Environmental changes and human land use interactions in ancient Thrace during the Iron Age: The impact of Greek colonization
The present thesis deals with the interrelationship between environmental changes and the Thracian society whose development took place in the surrounding environment undergoing fundamental transformation during the first millennium BC. The more significant impact of increasing human activities on the landscape, namely cultivation of plants and pastoralism, both connected with extensive deforestation, associated with the higher social and economic pressure can be detected since the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. In the following phase of agriculture development, since the seventh century BC when the first Greek colonies were founded in the Northern Aegean, Thrace became an important part of the Eastern Mediterranean macro region. Vegetation cover and its changes influenced by local land use and livelihoods is studied on the basis of identification and interpretation of anthropological indicators, contained in the plant macroremains and pollen assemblages. Geographically, the palaeoecological and archaeobotanical studies included in this thesis are focused on inland Ancient Thrace, i.e. the territory of the modern Bulgaria. For better understanding of vegetation history, settlement pattern and subsistence strategies, the archaeobotanical records of cultivated and ruderal plants or weeds acquired from the sites dated to the Early Iron Age (Ezero and Lake Durankulak) and the Thracian period (Koprivlen and Pistiros) are also compared. Klicova slova (cesky) Klima, vegetace, zemedelstvi, Thrakie, Pistiros, krajina Klicova slova (anglicky) Climate, vegetation, agriculture, Thrace, Pistiros, environment