Экосистемный подход к реконструкции природного окружения древних и средневековых обществ

Abstract

We developed an ecosystem approach to reconstruct an ecosystem history. For the proper reconstruction of the natural environment of ancient and medieval societies it is important to distinguish following points in the ecosystem history: (1) stages of spontaneous (free) dynamics of ecosystems when their changes are caused by the action of endogenous biotic factors; (2) stages of a plot existence in the form of agricultural land and (3) stages of successional dynamics after the action of anthropogenic factors such as fire or burning, plowing, cattle grazing, etc., and other exogenous factors. It is important to understand differences between the autogenous and allogenic successions. Methodically, this approach is based on a reconstruction of the historical events of particular ecosystems and on identification of factors that determined these events. Reconstruction can be performed by using a complex of methods combining the techniques of soil morphology, radiocarbon dating of charcoal fragments in soil, methods of palynology and analysis of historical data (for the last few centuries). Using of the soil morphological technique one can successfully reconstruct the traces of burrowing activity of the soil animals, old tree roots, ancient pits formed after treefalls; among the human impacts, traces of plowing and fires are easy recognized by this technique. The age of charcoal fragments shows the time of fire (or burning). The information of the form, size, location and occurrence of the charcoal pieces in soil can indicate the time and intensity of forest fires in the remote past as well as the events associated with fires, such as tree falls, plowing, etc. Radiocarbon dating allows us to synchronize the palyological information and data of a soil development in the study plots.

Раскрывается важность экосистемного подхода для реконструкции природного окружения древних обществ.