DOI Kapitel:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI Kapitel:Bauerochse, Andreas; Leuschner, Hanns Hubert: Neolithic colonisation of the southwestern Dümmer basin (NW Germany) – evidence from palaeobotanical data
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0053
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Neolithic colonisation of the southwestern Dummer basin (NW Germany) - evidence from palaeobotanical data
oaks from Totes Moor (Steinhuder Meer area, Ha-
nover District [Fig. 10: TOMO 1]; Achterberg et al.
2018), Vehnemoor (Ammerland District), and Huven-
hopsmoor (Rotenburg District, Fig. 10: HUVE) docu-
ment rising water tables, we suggest a more general
increase and equal annual distribution in precipitation
rather than single significant rainfall events causing
floods.
For the following centuries, anthropogenic indica-
tors display continuous human impact. Whether the
construction of Pr 36 some 500 years later was the
answer to increasing paludification or the resumption
Fig. 7 Trackway Pr 32. The trackway indicates the end of a pe-
riod characterised by a lowered water table. Built within a bog
pine forest, its construction marks the start of raised bog forma-
tion at Campemoor (photo A. Bauerochse).
of an earlier road connection remains open at the
moment. Contemporaneous dying-off events of bog
pines from Vechtaer Moor (VECMO 1, VECMO 2,
about 30 km north of Campemoor) and Totes Moor
(TOMO 3, some 70 km east of Campemoor) and the
decrease of anthropogenic indicators (Fig. 2) support
the suggestion of increased wetness during this pe-
riod (Fig. 10). At this time radiocarbon dates for site
Hunte 3, one of the settlements north of Lake Dum-
mer, also document colonisation near the lake, some
13 km northeast of Campemoor site (Heumuller et al.
2017; cf. Heumuller et al., this volume).
Some generations later, in 3798 BC, people built
trackway Pr 34 about 100 m further to the east (Fig. 6).
This happened probably without even knowing about
the previous constructions - which were probably
already covered by peat at that time - and in a pe-
riod for which dendroecological investigations on
trees from other north German peatlands suggest in-
creased germination of bog pines (Fig. 10: TOMO 2,
TOMO 3, VECMO 1, VECMO 2). Initially this seems
to be a contradiction. But already a couple of years
later, the first of these sites again show dying-off events
(Fig. 10: OY, TOMO 3). So we assume that Pr 34 was
probably built in a short-term drier phase, and as all
timbers examined were cut in the same year and no
maintenance work was documented, we assume a
short-term use of this trackway. Subsequently a sig-
nificant increase in water level, documented on site
by pollen of floating leaf plants, created a lake, which
then flooded the construction. Pollen samples taken
from a core some 200 m north of the excavation site
(Bauerochse unpubl.) prove the existence of a lake
nearby already since the Atlantic period. Probably it
was this lake that expanded.
This suggestion of a rising water table is also
supported by dendrochronological data from
adjacent peatlands like Vechtaer Moor (northern
Dummer-Geest lowland, VECMO 3), Totes Moor
(Steinhuder Meer depression, TOMO 2, TOMO 3),
and the Oythener Moor (northern Duemmer-Geest
lowland, OY). From these sites dying-off events of
pines and oaks are documented, starting from the
middle of the 38th century BC (Fig. 10; cf. Achter-
berg et al. 2018).
As the Dummer basin is a shallow depression,
small changes in precipitation (quantity and / or an-
nual distribution ratios) had great effects on changes
in groundwater levels and flooding. Until Lake Diim-
mer was embanked in the 1950s, winter precipitation
and snow melt caused annual floodings of large parts
of the Dummer basin. In his reconstruction of Holo-
cene lake development Dahms (1974) documented
Neolithic colonisation of the southwestern Dummer basin (NW Germany) - evidence from palaeobotanical data
oaks from Totes Moor (Steinhuder Meer area, Ha-
nover District [Fig. 10: TOMO 1]; Achterberg et al.
2018), Vehnemoor (Ammerland District), and Huven-
hopsmoor (Rotenburg District, Fig. 10: HUVE) docu-
ment rising water tables, we suggest a more general
increase and equal annual distribution in precipitation
rather than single significant rainfall events causing
floods.
For the following centuries, anthropogenic indica-
tors display continuous human impact. Whether the
construction of Pr 36 some 500 years later was the
answer to increasing paludification or the resumption
Fig. 7 Trackway Pr 32. The trackway indicates the end of a pe-
riod characterised by a lowered water table. Built within a bog
pine forest, its construction marks the start of raised bog forma-
tion at Campemoor (photo A. Bauerochse).
of an earlier road connection remains open at the
moment. Contemporaneous dying-off events of bog
pines from Vechtaer Moor (VECMO 1, VECMO 2,
about 30 km north of Campemoor) and Totes Moor
(TOMO 3, some 70 km east of Campemoor) and the
decrease of anthropogenic indicators (Fig. 2) support
the suggestion of increased wetness during this pe-
riod (Fig. 10). At this time radiocarbon dates for site
Hunte 3, one of the settlements north of Lake Dum-
mer, also document colonisation near the lake, some
13 km northeast of Campemoor site (Heumuller et al.
2017; cf. Heumuller et al., this volume).
Some generations later, in 3798 BC, people built
trackway Pr 34 about 100 m further to the east (Fig. 6).
This happened probably without even knowing about
the previous constructions - which were probably
already covered by peat at that time - and in a pe-
riod for which dendroecological investigations on
trees from other north German peatlands suggest in-
creased germination of bog pines (Fig. 10: TOMO 2,
TOMO 3, VECMO 1, VECMO 2). Initially this seems
to be a contradiction. But already a couple of years
later, the first of these sites again show dying-off events
(Fig. 10: OY, TOMO 3). So we assume that Pr 34 was
probably built in a short-term drier phase, and as all
timbers examined were cut in the same year and no
maintenance work was documented, we assume a
short-term use of this trackway. Subsequently a sig-
nificant increase in water level, documented on site
by pollen of floating leaf plants, created a lake, which
then flooded the construction. Pollen samples taken
from a core some 200 m north of the excavation site
(Bauerochse unpubl.) prove the existence of a lake
nearby already since the Atlantic period. Probably it
was this lake that expanded.
This suggestion of a rising water table is also
supported by dendrochronological data from
adjacent peatlands like Vechtaer Moor (northern
Dummer-Geest lowland, VECMO 3), Totes Moor
(Steinhuder Meer depression, TOMO 2, TOMO 3),
and the Oythener Moor (northern Duemmer-Geest
lowland, OY). From these sites dying-off events of
pines and oaks are documented, starting from the
middle of the 38th century BC (Fig. 10; cf. Achter-
berg et al. 2018).
As the Dummer basin is a shallow depression,
small changes in precipitation (quantity and / or an-
nual distribution ratios) had great effects on changes
in groundwater levels and flooding. Until Lake Diim-
mer was embanked in the 1950s, winter precipitation
and snow melt caused annual floodings of large parts
of the Dummer basin. In his reconstruction of Holo-
cene lake development Dahms (1974) documented