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Farmers and Forests in neolithic Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Grahame Clark
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Antiquity , Volume 19 , Issue 74 , June 1945 , pp. 57 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1945

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References

1 A. Penck, ‘Das Deutsche Reich’ in A. Kirchhoff’s Länderkunde des Erdteils Europa, 1, 1887. S. 441. I have been unable to check the reference and have had to rely upon the excerpt quoted by J. Hoops, Waldbäume und Kulturpflanzen im germanischen Altertum. Strasbourg, 1905, S. 98-99.

1a Penck is quoted as having written of the early farmers that . . . ‘wenn nicht gerade abgenommen werden soll, das dieselbe instinktiv innerhalb grosser Waldflächen den besten Feldboden rodete, so ist wohl wahrsheinlich, das sie die Lössdistrikte in waldfreien Zustande als Wiesengebiete vorfand, ahnlich den Prärien des nordamerikanischen Westens’. Op. cit. s. 441.

2 C. Schott, ‘Urlandschaft und rodung. Vergleichende betrachtungen aus Europa und Kanada’, Z. d. Ges. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1935, s. 81-102. See s. 100.

2a Dr H. Godwin, F.R.S., to whom I am deeply indebted for reading this article in typescript and offering valuable criticism, tells me that the great American ecologist F. E. Clements based his work on ‘Plant Indicators’ on this very possibility. In modern American and Continental forestry practice it is usual to estimate the condition and potentialities of the soil from the nature of the ground flora. We may be sure that early man accumulated sufficient lore on this subject to enable him to decide where to make his clearances.

3 J. Hoops, op. cit. s. 99 : ‘Es ist also nich sowohl der fruchtbare Lössboden als solcher, sondem der waldfreie Charakter seiner Oberfläche, mit andem Worten, es sind die einstigen Tundra- und Steppenflächen, die den ackerbauenden Neolithiker genau so, wie früher den paläolithischen Menschen, in erster Linie anzogen’.

4 R. Gradmann, Das Pflanzenleben der sckwabischen Alb. 1st. edt., 1898, 2nd edt. 1900, 3rd edt. 1936 ; ‘Das mitteleuropäische landschaftsbild nach seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung’, Geogr. Z. 7 (1901), 361-377 and 435-447 ; ‘Beziehung zwichen Pflanzengeographie und Siedlungs- geschichte’, Georgr. Z. 12 (1906), 305-325, etc.

5 R. Sernander, Die schwedischen Torfmoore ah Zeugen postglazialer Klimasckwankungen. Geologkongr. Stockholm, 1910.

6 H. Gams and R. Nordhagen, ‘Postglaziale Klimaänderungen und Erdkrustenbewegungen in Mitteleuropa’, Mitt. Geogr. Ges. Munich, 1923.

7 C. A. Weber, ‘Was lehrt der Aufbau der Moore Norddeutschlands über den Wechsel des Klimas in postglazialer Zeit’, Z. d. Deutsch. Geol. Ges., bd. 62, s. 143-62.

8 e.g. E. Wahle, Ostdeutschland in jungneolithischer Zeit, ein prähistorisch-geographischer Versuch. Mannus Bibl. no. 15. Wurzburg, 1918, s. 98.

9 H. Reinerth, Die Jüngere Steinzeit der Schweiz. Augsburg, 1926, s. 16-29.

10 K. Bertsch, ‘Klima, Pflanzendecke und Besiedlung Mitteleuropas in vorundfruhgeschichtlicher Zeit nach den Ergebnissen der pollenanalytischen Forschung’, Rom. Germ. Komm., 18 Ber., 1928. Frankfurt a.M.

11 P. Keller, ‘Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen am Schweizer Mooren und ihre florengeschichtliche Deutung’, Veroff. des Geobot. Inst. Rubel in Zurich, 1928.

12 H. Nietsch, Wald und Siedlung im Vorgeschichtliche Mitteleuropa. Mannus Bibl. no. 64. 1939, see s. 48-51.

13 e.g. R. Schütrumpf, ‘Die paläobotanisch-pollenanalytische Untersuchung’ in A. Rust, Das Altsteinzeitliche Rentierjägerlager Meiendorf. Neumünster, 1937, s. 11-47.

14 J. Iversen, ‘Land occupation in Denmark’s Stone Age’, Dan. Geol. Unders. 11 R. Nr. 66. Copenhagen, 1941. Note, also, comments by Dr H. Godwin in Nature, vol. 153, p. 511. Some implications of I versen’s work were suggested by the present writer in a lecture at the London Univ. Inst, of Archaeology’s Conference in the summer of 1944.

15 H. Godwin, ‘Age and origin of the “Breckland” heaths of East Anglia’, Nature, vol. 154, p. 6.

16 Types of British Vegetation, ed. by A. G. Tansley. Cambridge, 1911, pp. 65-66.

17 A. G. Tansley, The British Isles and their vegetation. Cambridge, 1939, p. 164.

18 R. Tüxen, ‘Die Grandlagen der Urlandschaftsforschung. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Geschichte, der anthropogenen Beeinflussung der Vegetation Mitteleuropas’, Nadir, aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte, 1931, S. 59-105. See S. 77 and S. 88-9.

19 H. Nietsch, op. cit. S. 180-1.

20 H. Nietsch, op. cit. S. 155-67.

21 G. Schwantes, Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins. Bd. I. Vorgeschichte. Lief., 1-7. Neumünster, 1939, S. 462 ff.

22 Sir Cyril Fox, The Personality of Britain, 1st ed., p. 79.

23 Freely translated from the original (Nietsch, op. cit. S. 167) : ‘Wo die Eichen am besten wachsen, finden sie den besten Acker, gedeiht ihnen das Vieh, und sie selber bleiben tatkräftige wehrhafte Waldbauern . . .’

24 G. Schwantes, op. cit. S. 461.

25 e.g. Ant. J. XV, pp. 302-3.

26 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1936, p. 188.

27 Ant. J. VII, 1927, pp. 438-64 ; VIII, 1928, pp. 461-77.

28 Ant. J. XV, 1935, pp. 347-8.

25 Op. cit. 1st edtn., pp. 48-9. Absent from the current (4th) edtn.

30 Mr H. A. Hyde, Keeper of Botany at the National Museum of Wales, has recently published evidence on this point from the Middle Bronze Age Pond Cairn, Glam. (Archaeologia 87, p. 175-6). He states that, while it would be unsafe to reconstruct a picture of local vegetation from the samples examined, yet ‘the use as fire-wood of so much gorse, bracken, hawthorn and hazel, in comparison with oak and ash, probably indicates that locally at least the forest had already been destroyed and replaced by grassland and scrub ; indeed on the botanical side no such direct evidence for early deforestation seems previously to have been published’.

31 O. G. S. Crawford, The Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, Gloucester, 1925. Passim, e.g. nos. 2, 3, 13, 19, 23, 27, 41, 42, 44, 52, 57, 61, 66, 68. In addition one may note that the Giant’s Cave, Luckington, bush-grown when visited by Crawford, was covered by ‘some oakes and other trees and boscage’ in Aubrey’s day ; also what appears to have been a chambered tomb, described by George Clinch as deep in a thick wood at St. Margaret’s, in the Black Mountains of Herefordshire, ibid. nos. 78 and 61 respectively, was not to be found at the time of Crawford’s visit.

If the reader refers to the photographs of Danish and north German chambered tombs reproduced by Brøndsted (Danmarks Oldtid, I, figs. 112, 113, 144, 146, 148) Sprockhoff (Die nordische Megalithkultur. Berlin, 1938. Taf. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.) and Schwantes (op. cit. taf. 14, abb. 209 210), he will find ample evidence for the occurrence of such monuments under trees.

32 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1938, p. 212.

33 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1936, p. 114.

34 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1939, pp. 120-1.

35 Archaeologia, vol. 85, 1935, p. 253.

36 ibid. p. 281.

37 Proc. Prehist Soc., 1936, p, 114.

38 L. F. A. Maury, Histoire des grandes fôrets de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France. Paris, 1850. pp. 163-4.

39 J. Hoops, op. cit. p. 9.

40 e.g. G. Schwantes, op. cit. s. 458 ; H. Nietsch, op. cit. S. 159.

41 L. F. A. Maury, op. cit. p. 320.

42 J. Hoops, op. cit. S. 91 ff.

43 V. G. Childe, ‘The Forest Cultures of Northern Europe : a Study in Evolution and Diffusion’, J. R. A. I. LXI, 1931, pp. 325-48 ; also J. G. D. Clark, The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe. Cambridge, 1936.

44 J. G. D. Clark, op. cit. p. 105.

45 For Mesolithic dug-out canoes and paddle-rudders, ibid. pp. 107-9.

45a J. Ailio, Die steinzeitlichen Wohnplatzfunde in Finland. Helsingfors, 1909. Bd. 1, S. 2 ; bd. 11, S. 150.

46 A. Grenier, ‘Aux origines de l’économie rurale’, Annales d’historie économique et sociale, t. 2e, 1330, p. 28.

47 l. Manninen, Die Finnisch-Ugrischen Völker, Leipzig, 1932, S. 274-5.

48 C. Schott, op. cit. S. 98-99.

49 I. Manninen, op. cit. S. 30.

50 We reject alike the antiquity of the notorious Walle plough and validity of the Bodman reconstruction’.

51 Marc Bloch, Les Caractères originaux de l’histoire rurale française. Oslo, 1931, pp. 27-9.

52 F. Keller, The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland. Trs. London, 1866, p. 47.

53 e.g. R. R. Schmidt, Jungsteinzeit-Siedlungen im Federseemoor. I. Lief. Augsburg, 1930, S. 64, 66, 67, etc.

54 c.g. Giants’ Hills, Lincs. C. W. Phillips, Arch, LXXXV, pp. 47-8, 49, 59.

55 It is possible that the flint and stone axes found respectively in the Erith and Clyde dug-out canoes may have been used to hollow them out or possibly to fell the parent tree. See Ant. J. VI, p. 127.

56 Sir John Evans, The Ancient Stone Implements . . . of Great Britain. 2nd edtn. London, 1897, p. 69.

57 ibid. p. 162.

58 Quoted from H. Nietsch, op. cit. S. 70.

59 A. Grenier, op. cit. p. 29.

60 e.g. by Fox, op. cit. ist edtn., p. 71 ; 4th edtn., p. 79.

61 F. Mager, Entwicklungsgeschichte de Kulturlandschaft des Herzogtums Schleswig in historischer Zeit. Breslau, 1930 ; also ‘Die Rodungsfrage in Altpreussen’, Jhrber. d. Universitätsbundes. Konigsberg, 1934, quoted by Schwantes, op. cit. s. 462-3 and Schott, op. cit. S. 86 f.

62 I. Manninen, op. cit. S. 245.

63 G. Retzius, Finnland. Schilderungen ans seiner Natur, seiner alten Kältur undseinem heutigen Volksleben. Berlin, 1885, S. 42-5.

64 Runo XXI, 350. Everyman edtn. vol. I, p. 248.

65 C. Schott, op. cit. 96-9.

66 C. S. Orwin, The Open Fields, pp. 52-6. Oxford, 1938.

87 C. Parain, ‘The evolution of agricultural technique’, The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, I, pp. 118-68, p. 162. Cambridge, 1941.

88 Lord Ernie (R. E. Prothero), English Farming Past and Present, 5th ed. (Ed. Sir A. D. Hall), pp. 16-7. London, 1936.

69 e.g. H. C. Darby, ‘Domesday woodland in East Anglia’, ANTIQUITY, 1934, pp. 211-15, and F. W. Morgan, ‘Domesday woodland in Southwest England’, ANTIQUITY, 1936, pp. 306-24.

70 Quoted from C. S. Orwin, op. cit.

71 A. G. Tansley, op. cit. p. 66. Tansley quotes A. C. Forbes (The Development of British Forestry, London, 1910, p. 7) for the view that one cause of the British Isles and the seaboard of western Europe being among the most poorly wooded parts of Europe may be that the mild winters of Atlantic regions allow grazing all the year round.

72 This was one of the chief lessons from Fox’s epoch-making study, The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region. Cambridge, 1923.

73 R. Gradmann, op. cit. 1901, S. 374.

74 J. Hoops, op. cit. S. 100.

75 Intensive study of different areas has shown that, in fact, extensions of the area of settlement during prehistoric times did sometimes occur, e.g. in central and southern Germany. See H. Nietsch, op. cit. S. 209-10.