Pollen grains and spores have a highly resistant wall than can preserve over thousands of years. Using this characteristic, palynologist research the past environments and human-environment...Show morePollen grains and spores have a highly resistant wall than can preserve over thousands of years. Using this characteristic, palynologist research the past environments and human-environment relations. For archaeology this is crucial information and often a general part of research on a site. As was the case at the Bronze Age burial landscape at Oss-Gewandeweg. At this site, only remains of burial mounds were left due to agricultural levelling. The remaining features, circular ditch fills were sampled for palynological analysis. However, the samples were taken from a sandy depositional context which is unideal for pollen and spore preservation. In this thesis, the reliability of these samples is assessed. If the samples are not reliable they will portray an false vegetational reconstruction. This has scientific and social implications. Palynology is plays a role in the climate change debate and should be used wrongly because of this societal value. Two research questions have been formulated in order to fulfil this goal. The first research question was aimed to study the taphonomy of the palynomorphs and the effect the sandy depositional context had on the preservation. Besides the typical production bias and dispersal bias, the preservation context increases the differential degradation bias. The sand grains provide gaps through which water can leach and oxidize the pollen. The more oxidized the pollen are, the more susceptible to micro-organism attack. Biological degradation is thus also increased. The preservation states of the pollen in the samples also illustrated the poor preservation. The second research question included a comparative analysis between the ecological reconstruction based on the samples form Oss-Gewandeweg and Oss-Mettegeul, just five kilometres apart. The lower taxa diversity, absence of certain taxa and lower proportionality of certain taxa all point to a worse preservation context compared to the samples at Oss-Mettegeul. Recommendations for future research is to sample sediment which is dark-coloured and fine-grained. If samples from the Bronze Age ditch fill are required, phytolith analysis would be a great alternative. Phytoliths are inorganic and preserve better than pollen, spores and macrofossils.Show less
In 1933 the so-called chieftain’s burial of Oss was found. It dates from the Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt C-period, in the second half of the 7th century BC. This rich grave, of which the cremation...Show moreIn 1933 the so-called chieftain’s burial of Oss was found. It dates from the Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt C-period, in the second half of the 7th century BC. This rich grave, of which the cremation rests and grave goods were deposited in a bronze situla, included different imported artefacts from Central Europe. In the 1960’s it became clear that a number of these objects were parts of horse gear. In the past decades, all the objects from the chieftain’s grave of Oss have been published. Nevertheless, these publications generally only included a description of the finds. Function, context, and an analysis of the objects are now presented within this thesis for the first time. All objects from Oss that can be assigned as horse gear are described together with typological parallels and their distribution throughout Europe. Oss contains components of two bridles and a yoke. It is now clear that most parallels of the objects are found in Bohemia, Bavaria and the area north of the Alps. A total of 13 object-categories of horse gear, dating from the Hallstatt C-period, have been used for a statistical analysis. It compares the inventory of the horse gear from Oss with that of 59 others. It is now evident that the inventory of Oss includes relatively many object-categories. About 80% of the other inventories contained less. It can therefore be concluded that the inventory of Oss is one of the richest in its kind. The most common objects are the bits and cheek-pieces. The experience of three equestrian professionals was used for a contemporary approach on the horse gear from Oss. New technical aspects came to light: the grooves on the bars of the bits are functional. They are not cruel, as sometimes is stated. Some horses play more with such a bit in their mouth and therefore accept them more easily. Furthermore, because of the grooves more saliva is produced. Finally, old reconstructions of Hallstatt C-bridles do not attribute any technical function to the curved ends of the cheek-pieces. Within this thesis a new reconstruction of the bridle has been made which includes a functional element of the cheek-pieces: they could have been used for the attachment of reins. This was also underlined by the comments of the equestrian professionals.Show less
