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Wood usage and its influence on the environment from the Neolithic until the Iron Age: a case study of the graves at Flintbek (Schleswig–Holstein, Northern Germany)

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Abstract

The investigated area near Flintbek (Schleswig–Holstein, Northern Germany) was used as a burial ground from the Neolithic until the Iron Age. Due to modern agriculture, the above-ground funerary monuments have been destroyed. Rescue excavations from 1976 to 1996 recovered the archaeological remains. In addition to the archaeological reassessment of the findings, further scientific analyses were carried out. The results of the charcoal analyses are presented in this paper. The overall spectrum of wood species represents the typical species composition of mixed oak forests. Over the whole investigated time span (Neolithic–Iron Age) these species alternate with a second group of taxa: species benefiting from better light conditions. In times of intensive human impact, these light-demanding taxa gained considerable importance, showing the opening of the wooded landscape. In phases with less human impact, a regeneration of mixed oak forest is detectable. For the Neolithic it was possible to develop a more detailed picture of wood usage based on 162 radiocarbon dates of 106 samples. These illustrate considerable changes during the Neolithic, which resulted in a varied pattern of open land and closed forest influenced by human presence and land use. Another important aspect of the Flintbek area is the handling of samples deriving from different contexts. While charcoal samples related to fire usage or grave constructions contain only slight contamination, samples from fillings (pits, burial layers) are characterized by charcoal dating being either too old or even too young for the archaeological context.

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Acknowledgments

This research is funded by a grant awarded to Doris Jansen from the Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes” at the University of Kiel, financed through the DFG (German Research Foundation). The Post-Doc project “Flintbek and the Neolithic societies of middle and northern Europe” carried out by Doris Mischka was also financed by the DFG. For proofreading and correction of English we thank Eileen Kücükkaraca. We would like to thank Thomas Ludemann and Julian Wiethold for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palaeoecology Research Group, Institute for Ecosystem Research, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Doris Jansen & Oliver Nelle

  2. Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes”, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Doris Jansen & Oliver Nelle

  3. Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christians-Albrechts-University of Kiel, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Doris Mischka

  4. Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Doris Mischka

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  1. Doris Jansen
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Correspondence to Doris Jansen.

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Communicated by K.-E. Behre.

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Jansen, D., Mischka, D. & Nelle, O. Wood usage and its influence on the environment from the Neolithic until the Iron Age: a case study of the graves at Flintbek (Schleswig–Holstein, Northern Germany). Veget Hist Archaeobot 22, 335–349 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-012-0386-7

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