Figure 1
From: Lake microbiome and trophy fluctuations of the ancient hemp rettery
Localization of Lake Slone. (a) Lake Slone (51°18′16″N, 23°21′55″E) is located in SE Poland within the Chełm Hills Region, a part of Volhyn Polesie18. (b) Topography of the northern part of Chełm Hills Region showing the locations of the closest Early Medieval hillforts—Busówno and Staw Tarnów marked with yellow stars—in the vicinity of Lake Slone. In the Middle Ages, at least four settlement units functioned within the 10 km radius from the study site, with Busówno hillfort being the closest and the largest among them19. The results of geoarchaeological studies of the medieval settlements in the region have been well-described20 however, earlier anthropogenic activity in SE Poland dating back to the Roman period and the Migration Period has not been fully characterised. During the Roman period, the Przeworsk and Wielbark cultures can be located to the region of SE Poland, which then migrated towards the south and west and were replaced by the first Slavs around the sixth century21. The first records of the settlement in Busówno date back to the seventh century and the archaeological evidence suggests that the hillfort functioned until the fourteenth century and was still used, but to a lesser extent, until the seventeenth century19. (c) Nowadays, Lake Slone is a small, shallow (3.4 ha, 8.0 m), eutrophic water body (Carlson Trophic State Index = 44–58) of high ecological status17. The lake has a catchment area of 5.5 km2 with a predominant agricultural land use (arable lands, meadows and wetlands), whereas build-up areas within the catchment do not exceed 2%. (d) Ice-covered Lake Slone during sediment sampling, January 2019.
