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Five millennia of human-environment interactions reconstructed from pedosedimentary archives of the Lac du Puy wetland (Corent, Fr.).
- Source :
-
CATENA . Dec2020, Vol. 195, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- • Geoarchaeological study of a pedosedimentary archive in a protohistoric wetland. • Human activities drove local environmental evolution over five millennia. • Neolithic anthropogenic erosion contributed to degrade Early Holocene andic soils. • Bronze Age agro-pastoral land use induced development of reducing conditions. • Iron Age activities led to strong environmental impact and backfill of the basin. This paper presents a multi-proxy geoarchaeological analysis of the complex pedo-sedimentary archives of a small pond situated within the protohistoric site of Corent, in central France. A robust chrono-stratigraphic framework was developed integrating all chronological data from previous studies. Micromorphological, geochemical and sedimentological analyses were performed on a radiocarbon-dated core. Results are discussed alongside palynological data from previous work on the same core, in order to reconstruct human-environmental interactions on the Corent volcanic plateau since the Neolithic. After intense soil erosion recorded during the Early and Middle Neolithic, the Late Neolithic is characterized by vegetation recovery and soil stability in the basin contemporaneous with site abandonment, perhaps due to pronounced soil degradation in the plateau. During the Early Bronze Age, agropastoral land use contributed to major environmental changes in the pond's basin, including soil profile sealing and gleyfication. Environmental impact patterns detected in the pedo-sedimentary record indicate settlement intensification during the Middle Bronze Age. After the substantial impacts of an intense anthropogenic disturbance in the Early Iron Age, the Lac du Puy becomes a vertic depression recurrently flooded while a late Iron Age Gallic oppidum develops on the plateau, and is finally backfilled at the end of the Iron Age. The detailed multi-proxy picture from this intra-urban wetland helps nuance our understanding of the environmental impacts of prehistoric societies in Western Europe. Indeed, our results highlight the importance of keeping a long term perspective when dealing with past human-environment interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 03418162
- Volume :
- 195
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- CATENA
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 146323863
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104908