Analysis of the pollen assemblages found in two peat cores taken from a bog near Asi Gonia in the White Mountains suggests a close correlation between the changes observed in the pollen spectra and the historic fluctuations in the demographic, political and cultural affairs of the island of Crete. Some changes in the vegetation may be due to small climatic changes but these were only observable indirectly in increased or released exploitation pressure on the vegetation or changes in land use. The first major decrease in woodland cover occurred in the Second Byzantine period. More open vegetation types expanded in late Venetian times and have remained significant components of the landscape, but there has been a regeneration of woodland cover in the last century. Vegetation changes are interpreted in terms of shifts along a continuum from woodland at one end to open garigue or steppe at the other. Conventional models of cyclical or progressive changes in vegetation are of limited application here, as many key species may be found in different growth forms in different habitats.

A pollen diagram is presented for a sediment core from Kleonai in southern Greece. A set of seven radiocarbon dates suggests that the core spans the time period from the beginning of the Holocene to the Roman period. Pollen preservation in the core is patchy and there are only three zones on the pollen diagram with countable quantities of pollen. These zones correspond with the early Neolithic, Bronze Age and Roman periods. The area around the site was largely open by the Neolithic but the wider landscape was still well wooded. In the Bronze Age and Roman periods, there is evidence for arable agriculture, including olive cultivation. By the Roman period, most of the semi-natural woodlands had disappeared and the landscape was probably not unlike that of the present day.

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