Prähistorische Besiedlung von zentralen Alpentälern in Bezug zur Klimaentwicklung

Innsbruck

2009

S. 77-86

3 Abb., 47 Lit. Ang.

Artikel aus einer ZeitschriftUnselbständiges Werk

200155652

Climate impact on ecosystems is a matter of thresholds and scale. Here we present the compilation of the pre-historic colonization of central Alpine valleys tracked by pollen analyses which we correlate with the record of sub-fossil logs from altitudes above 2000 m, as well as with the oxygen-isotope curve from Greenland ice cores (NGRIP). Both serve as proxies for the climate development in the Alps, but also on a larger (northern hemispheric) scale. On long-term scales no relationship between settlement and climate was detectable, but shorter time-scales (<500 years) indicated a positive correlation, at least for parts of the Neolithic (e.g. between ca. 4500 and 3000 and ca. 2800 and 2400 BC, before Christ). A negative correlation was indicated for the period from ca. 3000 until 2800 BC. Climate deteriorations (e.g. as around 2700 BC) seem not to have severely affected the settling in central Alpine valleys indicating robust and resistant agricultural structures. From the Bronze Age onwards there was no significant correlation between climate and peopling of these Alpine valleys. These examples showed that climate has been an important trigger, but the relationship between climate and settling is more complex (e.g. influence of socio-economic structures, ore resources, etc.).