Neolithic communities that built some of Europe’s largest monumental tombs more than 5,600 years ago managed their environment sustainably rather than destroying prehistoric forests, according to new research by Polish scientists.
The study, led by researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology and the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, challenges long-held assumptions that the construction of megalithic monuments required widespread forest clearance. The findings have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The research focused on a cemetery at Sobota, near Poznań, which was discovered in 2018 using LiDAR technology. The site contains five monumental earthen and stone tombs, each measuring up to 145 metres in length, dating to the fourth millennium BC. The tombs were built by the Funnelbeaker culture, a Neolithic society that lived across much of Central and Northern Europe between 3800 and 2700 BC and is renowned for constructing megalithic burial monuments.
To investigate how these communities interacted with their environment, researchers combined archaeological evidence with high-resolution palaeoecological analysis. Sediment cores extracted from a nearby peat bog, once a lake, were analysed for plant pollen and microscopic and macroscopic charcoal, allowing scientists to reconstruct environmental changes almost year by year.
The results suggest that the Funnelbeaker communities adopted a form of rotational land use and avoided large-scale burning to clear forests for agriculture. Instead, they practised selective logging, removing mainly young trees and shrubs while leaving mature woodland largely intact.
According to the researchers, this management approach actually benefited the surrounding forest. By opening the canopy, more sunlight reached older trees, significantly increasing their pollen production over several centuries.
The study also found evidence that farming and livestock grazing took place close to the cemetery. Agricultural indicators, including spores of fungi associated with animal dung, suggest fields and pastures were located alongside the monumental graves or separated from them only by a small lake.
The researchers describe the communities’ economic model as “quasi-sustainable”, arguing that their use of natural resources did not undermine the long-term stability of the primeval forest ecosystem.
However, the study found that human activity was not without environmental consequences. Farming accelerated soil erosion, gradually causing the nearby lake to become shallower before eventually developing into a wetland that survives, in altered form, today.
The project, titled Lost and Found: Megalithic Funnel Beaker Culture Tombs in the Cultural and Natural Landscape of Greater Poland, was funded by Poland’s National Science Centre.
Sources : Journal of Archaeological Science
