Crops and weeds

In the fluvial landscapes of the Flevoland area and the Rhine-Meuse delta zone, we aim at reconstructing past subsistence-related activities. Such activities to be investigated include both crop cultivation and vegetation management (e.g. clearing by burning). Data for this kind of activities will be assembled from multi-proxy botanical analyses on a series of samples from sediment cores. Proxies include pollen, macro-remains, phytoliths and charred herbaceous tissues.

After determining the landscape general vegetation characteristics for the research area, we will investigate whether there was a detectable change between 6000 and 4000 BC and whether this change was the result of human activities. Finally, we will investigate what botanical indicators for crops (esp. cereals) are present in the fluvial landscape, and whether there are changes in those indicators, pointing to the introduction or intensification of cultivation practices between 6000 and 4000 BC.

The PhD candidate on this project (Ana Smuk) is based at the University of Groningen with a secondment at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).