The impact of the Przeworsk culture settlement (200-500 AD) on the vegetation in the Liswarta River basin, south-central Poland: combined pollen and plant macrofossil evidence

The vegetation of the lower Liswarta River basin during the development of the Przeworsk culture settlement is described. In the 2 nd century AD the settlement of this culture entered the area and developed continuously to the beginning of the 5 th century AD when it suddenly disappeared. A complex of settlements and cemeteries covered about 450-500 km². The main occupation of the dwellers were soil cultivation and cattle rais- ing. The reconstruction of the vegetation is based on botanical evidence provided by the study of charred plant remains and impressions from four localities of the Przeworsk culture, Wąsosz Gorny site 3 and Opatow sites 1, 4, 6, as well as pollen from a mire near the village Walenczow. Syntaxonomic classifi cation of plant associations is used in order to reconstruct the presumed plant communities that could develop under human impact. Plant cultivation and animal keeping caused the reduction of forest stands with elm, oak, lime, spruce, and hazel and promoted the expansion of hornbeam, beech, and fi r. Cultivated plants included barley, rye, spelt wheat, oat, millet, pea, and fl ax, possibly also emmer wheat and hemp. The presence of plants which can grow on fallows suggests that some kind of fi eld rotation was practised. Animals were grazed in meadows, fallows and forests. The exploitation of forests included procurement of timber, mostly oak and pine, clearing of forests with the use of fi re, forest grazing, and gathering useful plants for food and other uses. The comparison of macrofossil and pollen data showed that most of the information about fi eld and ruderal weeds and plants growing in for- est mantles derives from samples of charred grain from Wąsosz Gorny, while the daub samples from Opatow and pollen samples from Walenczow are much poorer in this respect. The most complete evidence concerning cultivated plants also comes from Wąsosz Gorny, slightly less information is obtained from impressions found in Opatow, and still less from the pollen diagram. On the other hand, the grassland fl ora is best represented in the pollen diagram and the forest fl ora in pollen and anthracological analyses.