Fig 1.
Distribution of LBK settlements (red dots) in relation to recent average annual precipitation in Bavaria.
Regions analyzed concerning the settlement dynamic during LBK and early Middle Neolithic: 1 Lower Franconia, 2 Upper Franconia, 3 south-central Franconia, 4 Ries, 5 upper Danube/Höchstädt region, 6 Lech estuary, 7 middle Lech, 8 Danube/Regensburg region, 9 middle Isar, 10 Isar estuary. Sites where the analyzed oaks were found are indicated by yellow crosses. The small map indicates the entire distribution of the LBK in Europe (green) and the position of Bavaria (red).
Fig 2.
Occupancy of single settlement sites at the upper Bavarian Danube and at the Lech during the LBK and the early Middle Neolithic.
Fig 3.
Comparison of the settlement dynamics during the LBK and the early Middle Neolithic in different settlement regions in Bavaria, Germany.
Narrow lines indicate moderate settlement, thick lines indicate intensive settlement and lateral off-set equals spatial discontinuity of settlement.
Fig 4.
Results of the split period and full period calibration and verification of the climate-growth analysis.
Fig 5.
Tree-ring series used for precipitation reconstruction.
(A) Lifespan of the oak trees from Main region, (B) replication (number of tree-ring series per year) and (C) inter-series correlation (RBAR) / Expressed Population Signal (EPS).
Fig 6.
Dynamic of seasonal (black; Mean Absolute Error, MAE = grey shaded) and decadal (red) variability of spring-summer precipitation in southern Germany between 5700 and 4800 B.C.E.
Dashed lines represent ±2 standard deviations.
Table 1.
Severe (<-2 / >+2 z-scores) droughts and wet periods in southern Germany as reconstructed from tree rings.
Fig 7.
Climate variability during the LBK.
Reconstructions of Greenland temperature [65], summer sea surface temperature in the northern North Atlantic [66], delta 18O in southern Germany [67], global solar irradiance [68] and precipitation (5-year lowpass filtered) for the Main region (southern Germany) from tree-ring data.