Revealing the cultivation history of northernmost Sweden: Evidence from pollen records

Archaeological and historical records suggest that cultivation became established rather late in northern Fennoscandia, preferably in coastal villages of northernmost Sweden during the 14th century. The expansion of these settlements has obliterated the relevant biological archives, thus restricting our ability to conduct palaeoecological studies of the oldest villages and limiting our knowledge of their cultivation history. In a secondary phase, new settlements were established around the periphery of these primary villages. We hypothesize that such secondary villages, which generally are only moderately affected by urban expansion, may function as key sites for vegetation-history studies and that the results can be extrapolated to provide clues about the establishment of primary villages and the initiation of associated permanent cultivations. Analyses of pollen, pollen accumulation rates, charred particles and loss-on-ignition residues from a small lake in the secondary village of Arnemark revealed continuous land use from at least c. 1650 cal. BP (cal. ad 300), a step-up phase in grazing and trampling around 1200 cal. BP (cal. ad 750), and permanent cultivation during the last c. 625 years (cal. ad 1325). The results suggest that the secondary village was established around cal. ad 750, that is, c. 600 years earlier than previously thought and that cultivation here was initiated at the same time as has been suggested for the primary villages by the coast. In this study, we also demonstrate that using pollen from old cereal types as references can make the distinction between cereal and wild-grass pollen more reliable.