IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/yenvxx/v29y2024i6p498-512.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inferring Long-term Land-use Development Through On-site Botanical Analyses at Øvre Øksnevad, Southwestern Norway

Author

Listed:
  • Erik Daniel Fredh
  • Dawn Elise Mooney

Abstract

This study analysed pollen and plant macrofossils from mainly Bronze Age and Iron Age funerary, agricultural and settlement remains, to infer local plant exploitation and long-term land-use development at Øvre Øksnevad in southwestern Norway. The results showed that deciduous woodland covered the site prior to c. 2100 BC. After this, until c. 500 BC, the vegetation became dominated by grasses/herbs, while several phases of land clearance and cultivation were identified. The main human activity on the site was c. 600-300 BC, when a settlement was established and most of the 103 cairns registered at the site were constructed. Grazing on heathland was the main land-use from 300 BC, until another short-lived settlement was established c. AD 1-200, while regular burning of the heathland occurred from c. AD 1300. The relatively short-lived settlement at Øvre Øksnevad suggests it was marginal and only used during times of high population pressure, a conclusion which is supported by the botanical evidence. This study demonstrates how comprehensive sampling for botanical remains can contribute to the understanding of complex archaeological sites, including local land-use development and human-plant interactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Daniel Fredh & Dawn Elise Mooney, 2024. "Inferring Long-term Land-use Development Through On-site Botanical Analyses at Øvre Øksnevad, Southwestern Norway," Environmental Archaeology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 498-512, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:29:y:2024:i:6:p:498-512
    DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2022.2090821
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14614103.2022.2090821
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14614103.2022.2090821?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:29:y:2024:i:6:p:498-512. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/yenv .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.