The Birth of the Cultural Landscape

In Chapter 6 a landscape has been depicted in which forest was the dominant factor. Around 2650 BC this picture was still valid. Primary forest covered the core of the plateaus and the few waterlogged areas were not yet much affected. But in areas occupied by farming populations the forest was of a secondary nature. Such areas were mainly to be found at the edge of plateaus, near rivers, streams and their still smaller tributaries, and on the drier parts of valley bottoms. Another characteristic of these sites was the marked presence of forest-edge vegetation, which points to the existence of open space as well. But such clearances must have been relatively small, as they hardly show up in pollen analyses. The subsequent developments have been followed as closely as possible by several investigations, one that was carried out in the German Rhineland being an outstanding example. Its results are confirmed by investigations elsewhere.