacted the chance of whether certain local burning patterns were detectable at all. This study demonstrates that during the Medieval period to the present day, fire events, mainly anthropogenic, were coupled with the main vegetation developments. Anthropogenic fire was an inseparable part of the Bad Waldsee landscape, as also recorded historically by the town archives.

During the last glaciation the Eurasian continent was impacted by the global reorganization of atmo-spheric circulation caused by North Atlantic events, through changes in moisture storm tracks modulated by orography. Our research explores the linkages between climate evolution in the North Atlantic and in the Alps between 30.6 and 12.5 ka, This period, centered on the Last Glacial Maximum, experienced the most recent phase of maximum global ice volume, corresponding to a millennia-long phase of sea-level lowstand, minima in reconstructed sea surface temperatures and isotopic values from polar ice. We present a high-resolution multiproxy record from Lake Fimon at the southern Alpine foothills, where a larch forest-steppe persisted throughout the coldest spells. We analyse the fine climate structure of the MIS 3-2 transition, of the Alpine Last Glacial Maximum stepped by HS2, and provide an unprecedented fine resolution and accurate 14C dating of the Last Glacial Maximum and the early Alpine Lateglacial. We reconstructed quantitative climate parameters based on sensitive pollen descriptors, and derived co -registered sedimentary proxies for dust flux. Reconstructed series suggest that extreme continental spells in the Alps and cold boreal winters match the timing of Heinrich Stadials 2 and 1, episodes of iceberg discharge and release of rock fragments (Ice Rafted Debris) in the North Atlantic. The initiation of the LGM at 27.3 ka is marked by a 4 degrees C drop in July temperatures, likely responsible for the onset of glacial build-up in the Southern Alpine piedmont. The first extreme continental spell coincides with the British -Irish-sourced IRD event at 26.2 ka and with glacier retreat in the Southern Alps, persisting in the sub-sequent HS2. Late Glacial glacier collapse and extreme drought occurred during the first half of the HS1, 17.4-16.2 ka. The comparison of the results obtained at Lake Fimon with other terrestrial Eurasian re-cords and with recalibrated marine chronologies from the North Atlantic suggests in-phase reactions of the British-Irish Ice Sheet and of Alpine glaciers and ecosystems to changes in the Atlantic Meridional Circulation. Asymmetric ecoclimatic effects produced by North Atlantic events at the windward and leeward sides of the Alps confirm a southern provenance of moist air masses throughout the LGM.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

During the last four decades, sediment cores were collected from the deepest zones of >30 small lakes in south-west Germany to investigate archaeological questions about settlement and land use history in Central Europe. The primary aim was to establish well-dated pollen profiles with very high temporal resolution. A major focus was to reconstruct the extent and intensity of land clearing during the Neolithic, the Iron Age, the Roman Period as well as through the Medieval timeframe in context with intermittent recovery periods during political and economic crises. In southwestern Germany, lake sites are not evenly distributed, but rather restricted to the formerly glaciated landscapes of the Northern Alpine foreland, including Lake Constance and the Black Forest. The most important results are as follows:1. Central basinal sediments of small lakes are the best archives to study environmental change, past human impact, and vegetation. 2. The lakes reflect the environment and its change, triggered by natural and anthropogenic factors. 3. Lakes in areas with silicic bedrock have much lower sedimentation rates than lakes in the carbonate-rich North Alpine foreland in Germany. 4. Human impact causes sedimentation rates to increase by different rates, depending on the magnitude of impact and system sensitivity; in most cases, lamination disappears from the sedimentary record. 5. The small lakes integrate local landscape history, whereas the larger lakes integrate over larger catchments and record regional signals. 6. During the Late Weichselian and early Holocene, the landscape history of Southwestern Germany was rather uniform on a regional scale. 7. Landscape history from the middle Holocene onwards was more and more impacted by man, resulting in a variety of local and regional effects that are recorded in these lakes. 8. Overall, climate and natural factors determined the environmental settings, and people preferred regions with fertile soils and warm climate for settling and farming.

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-021-00835-0

Quaternary deposits within the glacially overdeepened trough of the Wehntal Valley in Northern Switzerland, record glacial and interglacial conditions from the Beringen Glaciation (MIS 6) through to the Holocene. The area is well known for the Niederweningen site, with its rich Late Pleistocene mammal remains found in a buried peat deposit. In addition to this famous “mammoth peat”, more deeply buried peat layers, part of which have previously been attributed to the final part of the Last Interglacial, also include a wealth of environmental data.Here, we present the first results of an investigation, including sedimentology, geochemistry, palaeobotany (pollen, wood and plant macroremains), malacology, and luminescence dating, of two 16 meter drill cores taken close to the Niederweningen site. The analysed sedimentary successions in both cores show a transition from a series of laminated silts typical of a lake environment to a several meter-thick succession of well-developed organic silts, tufaceous silts and peat layers characteristic of near shore and shore conditions. The presence of dropstones and a lack of organic material in the lower part of the lake sediments indicate glacial conditions, while the peat-rich succession formed during a relatively warm period followed by a time of fluctuating climate. Preliminary results indicate that the organic-rich units represent the Last Interglacial, followed by warm interstadials during the early part of the Last Glacial period. The "mammoth peat" appears to be missing from the studied cores. Erosive surfaces within the peaty succession impede a straightforward interpretation.

The western Bodensee region has a size of about 800 km2 and is elevated between 395 m (lake level of Bodensee) and about 750 m above sea level (a.s.l.) (Lang 1990). The landscape was covered by ice...

The western Lake Constance (Bodensee) region comprises 800 km2 and is situated between 395 and 750 m above seal level (a.s.l.) (Lang 1990). It was covered by ice during the Weichselian and has a va...

In the late spring of the year ad 1295 a landslide devastated the village of Onoldswil in the Swiss Jura mountains. During recent construction work, a small area of the original land surface was unearthed. The 5 m of compacted clay deposited by the landslide had caused the complete exclusion of oxygen and underneath it the excavators came upon mosses, blades of grasses and other plants that were still green. Below the vegetation cover the humus horizon with subterranean plant parts appeared. Samples were taken for plant macro- and microfossil and geoarchaeological analyses. This offered the rare opportunity to study the vegetation and the topsoil of a small area of land preserved in situ as an autochthonous palaeobiocoenosis, the preserved original combination of the plant community which grew there. Grassland taxa dominated the pollen and macrofossil spectra. Compacted zones within the humus horizon, the plant taxa composition and the presence of spores of coprophilous fungi showed that this place had once been a nutrient-rich pasture. Grazing animals had favoured the spread of juniper. Manuring seems to have taken place. The slopes of the surrounding mountains had been largely cleared of woodland, which may have been the cause of the landslide. The disaster probably happened in late spring, because entire fruiting capitula of Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) were found. Landslides are catastrophic events, destroying the soils and everything that lives in and on them on their way downhill. In places, however, they can also blanket the original land surface and its vegetation and create an archive of ancient life.

This article brings together in a comprehensive way, and for the first time, on- and off-site palaeoenvironmental data from the area of the Central European lake dwellings (a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 2011). The types of data considered are as follows: high-resolution off-site pollen cores, including micro-charcoal counts, and on-site data, including botanical macro- and micro-remains, hand-collected animal bones, remains of microfauna, and data on woodland management (dendrotypology). The period considered is the late Neolithic (c. 4300–2400 cal. BC). For this period, especially for its earlier phases, discussions of land-use patterns are contradictory. Based on off-site data, slash-and-burn – as known from tropical regions – is thought to be the only possible way to cultivate the land. On-site data however show a completely different picture: all indications point to the permanent cultivation of cereals ( Triticum spp., Hordeum vulgare), pea ( Pisum sativum), flax ( Linum usitatissimum) and opium-poppy ( Papaver somniferum). Cycles of landscape use are traceable, including coppicing and moving around the landscape with animal herds. Archaeobiological studies further indicate also that hunting and gathering were an important component and that the landscape was manipulated accordingly. Late Neolithic land-use systems also included the use of fire as a tool for opening up the landscape. Here we argue that bringing together all the types of palaeoenvironmental proxies in an integrative way allows us to draw a more comprehensive and reliable picture of the land-use systems in the late Neolithic than had been reconstructed previously largely on the basis of off-site data.

Archaologie in den Hochalpen: Vom Ruckgang der Gletscher sind auch archaologische Objekte betroffen. Uber Jahrtausende hinweg haben sie im Eis uberdauert, nun kommen sie zum Vorschein. Im Hitzesommer 2003 fand eine Wanderin am Schnidejoch ein fremdartiges Objekt aus Birkenrinde. Es erwies sich als Teil eines 4800 Jahre alten Bogenfutterals. In den Jahren 2004 bis 2011 unternahm der Archaologische Dienst des Kantons Bern uber 30 Begehungen der Nordseite und – zusammen mit der Walliser Kantonsarchaologie – auch der Sudseite des Schnidejochs. Zahlreiche weitere Funde aus Holz, Leder und Metall konnten geborgen und wissenschaftlich untersucht werden. Einzigartige Funde Zu den spektakularsten Funden vom Schnidejoch zahlt das Bogenfutteral aus Birkenrinde. Weiter stechen aus den rund 900 Funden ein Pfeilbogen, mehrere vollstandige Pfeile und Fragmente einer Schale aus Ulmenholz hervor. Es handelt sich dabei um das alteste Holzgefass der Schweiz. Weitere herausragende Funde sind ein bronzezeitliches Holzgefass aus Birkenrinde, eine bronzezeitliche Gewandnadel sowie Bekleidung und Schuhe aus Leder.

The present study combines results of pollen and macrofossil analysis to examine the preservation of food plants in on-site archaeological deposits from various Roman waterlogged sites in Switzerland and Alsace (France). Through the integration of pollen and macrofossil analysis a much wider range of food plants is recorded, and it is clear that the plant spectra of both proxy data sets are complementary. The combined analyses enables new insights into food consumption and preparation, and issues of local cultivation and/or the import of food plants can be approached.

The Europe wide spread of what has been called the Bell Beaker phenomenon remains an enigma of European prehistory. While most of the recent research stresses the ideological aspects of using Bell Beaker material culture, here we take a regional and economical perspective. We look for the chronological relationships and the economic choices of the Bell Beaker phase and of its closest neighbours in time and space: the Late Neolithic Corded Ware and the Early Bronze Age. We focus on the regional archaeological settlement history and present the hitherto richest European Bell Beaker-associated collection of palaeobotanical macro-remains, together with our high-resolution palynological work on annually laminated lake sediments. These different lines of evidence are tied together by an absolute chronology derived from new radiocarbon accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) dates (now more than 200) and from the dendrodates from the World Heritage wet preserved pile dwellings. We show the preceding Late Neolithic, the actual Bell Beaker, and the following Early Bronze age economies each relying on different agricultural strategies that focus on distinct parts of the landscape. There is no link obvious between Late Neolithic and Bell Beaker, but there is between Bell Beaker and Early Bronze Age. Related to different modes of production, differences in ideology become visible in food preferences as well as in other parts of the material culture. We conclude that the Bell Beaker economy represents a re-orientation of the mode of production focusing on single, rather small farmsteads which often do not leave a distinct signal in the archaeological record.