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This study provides a high-resolution reconstruction of the vegetation of the Argive Plain (Peloponnese, Greece) covering 5000 years from the Early Bronze Age onwards. The well dated pollen record from ancient Lake Lerna has been interpreted in the light of archaeological and historical sources, climatic data from the same core and other regional proxies. Our results demonstrate a significant degree of human impact on the environments of the Argive Plain throughout the study period. During the Early Bronze Age evidence of a thermophilous vegetation is seen in the pollen record, representing the mixed deciduous oak woodland of the Peloponnesian uplands. The plain was mainly used for the cultivation of cereals, whereas local fen conditions prevailed at the coring site. Towards the end of this period an increasing water table is recorded and the fen turns into a lake, despite more arid conditions. In the Late Bronze Age, the presence of important palatial centres modified the landscape resulting in decrease of mixed deciduous oak woodland and increase in open land, partly used for grazing. Possibly, the human management produced a permanent hydrological change at Lake Lerna. From the Archaic period onwards the increasing human pressure in association with local drier conditions caused landscape instability, as attested by a dramatic alluvial event recorded in the Pinus curve at the end of the Hellenistic Age. Wet conditions coincided with Roman times and favoured a forest regeneration pattern in the area, at the same time as we see the most intensive olive cultivation in the pollen record. The establishment of an economic landscape primarily based on pastures is recorded in the Byzantine period and continues until modern times. Overgrazing and fires in combination with arid conditions likely caused degradation of the vegetation into garrigue, as seen in the area of the Argive Plain today., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Using diatoms, pollen, and geochemistry, we explore human habitation around Lina myr, Gotland, in relation to shore displacement. Archeological evidence has shown that Lina myr was an important area for its prehistoric human inhabitants. We investigate if and when Lina myr was connected to the sea and could therefore have been part of an inland water system useful for transport. A chronology was based on 14C AMS dating of terrestrial macrofossils and bulk sediments with dates ranging between 9100 and 2360 cal. yr BP. The initiation of the Littorina transgression was dated to 8500 cal. yr BP. A twofold pattern for the maximum sub-phase of the Littorina Sea is suggested from 8100 to 7500 cal. yr BP and from 6500 to 6000 cal. yr BP. The onset of cultivation and grazing was indicated by the presence of Hordeum and Plantago lanceolata in the pollen record during the Late Neolithic, at about 4580 cal. yr BP. During this time sea level was relatively higher than today and the Lina myr basin was connected with the Littorina Sea, which it continued to be until isostatic uplift caused it to become isolated at about 3820 cal. yr BP. After about 3000 cal. yr BP, human-made landscape changes intensified, grasslands increased, and shrublands decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]