Wielka historia w małym mokradle: złożone relacje człowiek-środowisko na Nizinie Wschodnioeuropejskiej w ciągu ostatnich 13 tysięcy lat - OPUS 21 UMO-2021/41/B/HS3/00042 (dataset)

Abstract

The subject of the planned research is the reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental conditions in the Western Dvina Lakeland, a part of the East European (Russian) Plain, as a basis for the study on human-environment relationships in the last 13,000 years. The multi-proxy analysis are performed based on organic deposits core collected from the small peat bog in Serteya. This geoarchive allow for detailed reconstructions of the natural history, including climate, vegetation hydrological changes. The proposed research is focused on broadening knowledge on the palaeoenvironmental evolution and reconstructing environmental conditions accompanying the human occupation, and the human-environment relationships in the Late Vistulian and the Holocene. Due to the long period of the dominance of subsistence strategy in the territory (at least up to 4000 BP), our results will allow for detailed study: 1/ on natural palaeoenvironmental evolution, 2/ human-environment relationships in the period of hunter-gatherer economy dominance. The intense archaeological research is realised for of the Serteya area resulted in documentation of over 60 archaeological sites, mostly seasonal and permanent settlements of hunter-gatherer groups from the Stone Age. Precise identification of the time of occupation of the study area and description of the introduced forms of management and changes in ecosystems resulting from human activity will be an important aim. It will be also significant to determine the palaeoclimatic and palaeohydrological conditions in East European Plain.

Methodology of the research project The proposed project will be based on multidisciplinary multi-proxy studies of the 13.5 m organic deposits core from the central part of the Serteya peat bog, with the mean rate of accumulation estimated to ca. 1 m for 1 thousand year. The main stages of the study: 1/ the detailed chronology of deposits based on AMS 14C dating and tephrochronology; 2/ change in the vegetation structure and regional fire history analysed with: pollen, plant macrofossils and charcoal analyses; 3/ the response of the natural environment to changes in the plant structure in the light of quantitative reconstructions (the water level and trophic fluctuations); 4/ reconstruction of air temperature and continentality indexes; 5/ detailed human-environment relationships for the last 13,000 years. Central and Eastern Europe are areas on which paleoecology still has insufficient information. Detailed multi-proxy reconstructions were made until now only for several sites from the Russian territory. The obtained results of palaeoenvironmental changes will allow to contribute to the discussion on global and regional climate change. Comprehensive data on the evolution of the small lake and peat bog and changes in the atmospheric circulation will allow for a better explanation of the global palaeoclimatic mechanisms. Environmental data combined with archaeological and historical data will allow to distinguish the natural changes and human impact on the development of the lacustrine and bog ecosystems in the area with the dominance of non-productive economy. The results of our project allow for an elaboration of reference site for NE Europe of the natural history and human-environment relationships in the last 13,000 years.