Chemical analysis of pottery demonstrates prehistoric origin for high-altitude alpine dairying

The European high Alps are internationally renowned for their dairy produce, which are of huge cultural and economic significance to the region. Although the recent history of alpine dairying has been well studied, virtually nothing is known regarding the origins of this practice. This is due to poor preservation of high altitude archaeological sites and the ephemeral nature of transhumance economic practices. Archaeologists have suggested that stone structures that appear around 3,000 years ago are associated with more intense seasonal occupation of the high Alps and perhaps the establishment of new economic strategies. Here, we report on organic residue analysis of small fragments of pottery sherds that are occasionally preserved both at these sites and earlier prehistoric rock-shelters. Based mainly on isotopic criteria, dairy lipids could only be identified on ceramics from the stone structures, which date to the Iron Age (ca. 3,000 - 2,500 BP), providing the earliest evidence of this practice in the high Alps. Dairy production in such a marginal environment implies a high degree of risk even by today’s standards. We postulate that this practice was driven by population increase and climate deterioration that put pressure on lowland agropastoral systems and the establishment of more extensive trade networks, leading to greater demand for highly nutritious and transportable dairy products

High impact: early pastoralism and environmental change during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Silvretta Alps (Switzerland/Austria) as evidenced by archaeological, palaeoecological and pedological proxies

The beginnings of the continuous human presence and of pastoral activities in the high mountainous region of Central Europe have recently become a frequently discussed topic in both archaeology and palaeoecology. In extreme environments such as the high Alpine main ridge and adjacent areas, highly adaptive subsistence strategies were required to exploit natural resources available in the subalpine and alpine zones. Such strategies were determined by changing environmental, social, and economic conditions. To investigate the relationships between settlement dynamics, human impact, and Holocene climatic changes, we studied the valleys of the Silvretta Massif in the central Eastern Alps between the Paznaun(Austria) and Lower Engadine valleys (Switzerland). We are presenting new archaeological, palaeoecological, and pedological evidence of continuous human activities from the Early Neolithic Period to the Bronze Age (~ 5,500–800 BC). This evidence sheds new light on the beginnings of intensified human impact on the high mountainous landscape, i.e. activities beyond Mesolithic hunting along the timberline. Archaeological data suggest a shift in subsistence strategies from hunting to herding at the end of the Neolithic Period (~ 2,800–2,500 BC). While palaeoecological data confirm this trend, they also indicate potentially earlier human and livestock impact through forest clearances by fire and grazing from about 4,200 BC onwards. In addition to archaeological sites and peat bogs, soils in high-altitude regions prove to be appropriate archives indicating former vegetation cover, shifts of timberline altitudes as well as disturbance of soil formation by human activity such as by slash-and-burn and by livestock grazing.Palaeobotan

Vegetation history, landscape development, and archaeology of the Lower Engadine, Switzerland

Bioarchaeolog

Steady transformation of primeval forest into subalpine pasture during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (2300−1700 BC) in the Silvretta Alps, Switzerland

The question of the origin of Alpine farming and pastoral activities associated with seasonal vertical transhumance and dairy production in the Silvretta Alps (Eastern Switzerland) has recently benefitted from renewed interest. There, pastoral practises began during the Late Neolithic (2300 BC), but alpine dairy farming was directly evidenced so far only since the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (1300–500 BC). The vegetation development, timberline shifts at 2280 m a.s.l. and environmental conditions of the subalpine Urschai Valley (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland) were reconstructed for the small (8 m2) Plan da Mattun fen based on palynological and geochemical analyses for the last six millennia. The X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses are among the first ones performed on a European peatland in such altitudes. A high Rb/Sr ratio in the fen peat sediments revealed an increase in catchment erosion during the time when the forests of the Upper Urschai Valley were steadily diminished probably by fire and livestock impact (2300–1700 BC). These landscape openings were paralleled by increasing micro-charcoal influx values, suggesting that prehistoric people actively set fire on purpose. Simultaneously, palynological evidence for pastoralism was revealed, such as pollen from typical herbs indicating livestock trampling, and abundant spores from coprophilous fungi. Since then, vertical transhumance and pastoral activities remained responsible for the open subalpine landscape above 2000 m a.s.l., most probably also in the context of milk and dairy production since 1300 BC, which is characteristic for the European Alps until today.European Prehistor

Testing the Effect of Relative Pollen Productivity on the REVEALS Model: A Validated Reconstruction of Europe-Wide Holocene Vegetation

Reliable quantitative vegetation reconstructions for Europe during the Holocene are crucial to improving our understanding of landscape dynamics, making it possible to assess the past effects of environmental variables and land-use change on ecosystems and biodiversity, and mitigating their effects in the future. We present here the most spatially extensive and temporally continuous pollen-based reconstructions of plant cover in Europe (at a spatial resolution of 1 degrees x 1 degrees) over the Holocene (last 11.7 ka BP) using the 'Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites' (REVEALS) model. This study has three main aims. First, to present the most accurate and reliable generation of REVEALS reconstructions across Europe so far. This has been achieved by including a larger number of pollen records compared to former analyses, in particular from the Mediterranean area. Second, to discuss methodological issues in the quantification of past land cover by using alternative datasets of relative pollen productivities (RPPs), one of the key input parameters of REVEALS, to test model sensitivity. Finally, to validate our reconstructions with the global forest change dataset. The results suggest that the RPPs.st1 (31 taxa) dataset is best suited to producing regional vegetation cover estimates for Europe. These reconstructions offer a long-term perspective providing unique possibilities to explore spatial-temporal changes in past land cover and biodiversity