Social Context of Late Medieval and Early Modern Deforestation Periods in the Apuseni Mountains (Romania) based on an Integrated Evaluation of Historical and Paleobotanical Records

Coeval changes in the reconstructed bog surface wetness and the pollen record of a peat sequence extracted from an ombrothropic bog (Calul de Piatră, 1630 m, Apuseni Mountains) allowed the natural and anthropogenic environmental changes over the past 1500 years to be assessed. The assessment of the social and economic context was also possible due to the exceptionally detailed documentary evidence of the investigated region. Four major deforestation periods in the past 1500 years were identified. Significant phases of deforestation coincided with particular social and political changes: (1) between AD 810 and 850, with the collapse of the Avar Khaganate and the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire in the southern areas of the Carpathian Basin; (2) between AD 1060 and 1170, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary (AD 1000) and the foundation of royal, territorial administrative (county) and ecclesiastical centres of the feudal state; (3) in the sixteenth century (AD 1500–1570); and (4) after AD 1700, with population growth and economic development. Our results suggest that the observed deforestation and the consequent spread of subalpine farming were not necessarily related to the warmer or drier climatic periods, but to socioeconomic changes in nearby communities.