Before the flood: Archaeobotanical record from the prehistoric waterlogged sites at the Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia
Abstrakt
Settlement remains in lakes and bogs represent one of the most significant sources of information on the prehistory of the southwestern Balkan lakes region. Present-day research in Albania, Greece, and North Macedonia offers limited set of environmentally suitable sites.
To date, only a small number of bioarchaeological and paleoenvironmental investigations have been studied in the region. They would shed light on the complex interrelation between the landscape and the cultural-historical development during the dynamic period at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. A recent Czech-Macedonian research expedition at the northern shore of Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia revealed new significant records, originating from waterlogged sites.
Overlying by thick alluvial and lacustrine sediments, the remains of plant macrofossils and wood dated to the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age were found in an excellent state of preservation. The composition of macrofossils provided valuable information on plant cultivation, vegetation and land use along the shores of the lake.
In addition to livelihood information, the recorded vegetation change may complement the reconstruction of economic strategies before the settlement shifted to higher altitudes in the lake hinterland. Current research has recorded evidence of a catastrophic earthquake in the Ohrid region shortly after 1214 BC.
This earthquake caused a coseismic subsidence of the terrain by several meters and the area settlements were flooded by the lake waters.