ИСТИНА

Overview Stats Comments Citations References Related research (10+) Share Abstract It is believed that the slash-and-burn cultivation (SABC) was practiced at least since the Bronze Age. Numerous archaeological cultures were associated with the SABC subsistence based on the evidence for plant cultivation in the absence of agricultural implements and frequent changes in the location of dwelling sites. Given the short cropping phase and a long rotation cycle of SABC, it is assumed to have been ubiquitous in the past, affecting many forested landscapes. However, its diagnostic features in the soil were formulated only recently, thanks to the work of Tomson et al (2018) who found sites affected by the SABC in 19th century, localized them in the landscape and showed the importance of soil charcoal assemblages for determining whether a site was involved in the SABC cycle in the past. A multi-proxy analysis of the historically documented swiddens (Ponomarenko et al. 2018) showed that the swidden layers appeared as 5 to 10cm thick, dark-coloured “humus” layers with a characteristic scalloped lower boundary, formed by numerous constructions of fossorial insects, predominantly sweat bees (Fig. 1). The dark coloration originates from high concentrations of charcoal fragments with a median length of 4 to 5 mm, pebbly shape and silt coating, uniformly distributed within the swidden layers. Swidden charcoal assemblages contained a low proportion of bark (<10%), with foliage (buds and needles) being a common component, in contrast to the products of forest fires dominated by charred bark. Phytolith content of SABC layers varied from tens to hundreds of thousands per gram of soil, with up to 50% of phytoliths being charred. SABC layers contained dendritic and/or panicoid phytoliths and cereal glumes and paleas indicative of in situ cultivation of crops. These diagnostic features laid a methodological base for our current project “Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of SABC in Central Russia” (RFBR project 19-04-01246A) using a network of sites located along the major waterways that acted as traditional migration routes and presented opportunities for swidden cultivation on river banks. According to the analysis of the first 20 sites within this network, the oldest traces of the Early Iron Age SABC were found so far in the sites located on Mid-Volga, within a modern forest-steppe zone. A greater number of sites will be analyzed to create a preliminary map of SABC and draw possible routes of the swidden technology transfer/migration within the Russian Plain. All interested researchers are invited to collaborate on the project, contributing locations of sites where the soil morphology diagnostic of SABC (Fig. 1) was recorded to the database