Bigna L. Steiner

On-site data cast doubts on the hypothesis of shifting cultivation in the late Neolithic (c. 4300–2400 cal. BC): Landscape management as an alternative paradigm:

This article brings together in a comprehensive way, and for the first time, on- and off-site palaeoenvironmental data from the area of the Central European lake dwellings (a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 2011). The types of data considered are as follows: high-resolution off-site pollen cores, including micro-charcoal counts, and on-site data, including botanical macro- and micro-remains, hand-collected animal bones, remains of microfauna, and data on woodland management (dendrotypology). The period considered is the late Neolithic (c. 4300–2400 cal. BC). For this period, especially for its earlier phases, discussions of land-use patterns are contradictory. Based on off-site data, slash-and-burn – as known from tropical regions – is thought to be the only possible way to cultivate the land. On-site data however show a completely different picture: all indications point to the permanent cultivation of cereals (Triticum spp., Hordeum vulgare), pea (Pisum sativum), flax (Linum usitatissimum) and opium-poppy (Papaver somniferum). Cycles of landscape use are traceable, including coppicing and moving around the landscape with animal herds. Archaeobiological studies further indicate also that hunting and gathering were an important component and that the landscape was manipulated accordingly. Late Neolithic land-use systems also included the use of fire as a tool for opening up the landscape. Here we argue that bringing together all the types of palaeoenvironmental proxies in an integrative way allows us to draw a more comprehensive and reliable picture of the land-use systems in the late Neolithic than had been reconstructed previously largely on the basis of off-site data.

Distribution of bulbil- and seed-producing plants of Poa alpina (Poaceae) and their growth and reproduction in common gardens suggest adaptation to different elevations

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY The European Alps harbor a spatially heterogeneous environment. Plants can be adapted genetically to this heterogeneity but may also respond to it by phenotypic plasticity. We expected the important fodder grass Poa alpina to be adapted to elevation either genetically or plastically. • METHODS We investigated in three elevational common gardens whether growth and reproductive allocation of plants reproducing either by seeds or bulbils suggest adaptation to their elevation of origin and to what extent they can respond plastically to different elevations. Additionally, we analyzed genetic diversity using microsatellites and tested whether seeds are of sexual origin. • KEY RESULTS In the field, bulbil-producing plants occurred more often at higher elevations, whereas seed-producing plants occurred more often at lower elevations, but bulbil-producing plants were generally less vigorous in the common gardens. The response of plants to elevational transplantation was highly plastic, and vigor was always best at the highest location. The small genetic differences were not clinally related to elevation of origin, underlining the importance of phenotypic plasticity. Reproductive allocation was, however, independent of elevational treatments. Seed-producing plants had higher genetic diversity than the bulbil-producing plants even though we found that seed-producing plants were facultative apomicts mostly reproducing asexually. • CONCLUSIONS Bulbil-producing P. alpina, showing a fitness cost at lower elevations compared with seed-producing plants, seem better adapted to higher elevations. By means of its two reproductive modes and the capacity to adjust plastically, P. alpina is able to occupy a broad ecological niche across a large elevational range.

Layers rich in aquatic and wetland plants within complex anthropogenic stratigraphies and their contribution to disentangling taphonomic processes

There is an ongoing discussion about how organic material is preserved in settlement layers on lakeshores. Different scenarios have been suggested; was a permanent water cover needed at all times, or were there episodical water level fluctuations? In this paper, we use aquatic and wetland plants to shed light on layer formation processes of complex anthropogenic stratigraphies of the Neolithic lakeshore settlement Zug-Riedmatt (Central Switzerland). Botanical macroremains from the microarchaeologically investigated occupation layer were analysed and compared to modern analogue data from two lakes. Results suggest that the excavated area of the settlement was in a first phase located in the sublittoral zone (below water), with a massive input of anthropogenic waste material contributing to the layer formation, but then in a second phase, the shoreline shifted so that the excavated part of the settlement was located in the eulittoral zone and in a third phase probably even landwards of a reed belt. In a comparison with two previously investigated Neolithic lakeshore sites, we found that at least in one of these sites, such ‘drier’ conditions could also be found. This shows how important it is to know which part of the littoral zone is represented in an excavation, as conditions can differ within a settlement, and that there is very likely no universally valid ‘Pfahlbau scenario’.