This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Lageras, P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Farming and forest dynamics in an agriculturally marginal area of southern Sweden, 5000 BC to present: a palynological study of Lake Avegöl in the Småland Uplands

(Department of Quaternary Geology, Lund University, Tornavägen 13, S-223 63 Lund, Sweden

The study focuses on the environmental history of the higher parts of the Småland Uplands, southern Sweden. Pollen analysis was conducted on gyttja from the small lake Avegöl, and an absolute chronology established based on AMS dates of terrestrial plant macrofossils. The area has been used for grazing from 3900 cal. BC to present, but cultivation of cereals was not introduced until c. 300 cal. BC. There have been two major periods of open landscape, cal. AD 0-500 and cal. AD 1300-c. 1900. The first period was characterized by pastures and shifting cultivation in both till and sand areas. The second period was characterized by pastures, meadows, permanent arable fields and slash-and-burn cultivation, and it was mainly restricted to till areas. Cal. AD 500-1000 was a period of regression and reforestation, when extensive wood pasturage was the only agrarian land-use practised in the area. All dramatic environmental changes, except for the spruce invasion AD 900-1100, are assigned to agricultural land-use, while some slow and gradual changes are explained as the combined effect of land-use and natural processes. The classical Ulmus decline at c. 4000 cal. BC is not detected in the pollen diagram, but there is a significant decline in Ulmus dated to 2800-2600 cal. BC.

Key Words: Pollen analysis • land-use history • agriculture • forest history • human impact • Ulmus decline • Picea invasion • AMS dating • radiocarbon chronology • southern Sweden.

The Holocene, Vol. 6, No. 3, 301-314 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/095968369600600305


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Lageras Approaches and Methods for Commissioned Archaeology in Wetlands: Experience from the E4 Project in Skane, Southern Sweden European Journal of Archaeology, December 1, 2003; 6(3): 231 - 249. [Abstract] [PDF]