DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sj3tx963f
title: Data from: Middle Bronze Age land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland – A multi-proxy study of colluvial deposits, archaeological features and peat bogs

description: This paper aims to reconstruct Middle Bronze Age (MBA) land use practices
 in the north-western Alpine foreland (SW Germany, Hegau). We used a
 multi-proxy approach including the biogeochemical proxies from colluvial
 deposits in the surrounding of the well-documented settlement site of
 Anselfingen and offsite pollen data from two peat bogs. This approach
 allowed in-depth insights into the MBA subsistence economy and shows that
 the MBA in the north-western Alpine foreland was a period of establishing
 settlements with sophisticated land management and land use practices. The
 reconstruction of phases of colluvial deposition was based on ages from
 optically luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating from
 multi-layered colluvial deposits and supports the local archaeological
 record with the first phase of major colluvial deposition occurring during
 the MBA followed by phases of colluvial deposition during the Iron Age,
 the Medieval period, and modern times. The onsite deposition of charred
 archaeobotanical remains and animal bones from archaeological features, as
 well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), charcoal spectra,
 phytoliths, soil microstructure, urease enzymatic activity, microbial
 biomass carbon (Cmic) and heavy metal contents, were used as proxies for
 onsite and near-site land use practices. The charcoal spectra indicate MBA
 forest management which favoured the dominance of Quercus in the woodland
 vegetation in the surrounding area north of the settlement site. Increased
 levels of 5ß stanols (up to 40 %) and the occurrence of pig bones (up to
 14 %) support the presence of a forest pasture mainly used for pig
 farming. In the surrounding area south of the settlement, an agricultural
 field with a buried MBA plough horizon (2Apb) could be verified by soil
 micromorphological investigations and high concentrations of grass
 phytoliths from leaves and stems. Agricultural practices (e.g. ploughing,
 manuring) focussed on five stable cereal crops (Hordeum distichon/vulgare,
 Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum, Triticum spelta, Triticum
 aestivum/turgidum), while the presence of stilted pantries as storage
 facilities and of heat stones indicate post-harvest processing of cereal
 crops and other agrarian products within the settlement. In the area
 surrounding the settlement, increased levels of urease activity, compared
 to microbial biomass carbon (up to 2.1 µg N µg Cmic-1), and input of
 herbivorous and omnivorous animal faeces indicate the application of
 manure and/or livestock husbandry on fallow land. The PAH suites and their
 spatial distribution support the use of fire for various purposes, e.g.
 for opening and maintaining the landscape, for domestic burning and for
 technical applications. The offsite palynological data support the
 observed change in onsite and near-site vegetation as well as the
 occurrence of related land use practices. During the Early and Middle
 Bronze Age fire played a major role in shaping the landscape and
 anthropogenic activities promoted oak dominated forest ecosystems at the
 expense of natural beech forests. This indicates a broader regional human
 influence in the north-western Alpine foreland at low and mid altitude
 inland sites during the Middle Bronze Age.