Palaeoecological data indicates land-use changes across Europe linked to spatial heterogeneity in mortality during the Black Death pandemic

The Black Death (1347–1352 CE) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, ‘big data palaeoecology’, which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death’s mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of the population, upwards of half, died within a few years in the 21 historical regions we studied. While we can confirm that the Black Death had a devastating impact in some regions, we found that it had negligible or no impact in others. These inter-regional differences in the Black Death’s mortality across Europe demonstrate the significance of cultural, ecological, economic, societal and climatic factors that mediated the dissemination and impact of the disease. The complex interplay of these factors, along with the historical ecology of plague, should be a focus of future research on historical pandemics.The authors acknowledge the following funding sources: Max Planck Independent Research Group, Palaeo-Science and History Group (A.I., A.M. and C.V.); Estonian Research Council #PRG323, PUT1173 (A.Pos., T.R., N.S. and S.V.); European Research Council #FP7 263735 (A.Bro. and A.Plu.), #MSC 655659 (A.E.); Georgetown Environmental Initiative (T.N.); Latvian Council of Science #LZP-2020/2-0060 (N.S. and N.J.); LLNL-JRNL-820941 (I.T.); NSF award #GSS-1228126 (S.M.); Polish-Swiss Research Programme #013/2010 CLIMPEAT (M.Lam.), #086/2010 CLIMPOL (A.W.); Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education #N N306 275635 (M.K.); Polish National Science Centre #2019/03/X/ST10/00849 (M.Lam.), #2015/17/B/ST10/01656 (M.Lam.), #2015/17/B/ST10/03430 (M.Sło.), #2018/31/B/ST10/02498 (M.Sło.), #N N304 319636 (A.W.); SCIEX #12.286 (K.Mar.); Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness #REDISCO-HAR2017-88035-P (J.A.L.S.); Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports #FPU16/00676 (R.L.L.); Swedish Research Council #421-2010-1570 (P.L.), #2018-01272 (F.C.L. and A.S.); Volkswagen Foundation Freigeist Fellowship Dantean Anomaly (M.B.), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation #RTI2018-101714-B-I00 (F.A.S. and D.A.S.), OP RDE, MEYS project #CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000728 (P.P.)Peer reviewe

Characteristics of depositional environments of Czechowskie Lake basin and its vicinity

W artykule przedstawiono przegląd badań nad morfogenezą misy jeziornej Jeziora Czechowskiego na Pojezierzu Starogardzkim. W dostępnych odsłonięciach, wkopach i wierceniach o nienaruszonej strukturze przeprowadzono analizę sedymentologiczną osadów glacjofluwialnych, glacjolimnicznych, limnicznych i stokowych. Wyniki tej analizy uzupełniono rezultatami kartowania geologicznego i geomorfologicznego. W efekcie przeprowadzonych prac stwierdzono, że misa jeziora założona jest w głębokiej rynnie subglacjalnej, która do początku allerødu zakonserwowana była bryłami martwego lodu. Ich wytopienie doprowadziło do powstania zróżnicowanej morfologii dna rynny. W najgłębszych miejscach, dzięki ograniczonej miksji, były warunki do zachowania rocznej laminacji osadów dennych. Sedymentacja osadów glacjofluwialnych w otoczeniu rynny była bardzo zróżnicowana i w wielu miejscach wskazuje na warunki przepływu nadkrytycznego. W przypowierzchniowej warstwie osadów sandrowych stwierdzono ślady zapisu procesów mrozowych (gleby mrozowe) oraz wytrącenia węglanowe wskazujące na występowanie warunków peryglacjalnych po zaprzestaniu przepływu proglacjalnego. Osady limniczne są również zróżnicowane w zależności od cech morfometrycznych basenu sedymentacyjnego, a przede wszystkim od głębokości ich depozycji. Osady stokowe pochodzą w większości z ostatnich dwustu lat, a ich depozycja nastąpiła wskutek działalności gospodarczej człowieka.The paper aims to review the investigations on the genesis of the Czechowskie Lake basin (Starogard Lakeland, north-central Poland). The sedimentological analysis of the glaciofluvial, glaciolimnic, limnic and colluvial deposits have been conducted in the outcrops, pits and boreholes with undisturbed cores. They were supplemented by the results of the geological and geomorphological mapping. Summing up the investigations it can be stated that the lake basin developed within a deep subglacial channel which was preserved by the dead ice blocks till the onset of the Allerød. Their melting led to the emergence of a morphologically diversified lake basin. The conditions in its deepest parts, due to hampered mixing and wave action, favoured the preservation of the annually laminated sediments. The glaciofluvial deposition in the vicinity of the lake was diverse and in many places it indicates the supercritical condition of the water flow. Within the near-surface layer of outwash deposits were recognized the traces of the periglacial processes and calcareous precipitates which indicate short glaciolimnic periods or breaks in sedimentation. The limnic sediments are also diversified and dependent on the morphometric features of the sedimentary basin, mostly the depth of the deposition. Colluvial deposits have originated mostly in the last 200 years as a consequence of the transient deforestation of the surrounding area