Conclusions

In this chapter, I have presented an agent-based simulation of landscape development due to anthropogenic processes in the context of the Neolithic wetland settlements in the north-western pre-alpine forelands.

WELASSIMO integrates (paleo-) environmental and archaeological data and is capable of dynamically displaying the implications of various hypotheses on land use. The requirements of the non-finite resources soil fertility, suitable timber, livestock fodder and gathered plants is dynamically quantified, while finite resources such as flint are not considered. The major motivation for this research is the question, why the inhabitants of the settlements shifted their houses and thus abandoned the settlements with the high frequency observed. The hypothesis was put forth, that this might be related to the land-use activities of the people and decreasing or degrading resources or ecosystem services. To test this hypothesis, 4 scenarios were simulated, which display 4 different models on crop husbandry: Shifting Cultivation (SC), Intensive Garden Cultivation (IGC), Non-intensive Cultivation (NIC) and Integrated Forest Horticulture (IFH), the latter of which has been described here for the first time. Most other specifications of the observed system such as livestock herding, foraging and timber extraction and the settlement size have been unchanged, while nutritional habits were changed to a minor extent to underline assumptions made in the formulation of the scenarios. The results of the simulations are indicating that for a relatively small settlement, the non-finite resources probably have not been limiting and thus did most likely not determine the observed settlement pattern, which is characterized by a high mobility. To the contrary, the landscapes around the settlements did most likely provide a higher economic value than their environments, and were thus probably regarded as a valuable resource in themselves. IFH is regarded as the most proximate scenario to the conditions in the early 4th Millennium BC, as it comprises all positive evidence that support the other hypothesis IGC, SC and NIC, without the necessity to ignore data. This implies the possibility that hazelnuts play a more important role than assumed before. Long-established proof for large areas covered with hazel scrubland in the environment of the settlements, the very high nutritional value of hazelnuts and the ease of processing and the high suitability for storage justify these assumptions.

Acknowledgments I thank the Lawes Agricultural Trust and Rothamsted Research for data from the e-RA database. The Rothamsted Long-term Experiments National Capability (LTE-NCG) is supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Lawes Agricultural Trust.

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Source: Barcelo Juan A., Del Castillo Florencia (eds.). Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Springer,2016. — 410 p.. 2016

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