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Environmental Sciences: A Students Companion

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The Holocene
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Impacts of new agricultural practices on soil erosion during the Bronze Age in the French Prealps

Jérémy Jacob

Université d'Orléans, CNRS/INSU, Université François Rabelais Tours, Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans (ISTO), UMR 6113, Campus Géosciences, 1A rue de la Férollerie, 45061 Orléans cedex 2, France, jeremy.jacob{at}univ-orleans.fr

Jean-Robert Disnar

Université d'Orléans, CNRS/INSU, Université François Rabelais Tours, Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans (ISTO), UMR 6113, Campus Géosciences, 1A rue de la Férollerie, 45061 Orléans cedex 2, France

Fabien Arnaud

EDYTEM, UMR 5204 du CNRS/Université de Savoie, Campus Savoie Technolac, F-73376, le Bourget du Lac, France

Emilie Gauthier

Laboratoire de Chrono-écologie, UMR 6565/CNRS, UFR Sciences, 16 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon cedex, France

Yves Billaud

Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM 58 bis rue des Marquisats 74000 Annecy, France

Emmanuel Chapron

Université d'Orléans, CNRS/INSU, Université François Rabelais Tours, Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans (ISTO), UMR 6113, Campus Géosciences, 1A rue de la Férollerie, 45061 Orléans cedex 2, France

Gérard Bardoux

BIOEMCO, UMR 7618 du CNRS/INRA Centre de Versailles-Grignon, Bâtiment EGER, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France

In order to better understand the evolution of past climate—human—environment interactions in the northwestern Alps during the Holocene, we have analysed the lipid content of two cores taken from the sediments of Lake le Bourget (French Alps). By using a specific molecular biomarker of Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) previously defined and a new molecular marker of soil erosion, we demonstrate that the onset of millet cultivation coincides with the onset of major soil erosion in the catchment during the Middle Bronze Age. Although archaeological and archaeobotanical investigations indicate a discrete human occupation of the lakeshores at this period, they also point to a regional change in agricultural practices that deeply affected soils. The evolution of millet cultivation appears in strong connection with climatic variations, estimated in the same cores from the variations in titanium, a proxy of hydrological changes in the region. Social and cultural triggers cannot be discarded at this stage. Such an approach applied to more sedimentary archives shows high potential to unravel the temporal and spatial dynamics of human land use.

Key Words: Agriculture • Panicum miliaceum • land use • Bronze Age • biomarkers • lake sediments • late Holocene • French Prealps.

The Holocene, Vol. 19, No. 2, 241-249 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683608100568
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