Volume 50, October 2014, Pages 318–337
Highlights
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- Relicts of rettery from the 16th–17th cent. AD were discovered.
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- Deposits of rettery have been tested using multi-proxy palaeoecological methods.
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- The rettery was abandonment in the mid-17th cent. AD.
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- The basin was filled by an overbank deposition in 18th/19th cent. AD.
Abstract
During
an archaeological investigation at Lutomiersk–Koziówki in central
Poland, deposits indicative of an old rettery from the 16th–17th century
AD were discovered. The artifacts found in the lacustrine deposits,
together with historical sources and radiocarbon dates of organic
matter, show that the pond at a local mill was present from ca. AD 1525
to at least AD 1620. The high content of Cannabis and Linum
subfossil macro- and micro-remains in the sediment indicate that the
pond was most probably used as a rettery for hemp and flax fibre
production. Pollen analysis revealed strong deforestation of the local
landscape at the beginning of the pond history. Despite high pollution
caused by plant retting, species-rich chironomid, cladoceran and diatom
communities occupied the pond. Our investigations reveal that the
rettery was situated on the artificial channel of a local stream. High
abundance of yellow flatsedge (Cyperus flavescens) fruit
remains and coprophile beetle subfossils indicate that pond was also
used as a watering place for cattle. Decline in the concentration of
aquatic invertebrate subfossils, diatoms, aquatic and cultivated plant
macrofossils, reveals rapid abandonment of the rettery in the mid-17th
century AD. For some time after the basin was a telmatic ecosystem
overgrown by sedges and bulrush. The basin was finally filled by a
high-energy overbank deposition not later than in the beginning of 19th
century AD.
Keywords
- Rettery;
- Environmental archaeology;
- Cannabis;
- Linum;
- Early modern period;
- Central Poland
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