Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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High-resolution palynological Holocene record of the Misten peat bog (Belgium) : preliminary results
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Microfossiles non polliniques, pollen et processus pédo-sédimentaires en contexte très anthropisé : le site du château de Brie-Comte-Robert
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Les sanctuaires dans leur environnement : apport des analyses polliniques réalisées dans le nord de la France et la Belgique. Approche méthodologique
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Food, technical and other plants from the late medieval monastic kitchen (14th–15th century) of Clairefontaine Abbey, Belgium
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The last supper: multiproxy analyses of a Gallo-Roman votive meal in Belgium
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Presence of Avena sp. in early Belgian Neolithic sites: a commensal weed or a real domesticate?
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Hidden Gallo-Roman agrarian landscapes from the ‘Biterrois’ (southern France): combined evidence from archaeobotany and archaeology
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Pollen data and other archaeobotanical remains from the middle ages in wallonia (southern Belgium): A review
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Sur les traces de nos ancêtres préhistoriques
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Analyses palynologiques de Harmignies (Néolithique récent, Hainaut)
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Analyses palynologiques tests de Hermalle-sous-Argenteau « Le Potay » et « Au Buisson » (Protohistorique, Liège)
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Analyses palynologiques à l’Abbaye de Clairefontaine Les « Cuisines » (Moyen-Âge, Luxembourg)
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Rapport d’étude carpologique et palynologique de l’abbaye cistercienne de Clairefontaine Les latrines (XVIIIe siècle)
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Cave palynology as a tool for vegetation and climate change reconstructions during the Middle Paleolithic: Myth or reality?
- Pollen analysis has been, and still is, one of the most widely used techniques in Quaternary sciences, especially to reconstruct vegetation history and climate variability. Fossil deposits of accumulating plants, such as peat sediments, were very early investigated as they are particularly suitable for the reception, storage and conservation of palynomorphs. Thanks to successive methodological innovations, palynological analyses then gradually developed by multiplying studies of diverse more mineral sedimentary materials (lake, stream and/or marine sediments, loess deposits, travertine, etc.). These new efficient techniques also led to an interest in archaeological sediments, allowing palaeoenvironmental reconstructions where no adequate Quaternary continental sedimentary records are available. Soon after the mid-20th century, caves and rock-shelters became then the favored studied places in karstic areas to approach the environment of prehistoric humans. However, the pollen record in caves is a complex phenomenon in which multiple geological, biological and atmospheric factors are involved and could lead to some distortions and discontinuities in the pollen assemblages. When not perceived, these pitfalls have sometimes generated some over or misinterpretations. After a keen interest, cave sediment sequences were thus considered as unattractive, presenting lot of alterations, difficult to correlate and with a low palaeoenvironmental potential. The validity and scope of the interpretation of palynological data from this type of deposits are still highly controversial and debatable. In Belgium, a systematic program of detailed stratigraphic recordings from caves associated with various palaeoenvironmental analyses has recently been undertaken in close collaboration with researchers from different disciplines. The objective was to better understand the sedimentary dynamics of these fillings and to test their potential as recorders of Quaternary climatic variations. In that context, new pollen data from two Belgian caves have been acquired and open new prospects for research work in this type of environments. In this paper, we present the state of the art of cave palynology, including the different parameters defining pollen taphonomy, the potentials and the limits of pollen analysis on Quaternary cave deposits. Through the examples of the caves Walou and Scladina, we show that good palynological results can be obtained in these contexts. These records are compared and evaluated in the light of multidisciplinary palaeoecological information from these two prehistoric settlements. When precautions are taken and a close link with geology and archaeology is maintained, local environment of the prehistoric populations, but also major trends in vegetation evolution and climate change during the Middle Paleolithic, can be accurately documented by pollen records from cave sequences.
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WALOU CAVE (TROOZ): AN EXCEPTIONAL SEQUENCE FROM THE BELGIAN PALAEOLITHIC
- Located some 10 km at the south-east of Liège the Walou cave entrance faces the north-west, 25 m above the Magne, a tributary of the Vesdre river. Excavations were conducted at the site from 1985 to 1990 and then from 1996 to 2004, revealing numerous successive prehistoric occupations. Its extensive stratigraphic sequence is the best documented for a Belgian Upper Pleistocene karst site. Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach the chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental framework of the occupations is well understood. Out of the 45 layers of the sequence 25 yielded archaeological material. There are traces of the Neolithic (Layer A2) and the Mesolithic (Layers A4 and A5) at the top. The cave also revealed several Upper Palaeolithic occupations: Federmesser (Layer B1), Gravettian (Layer B5) and Aurignacian (Layer CI-1). The lower half of the sequence, which encompasses the Last Interglacial and the Weichselian Early Glacial, includes 9 Mousterian occupations; 6 reworked layers also yielded some artefacts from that culture. A Neandertal tooth was found in Layer CI-8, which contains the richest Mousterian occupation of the site. All lithic material was made from flint probably sourced in secondary position near the cave. Only the Gravettian and Aurignacian occupations yielded other man-made materials: antler spearheads and animal and mineral non-utilitarian artefacts from the Aurignacian. Numerous faunal remains were also found; among them: cave bear, cave hyena, horse, fox, bison/aurochs, woolly rhinoceros, deer, mammoth, chamois, hare, small rodents and a few birds. The study of the fish remains revealed that fishing took place at the site, as much during the Middle Palaeolithic as during the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
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The settlement of the Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-Ville in the Thyle valley (Dyle tributary) during the 12th century: Archaeobotanical approaches.
- The Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-Ville, situated between Brussels, Charleroi and Namur in Belgium, was founded in the 12th century and abandoned after the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. The construction, architecture and distribution of buildings, courtyard and gardens of the abbey are recognized as very remarkable and exceptional. The site has also been classified as historical monument and remarkable site in 1972. The ruins of the abbey of Villers-la-Ville has been excavated for a long time. Since the end of the 19th century, it has been punctually excavated by some architects and religious. However, all of these results have never been published. It is only from 1985 that, thanks to the work of the Governance of Buildings to the consolidation of the ruins of the abbey, ongoing and regular excavations are undertaken. Indeed, since then, the History Center of Architecture and Building assumes an archaeological mission to support this project and since 1988 the Archaeological Service of Wallonia has excavated many parts of the site. While most of these excavations concern the architecture of buildings, for their restoration and rehabilitation, none of them, up to now, was interested in the period before and during the settlement: Why did the monks choose this site? How was the natural environment when they arrived? And how the abbey’ settlement affect this environment? To answer this question, several archaeobotanical analyses (pollen, fruit and seeds, wood and wood charcoal) have been undertaken for the first time in two different sectors of the abbey. The samples come from mechanical deep coring which have recently been done at the Gate of Brussels, the main gatehouse situated at the western part of the abbey, and at the former major mill situated more at the south.
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Villers-le-Bouillet : occupations antiques et du Haut Moyen Âge « a Lohincou »
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Intergrating micromorphology and archaeobotany to unravel the function of archaeological structure. The example of the Petite Rue des Bouchers (Brussels, Belgium)
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Il était une fois Clairefontaine: Le quotidien des nonnes d'une abbaye cistercienne au 18ème siècle
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A reconstruction of middle Holocene alluvial hardwood forests (Lower Scheldt River, northern Belgium) and their exploitation during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition period (Swifterbant Culture, ca. 4500 – 4000 BC).
- The analysis of a large number of charcoal fragments from fire places from a wetland camp site of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition period (Swifterbant culture) now permits a detailed reconstruction of a middle Holocene riverine forest along the Lower Scheldt River (northern Belgium) and its exploitation between ca. 4,500 and 4,000 BC. The identified taxa point towards an alluvial hardwood forest (Querco-Ulmetum minoris Issler 1924) on the sand dune on which the camp site was situated, surrounded by alder carr. The results are compared with palynological and macrobotanical analyses from the same site and from contemporary sites within the area; the complementarity of these different types of data is discussed. The combination of all these datasets results in a detailed reconstruction of the environment and of its exploitation by the Swifterbant culture. The results also show that the Swifterbant people not only depended on these sand ridges for dry settlement locations, but also for firewood collection, gathering of edible plants and most probably for the collection of leaf fodder to feed livestock during winter time.
