Abstract
During the Dark Ages, which includes the Late Roman Period (LRP) 300-500 AD and the Early Middle Ages (EMA) 500-1000 AD, large scale vegetation development is characterized by a forest regeneration. This short phase of forest regeneration in between periods of land reclamation gives us an unique chance to study the resilience and the ability of an already altered landscape to return to its original state. This vegetation redevelopment phase was not uniform across the Netherlands. A comparison between existing pollenrecords shows that forest redevelopment started earlier and was more severe in the southern part of the Netherlands than in the eastern coversand region.
The prevailing view advocates that the forest redevelopment is the result of a diminishing human influence on the landscape due to the collapse of the Roman empire. Following this view, regional changes in forest regeneration are explained by varying population densities. However, there are indications that climate and changes in the physical landscape also played a role. Existing climate-records indicate a colder and wetter climate during the Dark Ages and the geomorphological record points to a changing landscape. How and to what extent these climatic and environmental changes contributed to the changes in vegetation development or even to the decline of the Roman empire is largely unknown.
To understand the relative importance of the factors (climate, environment, economy and demography) explaining vegetation development it is important to accurately map regional differences in vegetation. To give an overview of the spatial vegetation development all available pollenrecords from the Low Countries are collected. The data is collected from published records and archives from several universities and research institutes. This amounts to a total of ca. 500 sites dating from the Subatlantic period covering the whole of the Netherlands. This unique database can provide us a good overview of the differences in timing and amplitude of the vegetation development during the Dark Ages. In a later phase of the research the spatial differences in vegetation development can be compared to climatic, geomorphological and archaeological records to further understand the factors controlling vegetation development and to quantify the human influence on the landscape.
The prevailing view advocates that the forest redevelopment is the result of a diminishing human influence on the landscape due to the collapse of the Roman empire. Following this view, regional changes in forest regeneration are explained by varying population densities. However, there are indications that climate and changes in the physical landscape also played a role. Existing climate-records indicate a colder and wetter climate during the Dark Ages and the geomorphological record points to a changing landscape. How and to what extent these climatic and environmental changes contributed to the changes in vegetation development or even to the decline of the Roman empire is largely unknown.
To understand the relative importance of the factors (climate, environment, economy and demography) explaining vegetation development it is important to accurately map regional differences in vegetation. To give an overview of the spatial vegetation development all available pollenrecords from the Low Countries are collected. The data is collected from published records and archives from several universities and research institutes. This amounts to a total of ca. 500 sites dating from the Subatlantic period covering the whole of the Netherlands. This unique database can provide us a good overview of the differences in timing and amplitude of the vegetation development during the Dark Ages. In a later phase of the research the spatial differences in vegetation development can be compared to climatic, geomorphological and archaeological records to further understand the factors controlling vegetation development and to quantify the human influence on the landscape.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - Feb 2014 |