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284 JANUSZ KRUK

are obviously wrong in the light of natural Sciences. Views are current according to which the stock-breeding in a Neolithic culture was conditioned by the existen-ce in river valleys of extensive meadows formally similar to those of today. Yet meadow communities are one of the early stages in the ecological succession, and the tendency of naturę was to cover them first by brushwood and next by forest. The naturally treeless places in the primeval landscape were confined to certain bogs, rocky parts, smali meadows inside woods and spatially limited seats of steppe relics (partially overlapping with those mentioned above). The meadow plants could not spread over large areas but for human assistance.

Certain problems connected with the change in the soil cover

The ability to select favourable soils was characteristic of the earliest agricul-tural societies. The interdependence between the distribution of habitation and certain types of soil is easily observable from the beginning of the Neolithic. Human activity was and still is a major factor which has determined the character of soils. From their actual state therefore inference can be drawn about former vege-tation and about certain aspects of the exploitation of natural environment by man.

The character of the soils in the Miechów Upland and the Proszowice Plateaus is determined by the loess cover and by the calcareous and cretaceous rock occa-sionally exposed. These formations underlie fertile brown soil, black earth and rędzina. Patches of rędzina were little used by prehistorie man in the area exami-ned. This fact may be of essential importance for the study of their formation. Were to assume that during the Early Neolithic colonisation of the area under discus-sion these soils were still in the process of forming (as the skeleton rędzina of today) their avoidance by man would be -understandable. Brown soils were formed under the influence of deciduous and mixed forests. These soils are widely spread today and distinctly dominate over other types occurring in this area. Conditions for their romations existed here probably sińce the Atlantic period. Considerable part of the Miechów Upland the the Proszowice Plateau is covered with black earth does not form a compact patch but a number of big or smali patches interrup-ted by those of brown soil (often of black earth origin) or of rędzina. The formation of black earth coincides with the so-called turf stage of the soil-forming process. Its origin should be linked with the steppe or park character of the landscape¹³⁹. The consensus of opinion holds that black earth formed in the Subboreal period favourable for steppe formation. The reasons given so far for the steppe origin of black earth in the dry area of the forest zonę of Central Europę cannot be longered considered sound when confronted with the findings of recent studies on the climate and vegetation in this area during the Holocene (see the remarks above). The extent of soils in the dry areas of Central Europę coincides with that of the relics of the steppe flora and fauna. At the same time these patches occur in the zonę of the earliest agricultural habitation. This coincidence does not seem to be accidental and may reveal the caus s that underlie the origin of this soil, to the formation of which certain forms of human exploitation of the natural environ-ment contributed to major extent. Of particular significance in this respect were the burning economy (TRB-culture) and the stock-breeding prastized on a major scalę in the deforested area (Corded Ware culture). These methods of exploiting the natural environment resulted in the formation of open patches covered with turf vegetation. They lasted at least for several centuries (TRB and Corded Ware culture) and offered possibilitities for the beginning (or even advancing) of the soddy phase which in turn led to the formation of black earth.