Abstract
The study of paleosols, including buried soil horizons, is one of the tools used for understanding the environmental record of the past. Soil development is influenced by climate, time of development, background geology, hydrological conditions and intensity of biological decomposition.
Construction works undertaken from 2012 to 2013 in the locality of in Brno-Přízřenice, Czech Republic, situated in the inundation zone of the Svratka River, had uncovered some interesting situations in the context of the past occupation of this area. The more than 300-cm-thick section is mostly composed of alluvial deposits of the Svratka River; the base of the section is composed of stagnosols.
Fluvisols were recorded in the upper part of the section and its uppermost part has signs of intensively-cultivated soil. In between these two types of soils, approximately 200 cm below the surface, a dark horizon representing "dark earth" was detected.
The approximately 50-cm-thick dark horizon contains artefacts dated to the Neolithic, Eneolithic (Copper Age) and the Bronze Age. The locality is important for two main reasons.
The first is its position in the alluvial zone. This part of the inundation zone was not flooded at least during the period between the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age.
This fact documents the changes in alluvial aggradations similar to that which we know from the Morava River. These changes are interpreted as being the consequence of human impact, or less likely due to climatic change.
The second reason making this locality important is the appearance of the dark earth. The number and state of the archaeological remains preserved within this layer suggest the area's long-term occupation and agricultural use with fertilisation.