Societal and climatic controls on swidden cultivation in the Eastern European Plain

Slash-and-burn cultivation was among the earliest systems of land use that allowed agriculture to expand into forested and less naturally fertile zones beyond the regions where it first developed, but the chronology of this agricultural system is debated. The development and history of slash-and-burn cultivation on the Eastern European Plain was established for the first time using a novel approach. A dataset of 120 radiocarbon dates was obtained on charcoal from swidden soil horizons in major river basins. The earliest swiddens appeared in the Bronze Age in the Dnieper basin, becoming widespread in the beginning of the Early Iron Age. Radiocarbon dates reflect four major waves of expansion of groups practicing swidden agriculture into new territories between 4000 and 500 years ago, and more numerous and asynchronous basin-scale migrations. The expansions alternated with centennial-scale breaks when swiddens became sporadic or disappeared. After the last prolonged break, 200 BCE to 100 CE, slash-and-burn cultivation rapidly expanded and persisted in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. The onset of swidden cultivation and peaks in swidden occurrence coincided either with climate cooling or with climatic transitions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Scientific Reports
Published
2026-02-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41211-0
Primary Topic
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Societal and climatic controls on swidden cultivation in the Eastern European Plain

Julia Salova, Pille Tomson, Vasiliy Demidov, Anna F. Kochkina et al.
Scientific Reports
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
article

Societal and climatic controls on swidden cultivation in the Eastern European Plain

Julia Salova, Pille Tomson, Vasiliy Demidov, Anna F. Kochkina, В. А. Шаповалов, Dmitry Alekseevich Stashenkov, A.L. Alexandrovskiy, Elena Ponomarenko, Ayrat Sitdikov, Dmitri Antonov, Nikita Lavrenov, Konrad Gajewski, Ekaterina Ershova, Nikolay Krenke, Leonid Viazov
article en

Abstract

Slash-and-burn cultivation was among the earliest systems of land use that allowed agriculture to expand into forested and less naturally fertile zones beyond the regions where it first developed, but the chronology of this agricultural system is debated. The development and history of slash-and-burn cultivation on the Eastern European Plain was established for the first time using a novel approach. A dataset of 120 radiocarbon dates was obtained on charcoal from swidden soil horizons in major river basins. The earliest swiddens appeared in the Bronze Age in the Dnieper basin, becoming widespread in the beginning of the Early Iron Age. Radiocarbon dates reflect four major waves of expansion of groups practicing swidden agriculture into new territories between 4000 and 500 years ago, and more numerous and asynchronous basin-scale migrations. The expansions alternated with centennial-scale breaks when swiddens became sporadic or disappeared. After the last prolonged break, 200 BCE to 100 CE, slash-and-burn cultivation rapidly expanded and persisted in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. The onset of swidden cultivation and peaks in swidden occurrence coincided either with climate cooling or with climatic transitions.

Scientific ReportsVol. 16(1)
Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), Sewanee: The University of the South (US), University of Ottawa (CA), University of Ostrava (CZ), Estonian University of Life Sciences (EE), Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU), Samara National Research University (RU), Institute of Physical-Chemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science (RU), Institute for Biodiversity (DE), Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod (RU), Altaiskiy State Nature Biosphere Reserve (RU), Institute of Geography (RU), Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (RU), Institute of History of Material Culture (RU), Tatarstan Academy of Sciences (RU), Samara Regional Clinical Oncology Center (RU), Ecosystem Sciences (AU), N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod (RU)
American Association of University Women, Grantová Agentura České Republiky
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 65%
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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