Anthropogenic soils and sediments from historical trade hub on the bank of Morava River in Uherské Hradiště (Czech Republic): Archives of mediaeval landscape, environment and settlement dynamics

• Identification of formation processes of proto-urban Early Mediaeval Dark Earths. • Dark Earth’s preservation provided insights into medieval settlement dynamics. • Research revealed the site’s marketplace role from the 9th, possibly 8th century CE. • Long-distance trade highlights the role of St. George’s Island in the Great Moravia. This paper underscores the importance of investigating soils and sediments in proto-urban to urban archaeological contexts to gain a comprehensive understanding of their genesis and evolution, and their informative role in deciphering historical human–environment interactions and spatial organisation patterns. We focus on Early to High Mediaeval (6th–14th century CE) anthropogenically modified soils and sediments from Uherské Hradiště (Czech Republic). A study of well-preserved Dark Earths (DEs) uncovered in the Morava River floodplain allowed us to define interactions between people and their environment and to understand landscape evolution of the island area in relation to floodplain dynamics. A multi-proxy approach based on a combination of archaeological evidence, soil micromorphology, and physical, geochemical and palaeobotanical analyses, supplemented with dating methods was used to unravel the processes contributing to DE formation, human activities and the use of space. Initial settlement activities began in Uherské Hradiště at the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century CE, with later DEs indicating intensified human impact through craft activities, probably linked to market exchange from the 8th century, and even a possible marketplace underscoring its strategic importance within the broader economic and social networks, partially before and mainly during the Great Moravian period, in the 9th century CE. After a hiatus in the 10th–12th centuries AD, the site saw re-establishment in the 13th century CE, marking the early formation of the urbanisation in Uherské Hradiště. Despite repeated flooding, the settlement in the area was renewed repeatedly. Together with evidence of long-distance trade, this proves the importance of the place located on the commercial waterway of the Morava River. New findings reveal that this settlement could have played a more essential role in the Early Mediaeval era than previously expected.