Archaeobotanical and isotopic analyses of waterlogged remains from the Neolithic pile- dwelling site of Zug-Riedmatt (Switzerland): Resilience strategies of a plant economy in a changing local environment

The excellent preservation of the waterlogged botanical remains of the multiphase Neolithic pile-dwelling site of Zug-Riedmatt (Central Switzerland) yielded an ideal dataset to delve into the issue of plant economy of a community spanning several decades. The study identi- fied a major change in crops where oil plants played a key role in the site's initial phase before being supplanted over the course of a few decades by naked wheat, barley and pea. Wild plants continued to be gathered albeit in different proportions. In the latest settlement phase, the changes in the local vegetation and in the values of the analyses of carbon stable isotopes suggest a less humid environment. The hypothesis is that the changes perceived in the plant economy represent a resilience strategy adopted by the inhabitants in reaction to short term local climatic alterations. The two types of soil sampling techniques (monolith and bulk) allowed comparing these results. While the density of plant remains appears to be underestimated among the samples collected by the monolith technique, the proportions of economic taxa remain unaffected. The findings thus reveal that when the bulk samplings are distributed carefully throughout multiphase sites and avoid mixing stratigraphical units, and if the samplings are representative of all archaeological features from a whole area, then each of the two techniques offer analogous results

On-site data cast doubts on the hypothesis of shifting cultivation in the Late Neolithic (c. 4300-2400 cal. BC): Landscape management as an alternative paradigm

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

Testing of the consistency of the sieving (wash-over) process of waterlogged sediments by multiple operators

The sieving process has a considerable influence on the later retrieved archaeobotanical data. As known from earlier works the wash-over method is the most suitable method to extract plant macroremains from waterlogged sediments. In this paper, it was tested by an experiment if different sievers using this method produced comparable results. Even with identical instructions, some differences between sievers were found in the larger fractions ≥2mm, namely the varying presence of small remains. We propose guidelines for counting remains so that this problem can be avoided. In the small fraction <0,35mm, differences were not that substantial anymore. In addition to differences caused by the sieving technique we could also show that the patchy pattern of clumpy waterlogged sediments complicates a statistically relevant subsampling. All in all, we can state, that only large differences between samples should be interpreted in palaeoeconomic terms. It is our purpose to raise awareness of the fact that the methodology has a strong impact on the results obtained and should therefore always be revealed on a detailed level, especially if data from one site will later be used for comparisons with other sites

Languedoc lagoon environments and Man : building a modern analogue database for understanding sedimentation dynamics at the port city of Lattara (Lattes, France)

International audienc

Subsampling of large-volume samples in waterlogged sediments. A time-saving strategy or a source of error?

For the archaeobotanical analysis of waterlogged sediments, which are usually very rich in organic remains, subsampling is often necessary. Subsampling strategies for this kind of material are mostly based on non-empirical experience and have rarely been tested. In this paper, we compare results from small-volume subsamples with those from the large-volume residue of the master sample subsamples were drawn from. The extra-variability caused by lumpiness of the unprocessed waterlogged sediment was quantified in order to find out how much the necessary sample sizes need to increase for this type of sediment. We found that subsampling of unprocessed waterlogged material in general should only be done if it is indispensable, as it can introduce a bias. We propose methods to adapt sample sizes based on random sampling for unprocessed waterlogged sediment (where random sampling is impossible) so that the proportions or also the diversity of plant species can be estimated with sufficient precision in these sediments. However, it would be best to use an appropriate sieving method first and then subsample the processed residues of the material. We also think that it is important to clearly present the methods used for subsampling in publications and that more detailed tests about subsampling should be performed

Quantitative approximation to large-seeded wild fruit use in a late Neolithic lake dwelling. The case study of layer 13 of Parkhaus-Opéra in Zürich (Central Switzerland)

A specific sediment sampling strategy was applied to a late Neolithic settlement phase (dendrodated to around 3160 BC) in the pile-dwelling site of Parkhaus Opéra (Zürich, Switzerland). It consisted in a systematic collection of over 2100 large-volume samples (3–10 L) in an area of ∼3000 m2, of which 255 were selected for archaeobotanical analysis. Over 80,000 plant macroremains of large size (>2 mm) were recovered and a rich assemblage of large-seeded wild fruits was evaluated. Hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.), acorns (Quercus sp.), apples/pears (Malus/Pyrus), sloes (Prunus spinosa L.), wild rose fruits (Rosa sp.), beech nuts (Fagus sp.) and wayfaring tree fruits (Viburnum lantana L.) were among the most frequently and abundantly gathered and consumed wild fruits at the settlement. Three methods of quantification were used to evaluate their importance in the economy taking into account the samples retrieved from 16 fully excavated structures: total average density of fruit items, total estimated amount of fruits, and their calorific contribution. The estimation of the caloric importance of large-seeded wild fruits depends on assumptions on taphonomic biases. A first estimation suggested that they probably provided between 1.5% and 15% of the total calorific input by the settlement's inhabitants

Corrigendum to “Quantitative approximation to large-seeded wild fruit use in a late Neolithic lake dwelling. The case study of layer 13 of Parkhaus-Opéra in Zürich (Central Switzerland)”[Quat. Int. 404 (2016) 56-68]

In this publication we presented erroneous calculations for the total amount of extrapolated fruit remains per house. This affected small parts of the text in chapters 3.4, 3.5, 4.3, as well as punctual references to the main result of the paper (mainly concerning the percentage of the total yearly calories represented by large-seeded wild fruits), mentioned in the conclusions and the abstract, and also several figures: Table 5, Table 6, Table 7 and Fig. 5. Only changes in the text are presented here, along with the corrected images