Le lac du Bourget (Savoie, France) à l'Âge du Bronze : végétation, impacts anthropiques et climat

Lake Bourget (Savoie, France) during the Bronze Age: vegetation, anthropogenic impacts and climate Pollen analyses performed on three archaeological sites located on the east shore of Lake Bourget (Savoie, France) provide a detailed record of human impacts and vegetation history during the Bronze Age. The end of the Neolithic period and the entire early Bronze Age are characterized in pollen diagrams by a discreet settlement around Lake Bourget and low human impact on the forested landscape, in spite of climatic improvement. The middle Bronze Age, contemporaneous of a climatic reversal, is related to the rarefaction of anthropogenic indicators. A new human impact occurs at the beginning of the late Bronze Age. A brief high lake level, correlated to the abandonment of agropastoral activities, appears during the more intensive occupation at the end of the late Bronze Age. The beginning of the Iron Age is related to a new abandonment of the shore. In the last part of this paper, pollen analyses are correlated to the results of lake levels recorded and molecular markers preserved in a deep lacustrine core.