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Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe—A Long-Term Experimental Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Manfred Rösch

    (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Fischersteig 9, 78343 Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen, Germany)

  • Harald Biester

    (TU Braunschweig, Abt. Umweltgeochemie, Institut für Geoökologie, Langer Kamp 19c, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany)

  • Arno Bogenrieder

    (Institut für Biologie/Geobotanik, Universität Freiburg, Schänzlestr. 1, 79104 Freiburg i. Br., Germany)

  • Eileen Eckmeier

    (Department für Geographie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Luisenstraße 37, 80333 Munich, Germany)

  • Otto Ehrmann

    (Büro für Bodenmikromorphologie und Bodenbiologie, Münster 12, 97993 Creglingen, Germany)

  • Renate Gerlach

    (Geographisches Institut Universität Köln, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 Köln, Germany)

  • Mathias Hall

    (Forstamt Hohenlohekreis, Stuttgarter Str. 21, 74653 Künzelsau, Germany)

  • Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder

    (Geologischer Dienst Nordrhein-Westfalen, Postfach 100763, 47707 Krefeld, Germany)

  • Ludger Herrmann

    (Institut für Bodenkunde und Standortslehre, Universität Hohenheim, Emil-Wolff-Str. 27, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany)

  • Birgit Kury

    (Büro für Bodenmikromorphologie und Bodenbiologie, Münster 12, 97993 Creglingen, Germany)

  • Jutta Lechterbeck

    (Arkeologisk Museum i Stavanger, Peder Klows gate 30A, 4010 Stavanger, Norway)

  • Wolfram Schier

    (Institut für prähistorische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Germany)

  • Erhard Schulz

    (Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany)

Abstract

Long-term slash-and-burn experiments, when compared with intensive tillage without manuring, resulted in a huge data set relating to potential crop yields, depending on soil quality, crop type, and agricultural measures. Cultivation without manuring or fallow phases did not produce satisfying yields, and mono-season cropping on freshly cleared and burned plots resulted in rather high yields, comparable to those produced during modern industrial agriculture - at least ten-fold the ones estimated for the medieval period. Continuous cultivation on the same plot, using imported wood from adjacent areas as fuel, causes decreasing yields over several years. The high yield of the first harvest of a slash-and-burn agriculture is caused by nutrient input through the ash produced and mobilization from the organic matter of the topsoil, due to high soil temperatures during the burning process and higher topsoil temperatures due to the soil’s black surface. The harvested crops are pure, without contamination of any weeds. Considering the amount of work required to fight weeds without burning, the slash-and-burn technique yields much better results than any other tested agricultural approach. Therefore, in dense woodland, without optimal soils and climate, slash-and-burn agriculture seems to be the best, if not the only, feasible method to start agriculture, for example, during the Late Neolithic, when agriculture expanded from the loess belt into landscapes less suitable for agriculture. Extensive and cultivation with manuring is more practical in an already-open landscape and with a denser population, but its efficiency in terms of the ratio of the manpower input to food output, is worse. Slash-and-burn agriculture is not only a phenomenon of temperate European agriculture during the Neolithic, but played a major role in land-use in forested regions worldwide, creating anthromes on a huge spatial scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Manfred Rösch & Harald Biester & Arno Bogenrieder & Eileen Eckmeier & Otto Ehrmann & Renate Gerlach & Mathias Hall & Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder & Ludger Herrmann & Birgit Kury & Jutta Lechterbeck & Wol, 2017. "Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe—A Long-Term Experimental Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:11-:d:89510
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