Soilscape and land‐use evolution related to drift sand movements since the bronze age in Eastern Jutland, Denmark

Abstract

Quarry faces several kilometers long in the Glesborg area in Denmark show that Bronze Age farmers used a sustainable land-use system. Despite nutrient-poor soils, the Glesborg area was under a rotation system in which cropland alternated with grassland. Soil fertility was improved by the addition of household waste and probably also by locally obtained inorganic fertilizer. The soil surface was very stable, and local drift sand movement was limited. Toward the end of the Bronze Age, the landscape changed dramatically with the arrival of overwhelming amounts of drift sand, and farmsteads were abandoned. Subsequent land use on these poor fine sandy soils was no longer capable of maintaining a stable soil surface, and frequent erosion/sedimentation events of more local importance took place. The post-Bronze Age landscape may have been mainly a shifting mosaic of heathland with some temporary arable fields and deflation/accumulation areas. This landscape persisted up to about 200 years ago, when afforestation programs started

Holocene aeolian dynamics in the European sand‐belt as indicated by geochronological data

“…; Schatz ; Mikkelsen et al . ). Including the palynological evidence of strong human impact during the Pre‐Roman Iron age at the ‘Celtic Field'‐systems of Flögeln (N Germany; Behre & Kucan ; Behre ), it seems likely that land claimed during the Bronze Age or Pre‐Roman Iron Age was vulnerable to aeolian dynamics (Zolitschka et al .…”

Evolution of sandy soils within deflation hollows in shifting areas of sand - a case study from the Błędów Desert (Poland)

“…The studied soils are typical of shifting sand areas in West and Central European countries (Sparrius et al 2013), and were described for Belgium (Maddelein & Lust 1992), Denmark (Stützer 1998;Mikkelsen et al 2007), the Netherlands (Elgersma 1998), and Poland (Rahmonov & Oleś (Table 1).…”

“…Most research studies concerning the evolution and functioning of soils in areas of shifting sand are focused on the inland dunes of Belgium (Maddelein doi: 10.17221/36/2016-SWR & Lust 1992, Denmark (Stützer 1998;Mikkelsen et al 2007), the Netherlands (Elgersma 1998), Poland (Jankowski & Sewerniak 2013), and also the United States (Lichter 1998). Some studies focus on coastal dunes (e.g.…”

Prospection of two circular Bronze Age ditches with multi-receiver electrical conductivity sensors (North Belgium)

“…In order to formulate hypotheses on population distributions in the past, mapping the soil environment is as important as mapping the embedded traces of human occupation (Bates and Bates, 2000;Mikkelsen et al, 2007;Tolksdorf et al, 2009). This is particularly true for the question where burial mounds are located in the north of Belgium.…”