Abstract
Svratka alluvial plain, including Brno - Přízřenice site, is a very important from geomorphological and archaeological point of view. The environmental archive hidden in the alluvial plain is a key source of archaeological information with enormous interpretative potential.
The high sedimentation rates have allowed the preservation of archaeological situations (e.g. buried soil horizons or organic artefacts) with little or no change. The studied site was continuously and for a long time occupied during the Late Neolithic, the Early Eneolithic, and the Bronze Age (4500-1000 BC), which implies that the site was not flooded for more than 3500 years.
This fact may be more likely interpreted as a result of the limited source of alluvial deposits rather than as a consequence of climatic changes that resulted in lower precipitation for such a long period. The dark layer buried under the two metres of alluvial deposits has been described as "dark soil/dark earth" and has signs of a leached, intensely anthropogenically-influenced, Mollisol type of soil.
It is definitely neither of wash-out origin nor of flood origin, because of the unsorted sedimentary material. The unsorted material might suggest colluvial formation, but the layers are horizontal and the relatively flat geomorphology of the site excludes colluvial deposition.
Regarding the extent of the "dark earth" and longterm-stable development with no signs of flooding, it is highly improbable that this could be an infilling by features of extensive origin. The provenance of its material compares to that of the background lithology, and the lobe-like transition of the dark earth and its underlying layer strongly support the idea of it being an in situ layer that developed on flood sediments thanks to pedogenic processes.
The presence of settlement, agricultural andpedological processes has been confirmed by a range of analytical methods.