Author's personal copy The impact of mining activities on the environment reflected by pollen, charcoal and geochemical analyses Elisabeth Breitenlechner a, * , Marina Hilber b , Joachim Lutz c , Yvonne Kathrein d , Alois Unterkircher b , Klaus Oeggl a a Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestraße 15, Innsbruck 6020, Austria b Institute of History and Ethnology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, Innsbruck 6020, Austria c Curt-Engelhorn-Centre for Archaeometry gGmbH, D6, 3, Mannheim 68159, Germany d Institute of German Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities 2 (Language and Literature), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, Innsbruck 6020, Austria article info Article history: Received 30 June 2009 Received in revised form 22 December 2009 Accepted 4 January 2010 Keywords: Fen Mining Pollen Charcoal Lead Scandium Tyrol abstract This article presents results of a multi-proxy study of a fen deposit in the former mining district of Falkenstein near Schwaz in the Tyrol, Austria. The aim of the study in the framework of the special research program HiMAT (The History of Mining Activities in the Tyrol and Adjacent Areas – Impact on Environment & Human Societies) was to disclose the ecological impact of mining in pollen and heavy metal diagrams and to create a model combining the changes in palaeoecological proxies with historical evidences for mining. The application of this palaeoecological–historical model to prehistoric times allowed us to reconstruct the impact of mining and metallurgic activities in the surroundings of the fen during the last millennia. The results of stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, LOI, pollen and micro-charcoal analyses as well as geochemical analyses of scandium, lead and lead isotopes validated by historical and archaeological data are hereby presented. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Human impact on the environment is mainly expressed by settlement activities and agriculture, but also mining – encompass- ing ore exploitation and processing – has significant ecological consequences. Mires as archives of vegetation history, anthropogenic activities and atmospheric metal deposition are predestinated to reconstruct the impact of mining on the environment. The palae- oenvironmental data of pollen, micro-charcoal and geochemical analyses are useful to explain human–environment interactions in the mining landscape (Mighall et al., 2002a). Geochemical analyses of the last decades disclose peat deposits as archives for both palaeobotanical purposes and as a source of information about past atmospheric pollution (Shotyk, 1996a; and Martı ´nez-Cortizas et al., 2002b). Beside studies about the recon- struction of atmospheric pollution in peat and lake deposits across Europe (Bra ¨nvall et al., 1997; Martı ´nez-Cortizas et al., 1997; Shotyk, 2002; De Vleeschouwer et al., 2007) and the impact of mining on regional and local scales (Bra ¨nvall et al., 1999; Mighall et al., 2002b, 2009; Le Roux et al., 2004; Cloy et al., 2005), the multi-proxy research on the environmental impact of palaeometallurgy by pollen and geochemical analyses (Monna et al., 2004a,b; Baron et al., 2005; Jouffroy-Bapicot et al., 2007) seems to reveal the past more clearly. In the majority of the recent palaeoecological studies in former mining areas, lead is used to detect mining phases in pollen diagrams in order to recognise mining-induced changes in the vegetation. In ombrotrophic peat bogs lead is effectively immobi- lized (Vile et al., 1995, 1999; Shotyk et al., 1997; MacKenzie et al., 1997; Weiss et al., 1999a,b), allowing them to be used as archives for the reconstruction of atmospheric Pb deposition (Bra ¨ nvall et al., 1997; Cortizas et al., 1997; Farmer et al., 1997; Shotyk et al., 1998, 2002). Although bogs are thought to provide better geochemical data, it has recently been shown that fens, too, are suitable to record atmospheric deposition without significant distortion. The lead concentration profiles in minerogenic peat deposits suggest that atmospheric sources of lead are quantitatively more important than Pb supplied by groundwater (Shotyk et al., 2000). Additionally, West et al. (1997) showed that the variations in lead concentrations might not be the result of inputs from weathering of local soils and * Corresponding author. E-mail address: elisabeth.breitenlechner@uibk.ac.at (E. Breitenlechner). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ – see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.01.006 Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010) 1458–1467