Search

Publius Quinctilius Varus has become widely known as commander-in-chief of the three Roman legions that were annihilated in the battle of the Teutoburg forest in 9 CE by a federation of Germanic tribes. Coins bearing his countermark VAR are common on Roman sites in the Rhineland and are generally accepted to mark coins distributed as donations to the troops during his time as legatus Augusti pro praetore from 7 to 9 CE. In this study, 37 coins with these countermarks have been recorded from different archaeological sites using high-resolution 3D-scanning. Having substantiated prior ascriptions of these countermarks to individual countermark dies by procrustes analysis, a combination of metric statistics and use-wear analysis was applied to attribute ten countermarks to different wear-stages within the life-cycle of the same specific die. While coins with countermarks produced by the die during early phases of attrition are confined to the upper Rhineland and Mosel area, later phases have been found in the lower Rhineland at Asciburgium and on the battlefield of Kalkriese. Coins that bear countermarks of an already heavily worn and irreversibly damaged die are found in Nijmegen, Mainz and Wiesbaden. We discuss if these different groups of coins were emitted together at one site and may be related to a demobilisation after a joint operation.

Historic mining activities are assumed to rank among the most significant human activities that reshaped the landscape of the European uplands, especially since the medieval period. Mining requires both the extraction of timber for mining construction as well as the production of charcoal for ore smelting. Analysing the occurrence of different wood taxa in construction or charcoal assemblages may help to shed light on the question of whether different taxa had been chosen for different purposes depending on their local availability, specific cost–benefit considerations or their physical properties. Here, we present the results of taxonomical and dendrochronological analyses performed on timber and macro-remains from an outstandingly well-preserved medieval underground mining complex in the Erzgebirge region (Ore Mountains, Eastern Germany). The complementary use of wood for charcoal production was reconstructed by anthracological and chronological analyses of medieval to modern charcoal kilns preserved in the same area. Dated colluvial layers served as additional indicators for phases of local soil erosion following forest clearances. The onset of mining activities in the late 12th century was contemporary with the start of charcoal production and soil erosion. While Abies alba was prevalent among the timbers from the main construction phase around AD 1270/1280, Fagus sylvatica was the most frequently occurring wood in the oldest charcoal kilns from the mid-13th century. The latter declined during the 13th century in favour of taxa like Betula , Corylus and Acer . Supported by the evidence of massive soil erosion, this may reflect changes in forest composition induced by highly intensive use or shifts of the areas used for wood exploitation. Whereas mining ceased in the area shortly after AD 1291, charcoal production continued during the 14th and 15th century and the rising proportion of Abies alba is discussed to be related to a lessened local demand of this species for timber. The rising share of Picea during the younger phases probably resulted from changes in selective forest exploitation rather than mirroring vegetation changes. After a hiatus, a last phase of charcoal production is identified to have occurred during the mid-16th century, again with a high share of Fagus sylvatica as fuel wood.

This paper presents the dynamics of sedimentation processes and soil development of a steeply sloping 0-order catchment in the sandy Lower Bunter of the south-western mid-range mountains in the Palatinate Forest (Germany) during the transition period from the Late Glacial to the Early Holocene. Field investigations, chemical, physical, micromorphological and anthracological analyses revealed a complex palaeosol-sediment sequence along the thalweg of a dry valley, where a significant amount of the sediment from the adjacent slopes had been captured. The deposition of aeolian sands in the lowermost sediment layer took place in the early Late Glacial. The subsequent sediments were deposited by slope-wash and aeolian processes. It contains a higher amount of silt and dates from the Allerod. The occurrence of Laacher See Tephra (LST) indicates that this sediment has been near the surface around 12,900 cal. BP. It also shows characteristics of palaeosols similar to the Usselo/Finow soils in north-eastern Germany. In the overlying material, the amount of root remnants, other organic matter and rounded bone fragments possibly indicates the presence of people in this area. On top, alternating reddish brown, coarse to fine sand and small, partly rounded stones with some small intercalated aggregations of humic material rich in charcoal dating to between 11,000 and 12,000 cal. BP were deposited. The layers are overlain by clearly visible and evenly distributed wavy clay-illuviation bands typical for a Luvisol. In the upper metre, a Cambisol has developed. The sediment structure shows typical features of a flash-flood event in the Preboreal. The stratigraphy suggests that phases of sedimentation caused by water and aeolian erosion took place in the Allerod, Younger Dryas, and Preboreal. Discussion considers climate driven natural processes as well as the possibility that the manipulation of forest vegetation by fire through sedentary Mesolithic hunter–gatherer groups created open areas and enabled intensive soil erosion at a local scale.

Traditionally Mesolithic hunter–gatherer cultures are supposed to have lived in a primeval forest environment with a closed vegetation cover during the Early and Mid-Holocene. It is not until the onset of subsequent Neolithic agricultural societies that the development of more expansive open areas is assumed. Therefore our perception of the Mesolithic economy in the European lowlands is highly affected by the idaea of adaptation to dense forest environments and a very stable system of resource exploitation. However, recent palaeoenvironmental studies provide evidence that areas of open landscapes must have existed at least temporarily during the Mesolithic and evoke the question whether human impact may be accountable for this. Re-activation of Late Glacial inland dunes may serve as an indicator for vegetation clearances. Using both optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and 14 C-dates from five inland dune sites with traces of Mesolithic activity in the Elbe–Jeetzel-area (N-Germany) we prove that asynchronous events of aeolian sedimentation persisted during the Mesolithic, especially during the older Mesolithic around 9000 a and the late Mesolithic from 7000 a and 6000 a. There is no evidence that Holocene climatic deteriorations like the 8.2 ka event had an effect on the intensity of aeolian sedimentation. We conclude that either natural factors or Mesolithic human impact or most likely a combination of both must have been a major driving force for the creation of open areas and thus ongoing aeolian activity while supra-regional climatic causes seem less probable. A prominent younger phase of human induced aeolian activity was identified during the Late Neolithic.

Mechanisms of climatic control on river system development are still only partially known. Palaeohydrological investigations from river valleys often lack a precise chronological control of climatic processes and fluvial dynamics, which is why their specific forces remain unclear. In this multidisciplinary case study from the middle Elbe river valley (northern Germany) multiple dating of sites (palynostratigraphy, radiocarbon- and OSL-dating) and high-resolution analyses of environmental and climatological proxies (pollen, plant macro-remains and ostracods) reveal a continuous record of the environmental and fluvial history from the Lateglacial to the early Holocene. Biostratigraphical correlation to northwest European key sites shows that river system development was partially out of phase with the main climatic shifts. The transition from a braided to an incised channel system predated the main phase of Lateglacial warming (∼14.6 ka BP), and the meandering river did not change its drainage pattern during the cooling of the Younger-Dryas period. Environmental reconstructions suggest that river dynamics were largely affected by vegetation cover, as a vegetation cover consisting of herbs, dwarf-shrubs and a few larger shrubs seems to have developed before the onset of the main Lateglacial warming, and pine forests appear to have persisted in the river valley during the Younger Dryas. In addition, two phases of high fluvial activity and new channel incision during the middle part of the Younger Dryas and during the Boreal were correlated with changes from dry towards wet climatic conditions, as indicated by evident lake level rises. Lateglacial human occupation in the river valley, which is shown by numerous Palaeolithic sites, forming one of the largest settlement areas of that period known in the European Plain, is assigned to the specific fluvial and environmental conditions of the early Allerod.