Mid-holocene vegetation development at the inland Ertebølle settlement of Ringkloster Eastern Jutland

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two pollen diagrams have been produced from littoral lake sediments close to the Ertebolle settlement of Ringkloster with the aim of elucidating the development of the vegetation during the Ertebolle occupation and at the transition to the Funnel Beaker Culture. One of the diagrams, from radiocarbon-dated refuse layers containing artefacts from the Ertebolle and Funnel Beaker Cultures, provides a particularly good picture of the vegetation. Through a close stratigraphie relationship between the refuse layers and the pollen-analytical investigations, evidence for woodland disturbance contemporary with the occupation of the Ertebolle settlement can be demonstrated. The disturbance is primarily in the form of very early elm and lime declines, which in all probability are anthropogenic in origin. At the transition to the Funnel Beaker Culture, ca. 3900 cal. BC, the woodland cover is reduced and open-habitat herbs increase. At the same time there is the first occurrence of Plantago lanceolata and the ...