Archaeopalynological investigations in the Trans-Ural

Reconstructing prehistoric human activities and subsistence systems is only possible with a sound knowledge of the former flora and vegetation. Then, vegetation not only presents the frame in which prehistoric communities could subsist, but also reflects by its floristic and quantitative composition anthropogenic activities like animal husbandry and/or arable farming. Archeobotanical investigations, primarily pollen and macroremains, offer the opportunity to reconstruct past environments. In a steppe ecosystem - subject of the present study - the question of subsistence is of great significance for the past societies. Surely animal husbandry was of great importance, but did prehistoric man also practise arable farming, and to what extent? This is one of the many themes within a combined German-Russian research project of scientists from the Russian Academy of Science in Ekaterinburg and the J. W. Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main. The project, supported primarily by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Russian Foundation for basic research (RFFI), attempts to investigate the archaeology, settlement history, subsistence and former environment of the Bronze Age Sintashta and Petrovka cultures in the Trans-Ural, particular in the valley of the Karagayli-Ayat River. This article presents the results of the first palynological study of a small lake from this area. The investigated deposits include the period from approximately 600 BC until 400 AD, the early phase of the Subatlantic.