The palaeoenvironment and settlement history of a lakeshore setting: An interdisciplinary study from the multi-layered archaeological site of Serteya II, Western Russia

Abstract A multi-proxy record derived from sediments collected from an infilled lake basin within the area of the Serteya II site, Western Russia, was used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment development of this site over the past ca. 9000 years. Despite there being archaeological evidence of a human presence in this area spanning several millennia, the results from pollen analysis indicate only a small-scale human impact on vegetation during the prehistory, reinforcing existing ideas that lifeways based upon hunting, fishing and gathering (h-f-g) were maintained over an extended period of time at this location. Human activities remained relatively extensive during the historical periods, although the first evidence of cereal cultivation dates to the Middle Ages. The results of earlier investigation, which suggested that cereal cultivation and animal husbandry may have begun at Serteya in the Late Neolithic, have not been confirmed by the presented dataset (or, at least, cannot be seen in it). The results from macrobotanical analysis reveal a gradual lowering of the lake-level, but with intervening transgression phases ca. 5550–3600 cal. BC and, more briefly, around the time of the 4.2 ka BP cooling event. The Late Neolithic pile dwelling settlement (dated to 2500–2200 cal. BC) that was present in the immediate area, and from which the samples are drawn, was situated in shallow water - the depth of which varied seasonally - and in the close vicinity of the shoreline. The gathering of berries and nuts, as well as starch-rich aquatic plants, seems to have played an important role in subsistence, which was further supported by hunting and fishing. Following a brief phase during which the pile dwelling settlement went into decline, the increased exploitation of aquatic plants appears to have intensified between ca. 2200 and 2000 cal. BC.