2026/07/29 by Agnieszka Gruszczyńska, Piotr Kittel, Daniel Okupny +10
paper · doi:10.1177/09596836261450819
The Serteyka River Valley in the part of the Western Dvina Lakeland has been the subject of intensive geoarchaeological and palaeoecological studies for years. The past human settlement on the ancient lake shore was exposed to water level fluctuations dependent on climatic changes and the hydrological regime of the Serteyka River. This paper presents the first reconstructions of the evolution of the shore zone of the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin based on a detailed study of subfossil remains of Coleoptera. Based on Coleoptera assemblage data, marsh conditions at the study site occurred at 4.65, 4.25, 4.14, and 4.09–4.04 ky cal BP, whereas fully aquatic conditions were recorded at 4.20 and 3.94–3.78 ky cal BP. Periods of highly variable water levels are indicated at 5.45, 5.11, 4.88–4.86, 4.61, 4.36–4.22, 4.18–4.14, 4.09, 4.05, and 3.99 ky cal BP by the co-occurrence of aquatic and terrestrial Coleoptera. Coleoptera assemblages indicate that the plant communities consisted mainly of alder–oak swamp forests, while open plant communities and human indicators were very rare. This contrasts with the results of previous studies that reveal intensive human settlement in the nearby lakeshore peatland habitat. The presented results show that Coleoptera (often neglected in multiproxy studies) are important palaeoindicators that can generate detailed information on habitat conditions in the lakeshore zone. This is the first environmental archaeological study focussed on the Neolithic in the East European Plain where Coleoptera are considered as indicators. The analysis of subfossil Coleoptera provides many results from aquatic and terrestrial environments that cannot be obtained from other palaeoecological proxies.