This volume, published jointly as PACT 52 and Birka Studies 4, is devoted to the environmental history of Viking Age urban sites and their hinterlands, with special reference to Birka, Sweden. The analysis of pollens, diatoms, phytoliths, soil chemistry, macrofossils (fruits, seeds, plant remains, molluscs), the magnetic susceptibility of sediments, the seismic characteristics of the ground, soil erosion and rubbish, are of great value to the study of urban ecology. The authors are mostly the participants in a seminar held on Björkö in 1994; some special studies on Birka were carried out by members of the Birka Environmental History Research Team. The collaboration between the Central Board of National Antiquities (Riksantikvarieämbetet, RAA) and Stockholm University (Dept. of Quaternary Research and Archaeological Research Laboratory) has generated new interdisciplinary research methods and new results for the history of Northern Europe.
Author(s): Urve Miller, Björn Ambrosiani, Helen Clarke, Tony Hackens, Ann-Marie Hansson, Birgitta Johansson (eds.)
Series: PACT, 52. Birka Studies, 4
Publisher: PACT
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 276
City: Rixensart
Foreword, by Björn Ambrosiani, Urve Miller and Tony Hackens 7
Introduction, by the Birka Editorial Team 9
I. THE CONTRIBUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES TO EARLY URBAN SITES
1. M. Aalto and H. Heinäjoki-Majander / Archaeobotany and Palaeoenvironment of the Viking Age Town of Staraja Ladoga (Russia) 13
2. B.E. Berglund / Methods for Reconstructing Ancient Cultural Landscapes: the Example of the Viking Age Landscape at Bjäresjö, Skåne, Southern Sweden 31
3. S. Karlsson and A.-M. Robertsson / Human Impact in the Lake Mälaren Region, South-central Sweden during the Viking Age (AD 750-1050): a Survey of Biostratigraphical Evidence 47
4. L.-K. Königsson and G. Possnert / Pollen Analysis Covering the Past 4000 Radiocarbon Years of the Cultural Landscape of the Novgorod Area, Russia 73
5. M. Latałowa / Some Problems in the Palaeoecological Interpretation of Archaeological Layers in the Early Medieval Port of Wolin, Northwest Poland 91
6. I. Vuorela / Palaeoecological Aspects of Urban Sites in Southern Finland 105
II. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
1. B. Aaby / Mineral Dust and Pollen as Tracers of Agricultural Activities 115
2. K. Griffin / The Usefulness of Fossil Plant Remains in Reconstructing Environment and Interpretation of Early Town Sites 123
3. S. Hicks / Pollen Analogues and Pollen Influx Values as Tools for Interpreting the History of a Settlement Centre and its Hinterland 137
4. T. Håkansson / Soil Micromorphology with Special Reference to "Dark Earth" 151
5. K. D. Thomas / Environmental Archaeology and Early Towns 155
6. C. Tjngvall / Phytolith Studies of Selected Cereals and Other Grasses 167
III. APPLICATIONS AT BIRKA
1. T. Andrén and G. Lindeberg / A Shallow Seismic Refraction Survey at Björkö, Eastern Sweden 175
2. J. Björck / Bio- and Lithostratigraphical Investigations of a Sediment Core from the Björkö Strait, Lake Mälaren, Offshore from the Excavations in the Black Earth 189
3. A.-M. Hansson and J. H. Dickson / Plant Remains in Sediment from the Björkö Strait Outside the Black Earth at the Viking Age Town of Birka, Eastern Central Sweden 205
4. B. M. Johansson / Molluscs and Man - the Cultural and Environmental Evidence on Björkö 217
5. S. Karlsson / Pollen Analysis from a Rock Depression, the Hillfort, Birka, Björkö 239
6. J. Risberg and J. Björck / Lithostratigraphy in the Björkö Strait, Lake Mälaren 249
7. J. Risberg and U. Miller / Siliceous Microfossils in Soils, Ash Strata and Sediments from the Birka Excavation Site and its Surroundings 261
