A05_05

Landscape transformations since first farmers to presence recorded in soil pauperization in Eastern Bohemia

Lisa L ¹,  Bajer A², Kočár P³, Petr L⁴, Štolc D⁵, Peška J⁶, Světlík I¹

¹Academy of Sciences, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Prague, Czech Republic, ²Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic, ³University of Western Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic, ⁴Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, ⁵Archaia, Prague, Czech Republic, ⁶ACO, Olomouc, Czech Republic

The current, very gradually undulating morphology of the landscape in Eastern Bohemia is often attributed to the physical properties of the subsoil. However, a very important modeling factor, namely man, is often neglected. Thanks to rescue archaeological excavations during the construction of the highway, a number of buried paleo-valleys were discovered. The base of the valleys at a depth of more than four meters is formed by a dark infill. The bases of profiles were dated to the time of the first farmers in the Neolithic. The original Neolithic landscape therefore had to look relatively different, furrowed by relatively deep valleys of streams that no longer exist today. These valleys had to be a source of water and vegetation, so their identification in the landscape is quite important. Due to the changes induced either climatically or anthropogenically, slope processes had to take place in the past, thanks to which the valleys were filled with slopes. It remains clear that the overburden of the buried soil is covered with soil originating from the immediate vicinity of the valley and contaminated (mixed) with the subsoil. In time, this obscuration is probably comparable to the medieval colonization of the landscape. However, the upper 70 cm of the filling is necessarily an anthropogenic matter, most likely associated with modern field consolidation. This corresponds to the general scheme that has been indicated so far in the interpretation of the formation processes of paleo Valley filling in this area.