Late Holocene land use at Orstad, Jæren, southwestern Norway, evidence from pollen analysis and soil micromorphology

Pollen analysis was combined with radiocarbon dating, physical, chemical and biological soil analyses and soil micromorphology, to investigate the prehistoric land use at Orstad, in Jæren, southwestern Norway.Orstad is an Early Bronze Age clearance cairn field in a cultural landscape with traces of land use back to the Neolithic. Samples were mainly collected from an 84 m long excavated trench with mainly podzolic soils. Although pollen preservation was poor, it was possible to differentiate five phases in the local vegetation and land use history. Human impact on the site could be traces back to about 4400–4000 BP uncal./3045–2600 cal. BC. Wheat and barley have been cultivated at Orstad during a period from ca. 3600 BP uncal./1945–1750 cal. BC until the Older Iron Age, when heather vegetation began to spread on the site.Soil micromorphology revealed different soil management practices for this time period: The soils seem to have been cleared by fire, prior to cultivation until ca. 3200 BP uncal./1610–1455 cal. BC. Then, new cultivation fields were laid out on higher levels, and seem to have been improved by adding of organic materials, mainly turves taken from podzolic top soils and peats from nearby localities.