Land cover and use‑history of large empty spaces at fortified Iron Age hilltop sites; a case study from La Terrasse, Bibracte oppidum

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F24%3A00139320" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/24:00139320 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00934-0" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00934-0</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00934-0" target="_blank" >10.1007/s00334-023-00934-0</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Land cover and use‑history of large empty spaces at fortified Iron Age hilltop sites; a case study from La Terrasse, Bibracte oppidum

Original language description

The research of Iron Age oppida and hillforts plays a significant role in understanding the urbanisation processes throughout the European continent. The habitation and built-up areas have always been in the limelight of both traditional and environmental archaeological research. However, at many oppida, there were also large, unoccupied empty spaces. As they are crucial for understanding these settlements’ internal organisation, their functions are debated. Here we aim to demonstrate that seldom studied archaeobotanical archives preserve information on their use-history. By implementing a multiproxy approach, we seek to answer questions on the development, land use and vegetation history of one important open space at Bibracte oppidum on Mont Beuvray. Through the correlation of pollen, phytoliths, diatoms, charcoal, seeds, and parasites with radiocarbon dating we collected evidence of archaeologically otherwise untraceable human activities and detected a much more complicated history of the studied area. We show that it was repeatedly used in the last eight millennia and was never farmed or built up. During the phases of its most intensive exploitation in the Late Iron Age (La Tène) and Early Middle Ages (Merovingian) periods, it was kept as grassland. Our research lays down the foundation for the wider implementation of archaeobotany into projects that aim to clarify the uses and functions of enigmatic large open spaces, not only from the Iron Age but also from other periods.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-02606S" target="_blank" >GA19-02606S: Oppidum as an urban landscape: multidisciplinary approach to the study of space organisation "intra muros"</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY

ISSN

0939-6314

e-ISSN

1617-6278

Volume of the periodical

33

Issue of the periodical within the volume

March 2024

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

20

Pages from-to

269-288

UT code for WoS article

001040216400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85166241315