Palynological and archaeological data – a comparative approach

The 600 km2 of the basin of the Wetterau, part of the “Rhein-Main-Tiefland” in the federal state of Hesse in Germany, is an archaeologically intensively investigated landscape. Numerous precisely dated palynological studies are available, and so a direct comparison of archaeological and palynological results is possible. The vegetation history, as recorded in four pollen diagrams, will be discussed in relationship with the archaeological data known from a radius of 1, 3 and 5 km around each of the sites from which pollen was taken. The aim of the study is to investigate in which cases the established vegetation changes can be directly linked to the archaeological record. Furthermore, possible causes will be investigated