Bramcote Green, Bermondsey: a Bronze Age Trackway and Palaeo-Environmental Sequence

Abstract

An archaeological evaluation and excavation were carried out prior to a housing development in 1992, at Bramcote Green, in the London Borough of Southwark. Up to 3 m of organic rich, alluvial clay silts were deposited during the late Glacial period between about 12,000 BP and 9000 BP. A wide, shallow channel flowing south towards the Thames cut through the clay silts during the early Holocene and was filled with a series of clay and peat layers. Between 6000 BP and 4000 BP fast moving water channels formed on the marshy ground on the east side of the site and broader channels on the sand and gravel outcrop on the west side of the site. A subsequent rise in water levels, possibly seasonal, deposited inorganic muds across most of the site until c. 3500 BP. Over the filled-in channel were laid two phases of a wooden trackway which may have been laid across the marsh between high ground to the south and Bermondsey Island to the north. The earlier trackway consisted of two parallel lines of alder logs held in place by alder stakes. The second consisted of a single line of oak logs with alder stakes along one side. Radiocarbon dating of the second trackway places it in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The site was covered by a thick layer of peat dated to the Late Bronze Age.

Colluvial deposits in dry valleys of southern England as proxy indicators of paleoenvironmental and land‐use change

“…Therefore, using proxy data from such sequences for reconstructing regional environment and land use is clearly untenable, unless many dry valley sequences are studied. However, in view of the recent palynological investigations in areas adjacent to the chalk downland of southern England (e.g., Thomas and Rackham, 1996;Waller, 1998;Waller and Hamilton, 2000), one could argue that it no longer matters that regional paleoenvironments cannot be reconstructed from dry valley sources. Indeed, dry valley deposition can be seen to operate within an almost closed system; the vast majority of sediment and accompanying mollusc shells are derived from the adjacent slopes.…”

“…Although, as stated above, the Quaternary sediments of the chalk downlands of southern England are generally characterized by poor pollen preservation, a number of palynological studies have focused on sites bordering this area (Thorley, 1981;Scaife, 1982;Waton, 1982a;Bush, 1988Bush, , 1993Thomas and Rackham, 1996;Bennett and Preece, 1998;Waller and Hamilton, 2000). While it is debatable just how much of the pollen from these sites is derived from chalk downland, as opposed to extra-local or long-distance sources, such pollen data provide better proxy indicators of regional vegetation, and therefore environment, in comparison to molluscan evidence from dry valleys.…”

A Late Bronze Age Landscape at South Hornchurch, Essex

“…The trackway sites mentioned above and similar structures elsewhere in the region, such as the causeway on the south side of the river at Bermondsey (Thomas & Rackham 1996), suggest 'that the lower Thames region was a fully utilised landscape' by the mid 2nd millennium BC (ibid., 250). Local evidence for clearance in this period was obtained from Bridge Road, where a trackway dated to the later 2nd millennium (1410-1000 and 1680-1260 cal BC) ran from the edge of the gravel into an area of former marsh (Meddens & Beasley 1990;Meddens 1996).…”

High‐Performance Zeolite Membranes on Inexpensive Large‐Pore Supports: Highly Reproducible Synthesis using a Seed Paste

“…However, occupation of these low‐lying sites was short‐lived and they were soon abandoned and buried beneath alluvial deposits (Sidell et al ., 2002). Subsequently, higher areas were occupied with trackways joining some of the settlements (Thomas and Rackham, 1996).…”