Short climatic fluctuations and their impact on human economies and societies: the potential of the Neolithic lake shore settlements in the Alpine foreland

Neolithic lake shore settlements offer excellent preservation conditions for organic finds (e.g. wood, botanical remains, animal bones, etc.) which mostly occur in uncarbonised form. These organic remains provide exact dendrochronological dating and detailed information about nutrition of the people and their environment. We use this excellent database to investigate the impact of short-term climatic fluctuation on the economy of human communities. Comparison between archaeozoological results and climatic proxies reveal correlations between the two. During short periods of climatic deterioration high levels of hunting are observed, leading us to conclude that during these phases of wild resources like game were more intensively exploited. This exploitation may possibly be a response to problems in the production of cereals. Methodological problems with archaeobotanical data, however, make an easy causal attribution difficult. Contingent on regional differences in climatic conditions, the influence of short-term climatic fluctuations varies greatly across the Alpine foreland. Where there are frequent phases of climatic deteriorations over an extended time period, indications of overexploitation of wild resources are observed.