Early in the Charlesworth chapter on Loess we encounter 'Steppenheidetheorie' which JKC obviously thought was important. In the text, on pp.511-512, the word Steppenheidetheorie always appears in italics.
"On both the Steppenheidetheorie and the theory which believes oak forests grew on loess, the distribution in central Europe of Neolithic peoples is linked with the loess- the blackearth of central Germany, Bulgaria and Rumania however was free of Neolithic settlements...
The loess-covered valley of the Danube provided a highway across central Europe by which the Neolithic invaders and Beaker Folk from the Black Sea diffused their civilisation into Bohemia and by the Elbe, Neckar, Main and Rhine into Belgium and north-west Europe. The Slavonic languages may have taken shape on the loess of the Carpathian region and radiated thence eastwards and westwards."
"The Steppenheidetheorie is, however, strongly contested since among other things it may take insufficient account of man's clearance of previous forests. Man's preference for loess soil may be connected with its fertility, its ease of working with primitive implements, its dryness and suitability for pit dwellings and its level surface. Forests may formerly have grown on the loess of the U.S.S.R.
Loess is supremely important too because of the light it sheds upon the climate of the Glacial period and upon the succession of glacial and inter-glacial epochs and their relation to human cultures and animal life (see chapters 37, 39)."
"On both the Steppenheidetheorie and the theory which believes oak forests grew on loess, the distribution in central Europe of Neolithic peoples is linked with the loess- the blackearth of central Germany, Bulgaria and Rumania however was free of Neolithic settlements...
The loess-covered valley of the Danube provided a highway across central Europe by which the Neolithic invaders and Beaker Folk from the Black Sea diffused their civilisation into Bohemia and by the Elbe, Neckar, Main and Rhine into Belgium and north-west Europe. The Slavonic languages may have taken shape on the loess of the Carpathian region and radiated thence eastwards and westwards."
"The Steppenheidetheorie is, however, strongly contested since among other things it may take insufficient account of man's clearance of previous forests. Man's preference for loess soil may be connected with its fertility, its ease of working with primitive implements, its dryness and suitability for pit dwellings and its level surface. Forests may formerly have grown on the loess of the U.S.S.R.
Loess is supremely important too because of the light it sheds upon the climate of the Glacial period and upon the succession of glacial and inter-glacial epochs and their relation to human cultures and animal life (see chapters 37, 39)."
Dear Ian,
ReplyDeleteLook what I found....
Cheers, Ulrich
Steppe and forest steppe environments were very likely part of natural potential vegetation mosaics even of the Central European Holocene landscapes!
POKORNY et al., 2015. The Holocene, 25(4),716–726.
DOI: 10.1177/0959683614566218
"Conclusion
Our parallel analyses of pollen and mollusc successions from two sedimentary sequences in the dry lowland area of northern Bohemia provide a strong evidence for the historical continuity of steppe grasslands throughout the Holocene. ...
For the first time, we provide palynological data which are consistent with the malacological evidence. We show that pine–birch forest-steppe landscape existed in this area until the onset of the Neolithic agriculture. This supports the traditional Gradmann’s ‘steppe theory’, supposing that the first Neolithic farmers in central Europe settled in the still persisting remnants of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene steppes."
Ulrich Hambach