Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland

Veget Hist Archaeobot (2017) 26:469–486 DOI 10.1007/s00334-017-0606-2 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland Teija Alenius1,4 · Teemu Mökkönen2 · Elisabeth Holmqvist1 · Antti Ojala3 Received: 30 September 2016 / Accepted: 3 February 2017 / Published online: 14 March 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Two high-resolution pollen and charcoal analyses were constructed from sediments obtained from a small bay in eastern Finland in order to gain information on human activity during the Neolithic Stone Age, 5200–1800 bc. We used measurements of loss on ignition (LOI), magnetic susceptibility and geochemical analyses to describe the sedimentological characteristics. Palaeomagnetic dating and measurements of 137Cs-activity were supported by 14C-datings. The analyses revealed human activity between 4400 and 3200 bc, which is synchronous with archaeological cultures defined through different stages of Comb Ware pottery types and Middle Neolithic pottery types with asbestos as a primary temper. Direct evidence of Hordeum cultivation was dated to 4040–3930 cal bc. According to the pollen data, more significant effort was put into the production of fibres from hemp and lime than the actual cultivation of food. Keywords Pollen analysis · South-eastern Finland · Land use · Neolithic · Lake sediments · Geochemistry Communicated by M.-J. Gaillard. * Teija Alenius 1 Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 38 F, P.O.Box 59, 00014 Helsinki, Finland 2 Department of Archaeology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland 3 Geological Survey of Finland, Espoo, Finland 4 Department of Archaeology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland Introduction In eastern Fennoscandia (Finland and the Republic of Karelia, Russia), the Neolithic period begins with the appearance of pottery ca. 5300–5200 bc (Pesonen et al. 2012; Nordqvist and Mökkönen 2016). In the Baltic States, this took place a few decades earlier (Piezonka 2012). According to the traditional interpretation, in eastern Fennoscandia and in the Baltic States, the beginning of the Neolithic period was not associated with agriculture. Traditionally, the earliest agriculture in much of northern Europe has been associated with the much later Corded Ware phenomenon, which spread from central Europe to eastern Fennoscandia in the early third millennium bc (e.g. Carpelan 1999; Zvelebil and Lillie 2000). High-resolution pollen analyses obtained from southern and eastern Finland (Alenius et al. 2013; Augustsson et al. 2013), western Russia (Königsson et al. 1997; Vuorela et al. 2001) and Estonia (Kriiska 2003; Poska et al. 2004; Poska and Saarse 2006), as well as archaeological data from the same area (Kriiska 2009; Nordqvist and Kriiska 2015), have challenged the traditional interpretation of northern European prehistory. There is increasing evidence that the initial stage of cereal cultivation in northern Europe took place at the very beginning of the Neolithic Stone Age, ca. 5200–4000 bc, concurrent with the appearance of pottery in eastern Fennoscandia. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, it has been proposed that eastern pottery technology and early cultivation spread concurrently into the north-eastern part of the Baltic Sea through the same networks (Mökkönen 2010, 2011), but until recently, no data were available to actually demonstrate the connection in Finland. In south-eastern Finland, the evidence from highresolution pollen analysis indicates Stone Age cultivation around Lake Huhdasjärvi, where pollen originating 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 470 from Fagopyrum esculentum has been dated to the transition period between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, 5370–5060 cal bc (2δ). This was then followed by Hordeum pollen dated to ca. 4260 bc and 2160 bc (Alenius et al. 2013). In Estonia, some pollen evidence shows cultivation during the fifth millennium bc (Kriiska 2009). In addition, several older, less accurate pollen analyses point to disturbances in vegetation and the sporadic presence of Cerealia-type pollen from the fifth millennium cal bc onwards in the area south of the Arctic Circle in Finland (Reynaud and Hjelmroos 1980). In a wider perspective, more evidence of cultivation and anthropogenic disturbances in vegetation appears around 4000 bc when Typical Comb Ware spread extensively to the eastern part of the Baltic Sea (Kriiska 2009; Mökkönen 2010; Nordqvist and Kriiska 2015). In Estonia, abundant and continuous pollen evidence for different cereals starts around 4000 bc (Kriiska 2009). In Lake Onega, Russia, signs of cereal cultivation dating to ca. 3800 bc have been encountered (Vuorela et al. 2001). In Lake Ahvenainen, southern Finland, Cerealia (possibly Triticum-type pollen) was dated to ca. 3400–3350 bc and Hordeum-type to ca. 2700–2680 bc (Tolonen 1978). In the pollen data obtained from Lake Lehmilampi in eastern Finland, the first possible indications of human impact, including one Hordeum-type, were observed between 3000 and 2500 bc (Augustsson et al. 2013). Typical Comb Ware (3900–3500 bc), which roughly covers the area of Finland, Estonia, northern Latvia and parts of north-western Russia, represents a pottery tradition originating in the upper Volga region. In addition to increasing signs of cultivation, the appearance of this new pottery style around 3900 bc is marked by new contact networks that are in some regions explained through small-scale migration and in other areas through cultural diffusion, the movement of new ideas and material goods (Nordqvist and Kriiska 2015; Nordqvist et al. 2015). At that time, other exotic materials – flint from the east (Vuorinen 1982; Kinnunen et al. 1985; Mökkönen and Nordqvist 2016), amber from the southern Baltic region (Vuorinen 1984; Núñez and Franzen 2011), rock crystals from southern to south-eastern Finland (Mökkönen and Nordqvist 2016) and copper from the Lake Onega region, Russia (Taavitsainen 1982; Nordqvist and Herva 2013)— were more intensively used as novel raw materials. Rock art flourished (Lahelma 2008; Gjerde 2010), and semi-subterranean pithouses that often occur in villagelike concentrations became the dominant dwelling type (Pesonen 2002; Vaneeckhout 2009; Mökkönen 2011). At the same time, there arose a new awareness that included a range of new techniques for manipulating materials and engaging with the material world. As a whole, these are seen as integral elements of Neolithization in 13 Veget Hist Archaeobot (2017) 26:469–486 north-eastern Europe and Eurasia (Nordqvist and Herva 2013; Herva et al. 2014, 2017; Nordqvist et al. 2014, 2015; Nordqvist and Kriiska 2015). Although traditional elements of the material culture that defines the Neolithic Stone Age have been known to be present among north-eastern European cultures, w (...truncated)