Historical land-use in an abandoned mountain village in the Czech Republic is reflected by the Mg, P, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Rb, Zr, and Sr content in contemporary soils

Highlights

• Historical land-use was reflected by anthropogenic chemical signatures in the soil.

• The most enriched built-up area soils contrasted with the most depleted forest soils.

• All soils were affected by sub-recent lead deposition.

• The content of the elements was correlated between the A, B, and C horizons.

Abstract

Past human activities can be reflected in the elemental composition of contemporary soils. We asked how much historical land-use identified according to historical maps is reflected by the multi-elemental signatures of soils in an originally medieval village abandoned after WWII.

Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, we determined the content of 24 elements in soil samples from former arable fields, field boundaries, forests, built-up area, and permanent grasslands.

Previous human activities were connected with the accumulation of 13 elements such as the usually thus interpreted P, Ca, Zn, and Cu, but also with elements rarely used in archaeological studies such as Mg, K, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Rb, Zr, and Sr.

The content of P, Ca, Cu, Zn, Ni, Fe, V, Cr, and Zr decreased on former fields with the distance from the most enriched built-up area. This can be explained by the most intensive deposition of biomass ashes and manuring of gardens and fields close to the village. With the exception of Pb accumulated sub-recently because of aerial deposition, the lowest content of anthropogenic elements was recorded in continuous forest.

The chemical signatures recorded were much stronger than those in previously studied medieval villages in the Czech Republic abandoned in the 15th or 16th centuries. This is because of the long period of the settlement’s existence since medieval times and in addition because of the short time since its abandonment. Although frequently neglected, the multi-elemental composition of soils in deserted settlements can be considered as cultural heritage similarly to the relicts of buildings or still visible field patterns.

Introduction

Human settlement activities are connected with the accumulation and depletion of many elements in soils and sediments (Rapp and Hill, 2006, Fenger-Nielsen et al., 2019). In archaeological studies, the most frequently used element for the identification of ancient settlement activities has been P so far because of its relatively low mobility in ecosystems and high accumulation rates in comparison to many other elements (Arrhenius, 1934, Bethell and Máté, 1989, Holliday and Gartner, 2007). Using portable XRF (pXRF), the total contents of many elements heavier than Mg can be easily identified (Hunt and Speakman, 2015). From the previous research, we learned that ancient settlement activities are connected with the deposition of biomass ashes whose chemical signature can be identified by increased contents of P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, and Cu in soils and sediments (Wilson et al., 2009, Hejcman et al., 2013a, Hájek et al., 2017, Šmejda et al., 2017). The question which has not yet been answered is how the categories of historical land-use in deserted mountain settlements are reflected in the elemental composition of contemporary soils. To study this question, we selected the deserted village Malonín (Bayer and Beneš, 2004, Houfková et al., 2015). This village is representative example of a medieval mountain village abandoned after the resettlement of German inhabitants from the former Czechoslovakia after the end of the World War II (WWII). The abandonment of villages in mountain agriculturally marginal areas was a large-scale phenomenon during that time as approximately 3 million Germans were resettled from the former Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1948 (Kosinski, 1969, Spurný et al., 2016). The total number of inhabitants in Czechoslovakia was 14.5 million in 1930 so approximately each fifth inhabitant lost his/her home (Novotný et al., 2012). Although there were attempts to resettle abandoned villages by incoming Slavic inhabitants from the interior regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and from other European countries like Romania, these attempts were in the majority of the cases unsuccessful and many villages completely disappeared.

Using pXRF, the chemical signatures of soils in several deserted medieval villages have been studied in the Czech Republic. Janovský and Horák (2018) studied the variability of soil conditions in the field system of the medieval village Hol abandoned at the end of the 15th century. The most visible enrichment by P, Mn, and Zn was recorded in former gardens and close to the relicts of buildings. Agricultural management on former fields was connected with P, Sr, Zn, and Mn enrichment probably due to manuring and the application of biomass ashes during the existence of the village. A similarly studied medieval village abandoned at the beginning of 16th century was Lovětín (Horák et al., 2018). The main elements reflecting human activities were Mn, Sr, Th, K, Zn, and P but their enrichment pattern was not clearly connected with the relicts of buildings. The study by Horák et al. (2018) was the first attempt to identify the soil quality and the methods of the medieval agricultural management.

According to our information, there has been no study of the impact of different types of historical land-use identified according to historical maps on the chemical signatures of soils in villages abandoned after WWII. We suppose that the chemical signatures of soils in such villages will be much stronger than the signatures recorded in previously studied villages abandoned in the 15th or 16th centuries. This is because of the long period of the settlement’s existence since medieval times, more intensive settlement activities, the short time since the abandonment of the villages, and therefore the better preservation of the original chemical signatures in soils. To test this hypothesis, we performed a detailed analysis of the soil chemical properties in relation to the historical land-use pattern in the deserted village Malonín.