Beyond lake villages. Archaeological excavations and paleoecologal analysis at Lake Burgäschi/Switzerland.

In 2015 started the international research project “Beyond lake villages: Studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact at small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.” (University of Bern in collaboration with Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Würtemberg and University of Vienna, funding: SNF-DFG-FFW). Three archaeological and three palaeoecological teams work together on three small lakes on the Northern side of the Alps. The aim is to compare environmental changes and human impact of Neolithic societies. The Swiss study area is Lake Burgäschi, a small water body in the central part of the Swiss Midlands. Archaeological research started already in 1877 and several major excavation campaigns took place in the 1940ies and 1950ies. Up to now four settlement of the 4th millennium BC areas are known and single finds indicate settlement activities during the 5th and 3rd millennia BC. The presentation gives an overview on former and recent activities in one of the classic find spots of Swiss pile-dwellings research. A special focus will be put on new archaeological and palaeoecological results

Vegetational and agricultural dynamics at Burgäschisee (Swiss Plateau) recorded for 18,700 years by multi-proxy evidence from partly varved sediments

Little is known about the timing and the vegetation dynamics shortly after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) on the Swiss Plateau 19,000–15,000 cal BP. Subsequent Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation changes are better known; however, it is unclear if the few available palynological and macrofossil records are able to capture the entire vegetation variability of the region. A new palaeoecological multi-proxy study using pollen, spores, charcoal and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) from Burgäschisee (Swiss Plateau, 465 m a.s.l.) is applied to reconstruct vegetation, fire and land use for the past 19,000 cal years. Steppe tundra vegetation established at c. 18,700 cal BP only c. 300 years after the end of the LGM and deglaciation. A shift from steppe tundra (Artemisia, Helianthemum) to shrub tundra (Betula nana, Salix, Juniperus) with sporadic tree Betula stands occurred around 16,000 cal BP, most likely in response to climate warming after the end of Heinrich event 1. Abundant spores of coprophilous fungi (Sporormiella, Cercophora) may reflect the presence of Pleistocene large herbivores (e.g. Mammuthus primigenius, Bison bonasus, Rangifer tarandus). Afforestation started more than 2,000 years later with Juniperus and tree Betula around 14,500 cal BP. Mixed Betula and Pinus sylvestris forests persisted until 10,800 cal BP, when mixed elm forests expanded into the region in response to climate warming. Around 8,200 cal BP, mesophilous Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba partly replaced more heliophilous species in the forests, when climate became less continental and more moist. Pollen of Cerealia, Plantago lanceolata and other crops and weeds suggest that agricultural activities became significant during the Neolithic around 6,500 cal BP (4550 cal BC). Archaeological findings from Neolithic pile dwellings around 5,950 cal BP (4000 cal BC) indicate local settlements around the lake. The lake sediments are laminated for most of the last c. 6,800 years. With two independent proxies (XRF and pollen), we can demonstrate that these laminations are annual, suggesting short-term mixing of the lake water due to a more open landscape in response to land use. Our study shows that the annually laminated (varved) sediments from Burgäschisee have a great potential for high-resolution multi-proxy analyses covering the past c. 6,800 years. They can provide accurate ages of cultural phases that might be compared with dendrochronologically dated evidence from lake dwellings

Archaeological and palaeoecological investigations at Burgäschisee (Swiss Plateau): new interdisciplinary insights in Neolithic settlement, land use and vegetation dynamics

The prehistoric lake dwellings of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria have been known for more than 150 years. Of these, 111 were awarded UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status in 2011. Mainly dating from the Neolithic (including the Chalcolithic or Copper Age) and the Bronze Age, lacustrine settlements represent an early phase of sedentarisation in the northern foothills of the Alps. Despite much significant research on the material culture, settlement dynamics, economy, and ecology, the focus has hitherto almost exclusively been on the classic sites situated on the larger northern pre-Alpine lakes in the so-called Three Lakes region of western Switzerland and on the Lakes of Geneva, Zurich, and Constance. The international and interdisciplinary research project ’Beyond lake villages: studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact on small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria’ was launched in 2015 and is jointly funded by the Swiss (SNF), German (DFG), and Austrian (FWF) National Science Foundations. Research teams in prehistoric archaeology and palaeoecology from the universities of Bern, Basel, Vienna, and Innsbruck as well as the cultural heritage management authorities of the German State of Baden-Württemberg and the Swiss Cantons of Bern and Solothurn are concentrating their efforts on three Neolithic settlement areas on the Swiss Plateau, the German Westallgäu, and the Austrian Salzkammergut. Research is focused on small, deep lakes and their immediate surroundings, with the aim of obtaining new highresolution data on the natural environment and human impact on the landscape. Our ongoing palaeoecological investigations have confirmed that small, deep lakes such as Burgäschisee and Moossee in Switzerland preserve laminated annual sediments that have enormous potential for generating high-resolution, diachronic data on vegetation, palaeoclimate, and human impact. Through the integration of wetland archaeology and palaeoecology, we hope to generate new data and models that will help to understand the variability of human impact on landscapes, especially the environmental interactions of Neolithic societies in the circum-Alpine region. The overall aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of large-scale processes of adaptation and anthropogenic impact over time