The Environment and Subsistence of the Early Neolithic Settlement Area at Těšetice-Kyjovice, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a reconstruction of environmental conditions and subsistence strategies in the Early Neolithic (6th Millenium BC) settlement area at Těšetice-Kyjovice (Czech Republic). Our detailed reconstruction of the environment contributes to the unravelling of the genesis and spread of steppes and the formation of secondary anthropogenic forest-free areas in the Holocene in eastern-Central Europe. Mollusc shells, charcoals and plant macroremains were used as on-site evidence of a settlement environment. A relatively warm and dry anthropogenic forest-free area is reconstructed for the immediate vicinity of the Early Neolithic settlement. Communities of mixed deciduous forests are recorded in the surroundings of the settlement. Plant macroremains reflect the characteristic Neolithic range of cultivated plants (e.g. Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccon, Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum). Papaver somniferum seeds were also found, possibly constituting the oldest evidence of its presence and cultivation in the territory of the Czech Republic.

KEYWORDS:

• Past environment
• forest history
• subsistence strategy
• Early Neolithic
• eastern Central Europe

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Martin Hložek, Inna Mateiciucová and Klára Šabatová for their effort to initiate soil sampling and flotation of archaeological contexts at the Těšetice-Kyjovice site, Jan Kolář, Libor Petr and Jan Petřík for proofreading an earlier draft of this paper, Jana Mihályiová for an introduction to anthracological methods, Lumír Poláček for a lending us microscopes, and anonymous reviewers for their help, insightful comments and suggestions. We also thank Frederick Rooks for language advice on our text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ivana Vostrovská is an archaeologist focussed on the Neolithic Period, settlement archaeology and archaeometry. She is currently finishing her dissertation at Masaryk University and she is a junior lecturer at Palacky University. She participated in several grants and projects at the both mentioned universities; present day it is ‘‘The origin of cultural landscape in Moravia: investigation of the unique Neolithic well from Uničov’ by the Czech Science Foundation.

Jarmila Bíšková is an environmental archaeologist, who specialises in molluscs from archaeological contexts. She reconstructs past environments and site formation processes. She is currently Ph.D. student at Masaryk University.

Hana Lukšíková is an environmental archaeologist, who specialises in charred macroremains and anthracology from archaeological contexts. She is working in Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno.

Petr Kočár is a biologist and geobotanist, who specialises in charred macroremains and anthracology from archaeological contexts. He is currently Ph.D. student at Charles University and working in Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He participated in several grants and projects at the both mentioned institutions; present day it is ‘The origin of cultural landscape in Moravia: investigation of the unique Neolithic well from Uničov’ by the Czech Science Foundation.

Romana Kočárová is a biologist and geobotanist, who specialises in anthracology from archaeological contexts. She is working in Department of Archaeology and Museology at Masaryk University.

ORCID

Ivana Vostrovská http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2650-9908

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University under Grant MUNI/21/VOS/2014 and by the Czech Science Foundation under Grants GAČR 13-11193S and GAČR 17-11711S.