This paper reviews the data on quaternary palynological sequences collected in the Czech Republic, attempts to store them in the Czech Quaternary Palynological Database (PALYCZ) and outlines a possible use for regional syntheses. Work on pollen stratigraphies done over the last hundred years has yielded a very large amount of data for this region. These data can be used globally for various types of environmental reconstructions and are of local importance, especially when combined with local databases. For data to be included in PALYCZ it has to meet certain criteria, the determination of the pollen of herbaceous plants must be well resolved and radiocarbon dated. As of 31 December 2008, we had reviewed 177 pollen profiles. Data from 152 sequences are already stored in PostgreSQL® in relational tables, which allow a broad range of queries to be addressed using the html protocol. The data collected since 1959 by 15 authors contain raw pollen counts together with 14C dates and various metadata on locality. All the pollen samples were ordered using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Display of the ordination diagram incorporating the appropriate millennial time slices revealed a common pattern in all data. The quality of data is also discussed in the context of the history of the research and methods used. Database access can be found at http://botany.natur.cuni.cz/palycz.
This paper presents an overview of the latest information about the beginnings of the technology of pottery making in the area of the forest-steppe belt in Siberia and the Russian part of Eastern Europe all the way to the Ural Mountains. From a continental point of view, a brief spatiotemporal diagram presents a completely different background of the beginnings of pottery in our lands and also in corresponding parts of Southeast Europe, where the origin of pottery has traditionally been linked to the Neolithisation of Europe. The earliest pottery technology in China dates back to 20 000 BP, followed by all the subsequent data from the Far East area to Lake Baikal. The earliest pottery culture, Jomon, which had been developing in Japan for more than ten thousand years, is not included here. In the Russian part of Eastern Europe, pottery technology starts developing only after 8 000 BP. Typologically uniform and mostly unchangeable development of beaker-shaped pottery, mostly with a pointed bottom, is common for both these areas. This development continues in Scandinavia and adjacent areas of the Baltic and in Atlantic Europe. In the central parts of Europe, similar shapes only occur sporadically in the earliest period. However, the earliest Eurasian pottery had influenced the development of later prehistoric periods. Numerous settlement groups on the Eurasian continents were characterised by two traditions that are archaeologically recognisable. In simple terms, one of the traditions was agricultural, the other conservative. and Práce předkládá přehled nejnovějších informací o počátcích technologie výroby keramiky v oblastech lesostepního pásma Sibiře a ruské východní Evropy až k Uralu. Data nejstarší keramické technologie v Číně přesahují číslo 20 tis. BC. Na území ruské východní Evropy začíná vývoj keramické technologie většinou až po roce 8000 BC. Obě oblasti spojuje typologicky jednotný a málo proměnlivý vývoj kotlovitých tvarů převážně se špičatým dnem. Na tento vývoj navazuje srovnatelně kulturní posloupnost ve Skandinávii a v přilehlých oblastech Baltu i Evropského pobřeží Atlantiku. V centrálních oblastech Evropy se podobné tvary vyskytnou v nejstarším období zcela ojediněle. Eurasijská nejstarší keramika však nepochybně ovlivnila vývoj i v pozdějších pravěkých obdobích. Početné skupiny osídlení na evropském i eurasijském kontinentu se vyznačovaly dvojí tradicí hmatatelnou archeologicky nejen v keramice. Zjednodušeně řečeno, jedna byla zemědělská, druhá konzervativní.
Příspěvek je zaměřen na komplexní poznání lesa jako nejdůležitějšího prvku pravěkého hospodářského systému. Přirozené složení lesního porostu a využívání stromů, lesa a lesních produktů jsou zkoumány na základě výsledků pylové, antrakologické a makrozbytkové analýzy, archeologie, etnografie a modelování. Ani jedna ze jmenovaných disciplin však v současné době nemá dostatečné množství jednoznačně interpretovatelných dat, na jejichž základě by bylo možno detailněji rekonstruovat podobu a plošný rozsah holocenního lesního porostu a zejména jeho proměny způsobené následkem lidské činnosti. and The contribution aims at complex study of forest as the most important component of the prehistoric economic system. The natural composition of forest vegetation and the exploitation of trees, forest and forest products are examined on the basis of pollen, anthracological and macro-remains analysis results, archaeology, ethnography and modelling. None of the aforementioned disciplines, however, has at present adequate unambiguously interpretable data that could be used as basis for a more detailed reconstruction of the form and extent of Holocene forest vegetation and in particular its anthropogenic changes.
Among the extant non-flying terrestrial mammals of the Mediterranean islands, we can find very few of the endemic elements that characterised the late Quaternary faunas. Instead, the existing faunas are almost exclusively dominated by continental taxa, as a rule regionally specific, related to species on the nearest mainland, and whose presence on the islands appears to be essentially related to human intervention. The legacy of this global reorganisation of the original ecological equilibrium brought about by man since prehistoric times raises considerable problems of conservation and management. First of all, in the vast majority of cases, it is impossible to reconstruct the natural ecosystems of the past, which have been degraded for millennia. However, this leaves the question of how to treat the anthropochorous mammalian populations of certified ancient origin. Several of them, in fact, represent invaluable historic documents. Frequently, they may also constitute the last survivors of continental populations which themselves vanished long ago. Their protection and their study can provide an opportunity for testing a range of different evolutionary theories, while also allowing them to be considered as an authentic “cultural heritage".
Bílé Karpaty Mts harbour some of the most species-rich managed grasslands in Europe, which contain a number of rare and disjunctly distributed species. Besides specific local environmental factors, the long Holocene history may explain the uniqueness of these grasslands. However, historical interpretations of the palaeoecological evidence from the region are far from unequivocal. While palaeomalacological data indicate persistence of open habitats throughout the entire Holocene, fragmentary pollen data support the hypothesis of a medieval origin of the grasslands. This paper reviews the available phytogeographical, archaeological and palaeoecological knowledge that provides indirect evidence for a prehistoric origin of the grasslands in the Bílé Karpaty Mts. High concentration of rare heliophilous species with a disjunct distribution in the south-western part of the Bílé Karpaty Mts suggest their long-term persistence. The archaeological findings provide evidence for the existence of prehistoric human settlement in this region since the Neolithic (Middle Holocene). Direct evidence for the existence of open human-influenced habitats before medieval times, based on the results of a multi-proxy analysis (macrofossils, molluscs and pollen) of an organic sediment dated back to Roman Age, is also provided. The results indicate the existence of an ancient cultural landscape with a mosaic of open grasslands, natural forests and fields. It is concluded that the evidence presented in this paper supports the hypothesis of prehistoric, rather than a medieval origin of the species-rich grasslands in the Bílé Karpaty Mts.