Middle and late Holocene vegetation and landscape evolution of the Scheldt estuary : a palynological study of a peat deposit from Doel (Belgium)

Local and regional environmental conditions for the south-eastern Scheldt estuary during the middle and late Holocene period have been reconstructed based on pollen analysis, loss-on-ignition and radiocarbon dating of a sediment core from Doe (N-Belgium) and the comparison with existing data from other sites from the same region. Postglacial relative sea level rise resulted in the formation of alder carr vegetation in the lower parts of the landscape from c. 7640 cal BP onwards. The vegetation succession was weakly influenced by the deposition of tidal clay deposits between c. 6550 and 5650 a cal BP and eventually culminated in the development of an oligotrophic bog. Peat accumulation seems to have ceased between c. 2030 and 1220 a cal BP, well before it was covered by marine sediments in the late Middle Ages

Inventarisatie van het paleo-ecologisch bodemarchief voor archeologisch onderzoek en bescherming

In recent years palaeoecological research has gained a lot of interest within the field of archaeology. It is used for the reconstruction of the past environment as well as for studying the interaction between man and his environment during (pre)historic times. Also in matters of nature conservation and development palaeoecological research enjoys more and more attention, for establishing reference images and insight in landscape and vegetation history. Moreover, nowadays people become aware of the fact that the palaeoecological natural archive is vulnerable and threatened. For these reasons the need was felt for a systematic overview of all the palynological research in Flanders, published and unpublished, from both archaeological sites and natural sequences. Up to now this database comprises 35 sites and 0 radiocarbon dates. Goals were to make the palynological data available for wider use and to preserve palynologicaly experience and knowledge. In addition some ideas for the management of places with a high palaeoecological potential have been outlined. The cases of the Mark valley and the Kale valley have further been explored for actual conservation and protection of the natural site

Neolithic pottery finds at the wetland site of Bazel-Kruibeke (Flanders, Belgium): evidence of long-distance forager-farmer contact during the late 6th and 5th millennium cal BC in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt area

The salvage excavation of the wetland site of Bazel-Kruibeke yielded the first firm evidence of forager-farmer contact in the Scheldt valley already from the late LBK onwards. From then on contact most likely gradually increased leading to a piecemeal introduction of Neolithic commodities and knowledge. Around the middle of the 5th millennium cal BC the technique of pottery production and very likely also stock-breeding were adopted from contemporaneous farmer communities in the loess belonging to the (Epi-)Rossen tradition. At the transition from the 5th to the 4th millennium cal BC exchange with the Michelsberg/Spiere group culture led to an almost complete acculturation of these local communities probably also involving the introduction of agriculture in the Lower Scheldt basin