High montane–subalpine soils in the Montafon Valley (Austria, northern Alps) and their link to land-use, fire and settlement history

On the grounds of geoarchaeological studies, it has been suggested that the high montane–subalpine soils in the Montafon Valley (Bartholomäberg, Vorarlberg, Austria; 1000–2100 m a.s.l.) are a result of long-term land-use in which fire played an important role. On the basis of radiocarbon dated charcoal layers in soils and mining heaps it was possible to reconstruct phases of pasture and mining activity stretching as far back as the Early Bronze Age (around 2000 BC). Soil charcoal was used to reconstruct small-scale changes in the landscape. These results in combination with palynological and archaeological data provide detailed insight into human–fire–environment interactions on different temporal and spatial scales. It was possible to geographically delimit fire signals derived from microscopic charcoal counts of peat bogs in the landscape. This enabled detection of four phases of human activity: Early to Middle Bronze Age (1800–1300 BC), Late Iron Age (450–15 BC), Early Middle Ages (5th–8th century AD) and High Middle Ages (9th–13th century AD). The geoarchaeological results indicate that from the Late Iron Age onwards fire was used in different contexts, and hence a spatial differentiation into a mining zone (1300–1450 m a.s.l.) and a pasture zone (1450–1800 m a.s.l.) was established. Furthermore, the stratification of the soils indicated more local events, such as human-induced fire activity in the Early and the High Middle Ages.