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Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin during different cultural phases, from pre-Neolithic to Recent Bronze Age. A selected list of pollen taxa and sums, including cultivated trees, other woody species, crops and annual or perennial synanthropic plants are analysed for land use reconstructions. In general, cultivation has a lower image in palynology than forestry, and past land uses became visible when oakwoods were affected by human activities. On-site palynology allows us to recognise the first influence of humans even before it can be recognised in off-site sequences, and off-site sequences can allow us to determine the area of influence of a site. Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites show similar land use dynamics implying oak exploitation, causing local deforestation, and cultivation of cereal fields in the area or around the site. Although a substantial difference makes the Neolithic influence quite distant from the Bronze Age impact, mixed systems of land exploitation emerged everywhere. Multiple land use activities exist (multifunctional landscapes) at the same time within the area of influence of a site. Since the Neolithic, people have adopted a diffuse pattern of land use involving a combination of diverse activities, using trees–crops–domesticated animals. The most recurrent combination included wood exploitation, field cultivation and animal breeding. The lesson from the past is that the multifunctional land use, combining sylvo-pastoral and crop farming mixed systems, has been widely adopted for millennia, being more sustainable than the monoculture and a promising way to develop our economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The direct comparison between microcharcoal and pollen data from the Holocene sediment core of Lago di Pergusa (central Sicily, Italy) led us to investigate the linkages between fire, vegetation, and climate in the Mediterranean Basin. The role of human populations in shaping the environment of the last millennia was closely examined as well. Pollen and charcoal were extracted using a standard pollen methodology and both identified from the same pollen slides. At Lago di Pergusa the importance of fire in maintaining and favouring a Mediterranean vegetation, a basic concept in ecology, seems to be inconsistent, as important fires took place in the open environments with xeric vegetation at the beginning of the Holocene well before the expansion of evergreen vegetation. On the contrary some big fires seem to have happened in the period (around 8000 years BP) in which the greatest wetness, the thickest forest canopy, and the most important expansion of submontane vegetation of the record are found. A probable explanation of this phenomenon can be found in the precipitation regime, in the increased available biomass and in the resulting increase in combustible material, indicating also that the highest humidity achieved in central Sicily during the Holocene was not strong enough to prevent fires. During this period drops in arboreal pollen concentration match in minima in the charcoal curves. Fires were practically absent during the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods and not responsible for the general trend towards aridification identified in the pollen record, at times in which prehistoric populations are generally believed to have caused forest clearance by burning. Important and frequent burnings are documented for the Bronze and Iron Ages and probably not all of them were fires of living trees, but burning of wood for producing metals, cooking or heating. The occurrence of a fire around 3700 years BP temporarily caused a minor decrease of arboreal pollen concentration. In the open landscapes of the two last millennia an almost continuous sign of regional burnings is recognized, confirming the historical evidence of an intense land use in central Sicily at least since Roman times. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The 13C/12C ratio of juniper charcoals from the archaeological site of Arslantepe, Malatya (Turkey) was analysed for the mid-Holocene period spanning from 3350 to 2000 years BC. In addition, modern juniper and deciduous oak specimens were collected during a botanical survey around Arslantepe in August 2008. After the evaluation of weather parameters, the modern 13C/12C ratio was compared with the archaeological one, to infer past seasonal precipitation relative magnitude patterns. Δ13C values obtained from these samples suggest that the present-day climate is, on average, drier than that recorded in the past. Comparing the Δ13C juniper record with the already published curve for archaeological charcoals of deciduous oaks from Arslantepe, it appears that the two curves show similar trends in the short period between ca. 2850 and 2500 BC, in which the curves are substantially parallel and the Δ13C difference between them is quite reduced, but they are shifted by ca. 50–150 years in the rest of the record. For the interpretation of the arboreal curves, however, it was necessary to consider the autoecology of modern plants and the source of the water used for photosynthesis, as the two selected trees show Δ13C curves with rather different patterns. Overall, 13C/12C contrasting ratios in juniper and deciduous oaks suggest that seasonality in rainfall distribution and aquifer recharge played a complex role. Thus, a consistent seasonal contrast in precipitation (similar to the one in recent times) took place at ca. 3350, 3100, and 2300 BC indicating that semi-arid conditions have occurred in the past, in alternation with periods characterised by minor differences in the distribution of annual precipitation. In particular, the period between ca. 2850 and 2500 BC may suggest more humid conditions in late winter/early spring. The combination of the two records suggests that 1) two periods of drought are found at ca. 3350–3100 and at ca. 2300–2200 BC and 2) that at present winter precipitation is lower than that recorded during the period 3350–2000 BC and summer aridity less or equal to that recorded ca. 2200 BC. Changes in precipitation seasonality and the complex and the peculiar hydrogeological situation hindered the interpretation of the isotope records. The use of two taxa having different autoecology and different growing season allows interpretation of the data in terms of changes in precipitation seasonality and of specific habitat in this complex and peculiar hydrological setting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]