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We analysed the late-Holocene pedo-sedimentary archives of La Narse de la Sauvetat, a hydromorphic depression in the southern Limagne plain (central France), where chronologically accurate studies are scarce. The multi-proxy geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental analysis of two cores from different areas of the basin was carried out through sedimentological, geochemical, micromorphological and malacological investigations. Integration of these datasets supported by a robust radiocarbon-based chronology allowed discussion of socio-environmental interactions and anthropogenic impacts from Late Neolithic to Early Middle Ages. Until the Middle Bronze Age, there was no clear evidence of anthropogenic impact on soils and hydro-sedimentary dynamics of the catchment, but two peaks of high alluvial activity probably related to the 4.2 and 3.5 kyr. BP climate events were first recorded in Limagne. Significant anthropogenic impacts started in the Late Bronze Age with increased erosion of the surrounding volcanic slopes. However, a major threshold was reached c. 2600 cal BP with a sharp increase in the catchment erosion interpreted as resulting from strong anthropogenic environmental changes related to agricultural activities and drainage. This implies an anthropogenic forcing on soils and hydro-sedimentary systems much earlier than was usually considered in Limagne. These impacts then gradually increased during Late Iron Age and Roman periods, but environmental effects were certainly contained by progress in agricultural management. Late Antiquity environmental changes are consistent with regional trend to drainage deterioration in lowlands, but marked asynchrony in this landscape change suggests that societal factors implying differential land management were certainly predominant here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the first results of the geoarchaeological study of an unusual hilltop wetland, located within the protohistoric proto‐urban site of Corent in the French Massif Central. This small depression offers an exceptionally local sedimentary record that provided valuable data on long‐term human–environment interactions, as well as proto‐urbanization of the first millennium B.C.E. Field survey revealed a major archaeological discovery: a large ensemble of 114 Iron Age storage pits excavated in clayey deposits. The geoarchaeological analysis of stratigraphic logs and cross‐sections completed by geophysical survey and radiocarbon dating allowed us to refine the chronology of these structures. Here, we suggest these structures are probably contemporary with the Hallstatt occupation of the site (600–425 B.C.E.), consistent with the emergence at Corent of a short‐lived proto‐urban environment during this period. These investigations also allowed us to characterize the main evolution phases of the basin and the diversity of human impacts from first disturbance in the Early Neolithic to its final destruction in the Roman period. These findings highlight the nonlinear nature of the socio‐environmental interactions and the definitive shift to an “anthroposystem” as a consequence of major disturbance in the first Iron Age, centuries before the development of urban settlements in the oppida period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Geoarchaeological study of a pedosedimentary archive in a protohistoric wetland. • Human activities drove local environmental evolution over five millennia. • Neolithic anthropogenic erosion contributed to degrade Early Holocene andic soils. • Bronze Age agro-pastoral land use induced development of reducing conditions. • Iron Age activities led to strong environmental impact and backfill of the basin. This paper presents a multi-proxy geoarchaeological analysis of the complex pedo-sedimentary archives of a small pond situated within the protohistoric site of Corent, in central France. A robust chrono-stratigraphic framework was developed integrating all chronological data from previous studies. Micromorphological, geochemical and sedimentological analyses were performed on a radiocarbon-dated core. Results are discussed alongside palynological data from previous work on the same core, in order to reconstruct human-environmental interactions on the Corent volcanic plateau since the Neolithic. After intense soil erosion recorded during the Early and Middle Neolithic, the Late Neolithic is characterized by vegetation recovery and soil stability in the basin contemporaneous with site abandonment, perhaps due to pronounced soil degradation in the plateau. During the Early Bronze Age, agropastoral land use contributed to major environmental changes in the pond's basin, including soil profile sealing and gleyfication. Environmental impact patterns detected in the pedo-sedimentary record indicate settlement intensification during the Middle Bronze Age. After the substantial impacts of an intense anthropogenic disturbance in the Early Iron Age, the Lac du Puy becomes a vertic depression recurrently flooded while a late Iron Age Gallic oppidum develops on the plateau, and is finally backfilled at the end of the Iron Age. The detailed multi-proxy picture from this intra-urban wetland helps nuance our understanding of the environmental impacts of prehistoric societies in Western Europe. Indeed, our results highlight the importance of keeping a long term perspective when dealing with past human-environment interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]