The Western European Loess Belt

Preface 1 The loess covered region west of the river Rhine. 5300 BC ??? AD 1000 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Loess 1.3 The loess region 1.4 The choice of the period, 5300 BC ??? AD 1000 1.5 The framework of this book 2 Sources 2.1 Information on a distant past 2.2 Plants 2.3 Animals 2.4 Tools 2.5 Buildings and other structures 2.6 Land and countryside 2.7 Written sources 3 The beginning 5300 BC-4900 BC 3.1 The first farmers 3.2 Crops 3.3 Crop cultivation 3.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 3.5 Farm buildings and yards 3.6 The farm in its setting 4 Heirs to the first farmers 4900-4300 BC 4.1 The successors of the Linearbandkeramik culture 4.2 Crops 4.3 Crop cultivation 4.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 4.5 Farm buildings and yards 4.6 The farm in its setting 5 Innovation and expansion 4300-2650 BC 5.1 A new age 5.2 Crops 5.3 Crop cultivation 5.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 5.5 Farm buildings and yards 5.6 The farm in its setting 6 The first millennia of agricultural landscape 6.1 The original vegetation 6.2 The impact of the farming communities on the vegetation 6.3 Erosion 7 Towards a more complex society 2650 ??? 50 BC 7.1 The so-called Metal Ages 7.2 Crops 7.3 Crop cultivation 7.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 7.5 Farm buildings and yards 7.6 The farm in its setting 8 Part of the Roman Empire 50 BC ??? AD 407 8.1 Roman rule 8.2 Crops 8.3 Crop cultivation 8.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 8.5 Farm buildings and yards 8.6 The farm in its setting 9 The Early Middle Ages D 407 ??? AD 1000 9.1 The end of Roman rule and thereafter 9.2 Crops 9.3 Crop cultivation 9.4 Livestock and animal husbandry 9.5 Farm buildings and yards 9.6 The farm in its setting 10 The birth of the rural landscape 10.1 The vanishing of the forest as the main vegetation type 10.2 Erosion 11 Summing up six millennia of agriculture Glossary Select bibliography Source of figures and tables Index