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The considerable intensification of human activity in the second and first centuries BC in Central Europe was related to the sudden appearance of a network of large fortified towns, which are known as oppida. Bibracte was one of the most important oppida in France, but knowledge about the evolution of its hinterland is still incomplete. This article addresses the evolution of the landscape surrounding this oppidum. Our research was based on a study of sedimentary profiles sampled around the archaeological site and examined by physical, geochemical and palaeoecological analyses. Sediment sequences indicate that the earliest human-induced erosion associated with geomorphological change occurred in the 4th–1st century BC. Geochemical results indicate ancient mining and metallurgy in the catchment during the same time. Palaeoecological proxies from the same period point to a mosaic of an open cultural landscape with locally suppressed forest vegetation and prevailing pastoralism. Anthropogenic impact resurged in the 11th–13th centuries AD and was associated with livestock grazing and rye (Secale cereale) cultivation. Thereafter, the reconstructed human impact from the 15th century AD onwards was probably related to forest management focused on timber floating as well as to the cultivation of chestnut (Castanea sativa) and hemp (Cannabis sativa). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floodplain alluvia can provide a combination of natural and anthropogenic evidence of environmental changes, allowing to directly examine their evolution in relation to settlement dynamics. Such evidence is recorded, for example, at the archaeological site Pohansko by the town of Břeclav, a former centre of the Great Moravian Empire. The aim of our research was to explore what conditions on the floodplain could have caused the abandonment of this environment. Special attention was paid to the climax of the floodplain's occupation during the times of the Great Moravian Empire (AD 836–906) and to the decline of its occupation in the following centuries. The environmental record at the Pohansko site starts in the 7th century BC. From the Iron Age onwards (Hallstatt and La Tène periods) there is evidence of non-agricultural human activities. Since the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC to at least the second half of the 10th century AD, there is no record of any floodplain aggradation or flooding at the site. Later, both the archaeological and palaeoecological records on the floodplain probably got exposed and redeposited. The result is a mechanically disturbed layer that is synchronous with soil horizons and subsequent Early Mediaeval cultural layers covering sandy elevations. For an unknown reason, the site was deserted for many centuries after the end of the 10th century AD. During the High Mediaeval period and the early Modern Era, especially since the 15th century AD, overbank deposits covered the floodplain. Intensified human impact in the river catchment and climate change during the Little Ice Age were the main triggers of this change. The results correlate with the written historical sources pertaining to this area, which speak about an increasing frequency of flooding in the Czech lands since the 14th century, and especially in the second half of the 16th century. As a result, these sites became unsuitable for settlement and abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bohunician, a Moravian variant of the broader Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) lithic technocomplex, is thought to have arisen during the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic in the 'contact zone' between the first anatomically modern humans and local Neanderthals. Attempts to date the Bohunician occupation at the eponymous site of Brno-Bohunice using luminescence and radiocarbon methods have yielded contradictory results. We propose a new perspective of the chronological position and taphonomy of the Bohunician finds based on a revaluation of published radiometric and luminescence data from the Brno-Bohunice site according to an updated radiocarbon calibration curve and recently revised pedostratigraphy. Here, for the first time, we combined contradictionary results of various dating method into one chronostratigraphical model of the site. The Bayesian model considers the discovery that the palaeosol(s) contemporary to most of the artefacts is (are) missing and the actual position was affected by frost-heaving processes. The onset of the Bohunician technocomplex is therefore placed most probably as early as ∼50 ka cal BP (the end of GI 14) and shows that it existed mainly during the interstadials GI 13 and GI 12. Nevertheless, the broad timespan of unmodelled thermoluminescence dates indicates a possible persistence of the last practitioners of Bohunician technology until ∼42 ka cal BP (GI 11), when development of a Cambisol horizon took place. Our model has two possible explanations: The first wave of anatomically modern humans (with or without Neanderthal introgression) arrived in Central Europe before GI 12, or the Bohunician technocomplex is connected with the local Neanderthal population. • A chronostratigraphic Bayesian model solves a discrepancy between dating methods. • Frost-heaving affecting Bohunician artefacts was considered by the Bayesian model. • The onset of the Bohunician technocomplex is dated to ∼50 ka cal BP (GI 14 or GI 13). • The main occupation phase of Bohunician took place during GI 13 and GI 12. • Original palaeosol(s) bearing Bohunician artefacts are missing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A unique complex of MIS 5 palaeosols is revised by taking a multiproxy approach. • Relations of local conditions and climatic trends to soil development are examined. • The pedosedimentary record is correlated with Greenland Stadials/Interstadials. • The palaeoecological record of the Eemian and Early Weischelian is considered. Only a few loess–palaeosol sequences from the last climatic cycle (Eemian-Weichselian) in East-Central Europe have been studied and correlated with up-to-date stratigraphic frameworks such as marine isotope stages (MIS) and Greenland Stadials/Interstadials (GS/GI). This paper examines the relations of local conditions and climatic trends to soil development, and the character of vegetation during MIS 5 period at the Palaeolithic site Moravský Krumlov IV. To revise the chronostratigraphy and interpretation of palaeosols, we applied a multi-proxy approach based on soil micromorphology, physical and geochemical analyses together with palaeobotanical evidence and results of optically stimulated luminescence dating. The part of the loess–palaeosol sequence under study was correlated with the Dolní Věstonice sequence and represents a time span from MIS 5e to MIS 5b. It comprises an Eemian luvisol (MIS 5e, Interglacial), an Early Weichselian chernozem (MIS 5e, GI 25) and a colluvium with a pedogenic imprint (MIS 5d, GI 24), loess (MIS 5d, GS 24), regosol (MIS 5c/5d, GI 23), and loess deposits (MIS 5c, GS 23). Unlike for the Dolní Věstonice, the record of MIS 5a has not been proved and there are no markers dividing individual palaeosols. The intensity of weathering is similar to comparable records from the Czech Republic and is elevated compared to Hungarian loess–palaeosol sequences. Evidence of forest vegetation with both deciduous and coniferous trees (MIS 5e, Interglacial) is followed by that of a steppe environment with a mosaic of trees (MIS 5e, GI 25) and, finally, a tundra or forest-tundra vegetation (MIS 5d, GI 24). Eemian luvisol is rarely preserved but recorded in contemporary sequences from the Czech Republic. The Early Weichselian part is rather similar to the record documented across sites in Lower Austria, in contrast to sites from the Czech Republic, and does not fit into the earlier established system of pedocomplexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]