Pollen Evidence in Exploring Settlement Dynamics, Land Use, and Subsistence Strategies in the Aland Islands through Multiproxy Analyses from the Lake Dalkarby Trask Sediment Record - UTU Research Portal

A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Pollen Evidence in Exploring Settlement Dynamics, Land Use, and Subsistence Strategies in the Aland Islands through Multiproxy Analyses from the Lake Dalkarby Trask Sediment Record

Authors: Alenius Teija, Ilves Kristin, Saarinen Timo

Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Publication year: 2022

Journal: Environmental Archaeology

Journal name in source: ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Journal acronym: ENVIRON ARCHAEOL

Number of pages: 15

ISSN: 1461-4103

eISSN: 1749-6314

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2022.2053826

Web address : https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2022.2053826

Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/174994889

Abstract

In this study, which presents pollen, charcoal, and 'soot'-particle records from a lacustrine sediment core, the development of the cultural landscape around Lake Dalkarby trask on the Aland Islands in Finland is scrutinised and discussed within a broad temporal setting in order to clarify the long-term interplay between the environment and human activities in this part of the archipelago. Special emphasis is given to the transition period from the Late Iron Age to medieval times due to the dominating humanistic discourse on the settlement dynamics in this region, as in the Aland archipelago in general, arguing for an approximately 150-years-long hiatus in habitation between these two periods, from AD 1050 to 1200. Our results do not support the hiatus theories but show a long and continuous history of the utilisation of land and forest resources starting from prehistoric times. The forests were first cleared with fire for slash-and-burn cultivation. Thereafter, structural diversity in the landscape started to increase. By 1240, the pollen data portrays a picture of a developed agrarian community with a subsistence economy based on arable farming and animal husbandry in which hemp seems to play a substantial part.

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