Application of Infrared Spectroscopy Techniques for Identification of Ancient Vegetation and Soil Change on Loess Areas

The discussion on the formation of Chernozems still has no consensus, and one of the outstanding questions is the type of the vegetation that supported the persistence of these soils in Central Europe over the Holocene period. The transformation of Chernozems and related soil types may be clarified by paleoenvironmental studies, which integrate different investigation techniques and proxy data. We propose a procedure based on infrared reflectance spectroscopy of soil organic matter, that presumably contains specific fingerprints from land use and plant cover. A database of spectra for 337 samples representing vegetation classes (grassland, woodland and arable) and loess soil types (Chernozem, Phaeozem, Luvisol) was created to build a mathematical model, which allows to identify the origin of buried soils with unknown history. The comparison confirmed the applicability of both near-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy, with higher statistical affinity of MIR. A clear disjunction of land use/vegetation classes was proven and allowed reliable association of the samples from buried soils with grassland/woodland and episodes of arable land use, followed by prevailing forest vegetation after burial. The findings are consistent with proposed models in Poland and Czechia, and confirm the potential of spectroscopy techniques in identification of soil types and their evolution

Lacustrine, fluvial and slope deposits in the wetland shore area in Serteya, Western Russia

The article presents the results of a study on sediment deposition processes in the palaeolake shore zone, at the multilayered Serteya II archaeological site in Western Russia. In recent years, geomorphological, palaeopedological and palaeoecological research was undertaken in strict cooperation with archaeological fieldwork. The Serteya II site occupies a substantial area of a kame terrace and biogenic plain within a palaeolake basin. From an archaeological point of view, the site is represented by few Mesolithic artefacts, but mostly by remnants of hunter–gatherer–fisher communities attributed in the Russian scientific tradition to the Neolithic period and dated from 6300 BC to 2000 BC. Later, the area was used by people in the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. The integration of archaeological and multidisciplinary palaeoenvironmental research allowed the natural and human induced deposition of mineral-organic and minerogenic sediments to be reconstructed, as well as the development of structures in the lake shore zone. The changes from lacustrine to fluvial system were documented and the human impact is recorded mostly in the acceleration of slope processes