Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland

Alenius, Teija; Mökkönen, Teemu; Holmqvist, Elisabeth; Ojala, Antti E. K.

doi:10.1007/s00334-017-0606-2

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…For example, archaeological maps of Iron Age Finland tend to show a handful of small centres of occupation and give the impression that the rest of the country was empty -which, as we know from such data as finds of cereal pollen (e.g. Alenius et al 2013;Alenius et al 2017), toponyms and folklore sources is simply not true. Historical narratives offer a romanticized view of agriculturalists travelling bands of fur trappers from the South exploiting the northern wilderness and gradually establishing human presence through forest clearance -a process known by the Finnish term of eränkäynti.…”

Section: Forests and Hunting The Forest In Northern Landscapes And MImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is, at present, only a limited amount of sufficiently high-resolution palynological studies that enable identifying such changes in the landscape, but some recent research indicates episodic opening of local landscapes that can very likely be associated with human activity and forest clearance. Currently the most detailed and thorough case study, which also discusses the implications of the cycles of landscape change, focuses on the small lake of Huhdasjärvi in southeast Finland (Alenius et al 2013(Alenius et al , 2017, which shows increased human activity around 4400 bc and pollen from Hordeum and hemp around 4000 bc. Perhaps the most intriguing, and somewhat unexpected, finding was that of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) pollen that dates to the Mesolithic/ Neolithic transition ca.…”

Section: Early Pottery Cultivation and Place Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The palynological record suggests that fire was increasingly employed as an means of altering the landscape in northern Fennoscandia since the introduction of pottery in the sixth millennium onwards, particularly through the emerging slash-and-burn cultivation (Alenius et al 2013(Alenius et al , 2017. This increased fire activity was most likely of an anthropogenic origin, and in addition to opening up the landscape, it would have made fire more conspicuously present as part of human landscapes and mindscapes.…”

Section: Fire and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

Herva¹,

Lahelma²

2019

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In its analysis of the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, this book provides a focus on animistic-shamanistic cosmologies and the associated humanenvironment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. The North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, as an enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities. Rich archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folkloric materials combine in this book with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, producing a fresh approach to the prehistory and history of a region that is pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. This book examines the mythical and actual northern worlds, with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand, and the 'place' of the North in European culture on the other. This book is an indispensable read for scholars of archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies and folklore in northern Europe, as well as researchers interested in how the North is intertwined with developments in the broader European and Eurasian world. It provides a deep-time understanding of globally topical issues and conflicting interests, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation and indigenous rights.

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Section: Forests and Hunting The Forest In Northern Landscapes And MImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Early Pottery Cultivation and Place Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fire and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

Herva¹,

Lahelma²

2019

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“…In E Finland, earliest signs of cereal cultivation in palynological records are reported already from the early Neolithic ca. 6,400-5,200 cal yr BP (Alenius, Mökkönen, Holmqvist, & Ojala, 2017;Alenius, Mönkkönen, & Lahelma, 2013), whereas first archaeological evidence of cultivation, alongside increasing palynological evidence, is detected after 3,200 cal yr BP (Lavento, 2001;Taavitsainen et al, 1998).…”

Section: The Strongest Effect Of Human Impact On Vegetation Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of climate, forest fires and human population size in Holocene vegetation dynamics in Fennoscandia

Kuosmanen

Marquer

Tallavaara

et al. 2018

J Vegetation Science

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Questions We investigated the changing role of climate, forest fires and human population size in the broad‐scale compositional changes in Holocene vegetation dynamics before and after the onset of farming in Sweden (at 6,000 cal yr BP) and in Finland (at 4,000 cal yr BP). Location Southern and central Sweden, SW and SE Finland. Methods Holocene regional plant abundances were reconstructed using the REVEALS model on selected fossil pollen records from lakes. The relative importance of climate, fires and human population size on changes in vegetation composition was assessed using variation partitioning. Past climate variable was derived from the LOVECLIM climate model. Fire variable was reconstructed from sedimentary charcoal records. Estimated trend in human population size was based on the temporal distribution of archaeological radiocarbon dates. Results Climate explains the highest proportion of variation in vegetation composition during the whole study period in Sweden (10,000–4,000 cal yr BP) and in Finland (10,000–1,000 cal yr BP), and during the pre‐agricultural period. In general, fires explain a relatively low proportion of variation. Human population size has significant effect on vegetation dynamics after the onset of farming and explains the highest variation in vegetation in S Sweden and SW Finland. Conclusions Mesolithic hunter‐gatherer populations did not significantly affect vegetation composition in Fennoscandia, and climate was the main driver of changes at that time. Agricultural communities, however, had greater effect on vegetation dynamics, and the role of human population size became a more important factor during the late Holocene. Our results demonstrate that climate can be considered the main driver of long‐term vegetation dynamics in Fennoscandia. However, in some regions the influence of human population size on Holocene vegetation changes exceeded that of climate and has a longevity dating to the early Neolithic.

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“…Dependence on cultivation then gradually increased and around 1100 BC it became an important food source (Myrdal and Morell, 2011). In Finland, pollen records suggest the first introduction around 4000 BC (Alenius, et al, 2017), but cultivation appears to have taken longer to become fully established (Lahtinen and Rowley-Conwy, 2013;Lahtinen, et al, 2017). Cultivation, at low levels, can be continuously traced in the pollen records as of 1500 BC (Lahtinen, et al, 2017).…”

Section: The History Of Crop Husbandry In Sweden and Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Fennoscandian agricultural history through genetic analysis of aged crop materials

Lundström

2018

Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Dissertations

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Crop plants have undergone a multitude of genetic changes during and following their domestication. The spread of agriculture brought the crops to new geographic regions exposing them to new environments and selection pressures along the way. This gave rise to many local variants with traits favoured both by agricultural practices and the environment. Agriculture was introduced in Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) around 4000 BC. The composition of the archaeobotanical record gives some clues as to which species were cultivated, but macroscale analyses rarely reach beyond that. Therefore, methods like genetic analysis are necessary to expand our knowledge about the history of crop cultivation. Under optimal conditions, DNA can survive in biological samples for several hundred thousand years. The preservation of plant specimens in the Fennoscandian climate has, however, rarely been explored. This thesis therefore attempts to dive deeper into the Fennoscandian cultivation history through genetic analyses of aged plant materials from both museum collections and archaeological sources. Cereal grains from a range of preservation conditions were evaluated to find which ones might be of interest for genetic investigations. Desiccated materials gave the highest success rates, in agreement with previous studies. Waterlogged materials appeared to contain small amounts of endogenous DNA, whereas genetic analysis of charred cereals failed completely in all samples. Population structure was investigated in 17-19 th century materials of both barley and rye from Sweden and Finland. Northern and southern populations of Finnish six-row barley were distinct from one another. In southern Sweden, genetic analysis suggested conserved population structure extending over 200 years. The genetic composition of rye also seemed mostly conserved, but rye did not show geographic population structure across the investigated region in Sweden and Finland. A long-standing question in Fennoscandian crop history has been the interpretation of historical written records mentioning Brassica (cole crops, turnips and mustards), as well as the species identity of archaeobotanical finds of Brassica seeds. Thus, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was applied to identify which Brassica types that were cultivated in 17 th century Kalmar, Sweden. The analysis corroborated morphological species classification in two of the investigated subfossil seeds, whereas no conclusions could be drawn from the remaining samples. The genome coverages were too low to allow subspecies identification. Wheat has been cultivated in Fennoscandia since the introduction of agriculture but has increased dramatically in importance over the last century. The functional allele of the wheat nutrition gene NAM-B1 was found to be particularly prominent in Fennoscandian wheats, likely associated with its effect on grain maturation time. Here the evolutionary history of NAM-B1 was investigated to see if it could truly be considered a domestication gene as suggested in a pr...

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Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland

Cited by 15 publications

References 51 publications

Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

The role of climate, forest fires and human population size in Holocene vegetation dynamics in Fennoscandia

Exploring Fennoscandian agricultural history through genetic analysis of aged crop materials

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