| This project investigates long-term processes of interaction between prehistoric human societies and a former wetland environment in southeastern Albania. Recent excavation of the Neolithic to Early Iron Age site of Sovjan (ca. 7,600 BC--900 BC) provides not only the first archaeobotanical remains, but also the first sequence of radiocarbon and tree-ring dates for these periods in Albania. Research into the relationship between settlement and environment in later Albanian prehistory has been largely neglected. The paucity of systematic survey data, absolute dates, palaeoenvironmental data, and archaeobotanical evidence has hindered the contextualization of changes in settlement patterns and material culture within broader themes of economic and environmental change.; Plant fossil preservation at Sovjan is excellent due to the presence of waterlogged deposits and extensive burning activity. This assemblage offers a unique opportunity for reconstruction of the prehistoric local environment and patterns of resource use. This study concerns the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, as excavation at Sovjan has focused on these periods. Comparison of the composition and spatial patterning of on-site archaeobotanical assemblages with the environmental reconstruction indicates a clear focus on wetland use.; The site was situated at the edge of a broad lake with marshes along its edges. Palaeoenvironmental evidence indicates a dynamic prehistoric wetland landscape, with possible woodland clearance in the Middle Bronze Age, followed by lake contraction and peat formation in the Late Bronze Age. The area remained a wetland with vegetation similar to that represented in the Bronze Age pollen sequences until its drainage in 1950 for agricultural use. Long-term landscape stability facilitates integration of ethnohistorical accounts and interviews of older villagers who remember the pre-1950 landscape with the archaeobotanical interpretation.; Together with zooarchaeological evidence, the on-site assemblage indicates a mixed economy that was integrated closely with the surrounding wetland and only partially reliant on agriculture. Crop husbandry focused on einkorn wheat, millet, barley, lentil, and bitter vetch cultivation along wetland edges. Agriculture is likely to have had a lesser impact on changes in forest composition than the grazing of livestock and the preferential use of wood from riparian habitats, such as oak and willow, for fuel and architecture. |
