Devensian Late-glacial and early Flandrian environmental history of the Vale of Pickering, Yorkshire, England

Dating the introduction of cereal cultivation to the British Isles: early palaeoecological evidence from the Isle of Man

“…If this is acceptable in a predictive way on islands where a Mesolithic cultural presence has yet to be demonstrated (Edwards, 1996), the disturbance at Ballachrink recorded here may well represent human activity at this location on the Isle of Man, which has abundant adjacent Late Mesolithic sites (McCartan, 1999). Whether the evidence results from hunting or more domestic activity (Bennett et al, 1990) is open to interpretation but the location of Ballachrink at the edge of a broad wetland area with marginal hunter-gatherer camps is familiar from sites such as Star Carr (Day, 1996) that also have charcoal in the peat stratigraphy. The timing of the fire record and disturbance episode at Ballachrink, just after the Alnus rise, makes it comparable with many such disturbances in Britain (Simmons and Innes, 1987) and one from Ireland, where charcoal and disturbance occur at this pollen stratigraphical boundary at Newferry (Smith, 1984).…”

The evolution of Palaeolake Flixton and the environmental context of Star Carr: an oxygen and carbon isotopic record of environmental change for the early Holocene

“…The stable It is important to acknowledge that the correlation of the marl in these three sequences is based on; 1) existing 14 C ages that correlate the onset of peat accumulation to ca 8,000 yrs B.P. (Cloutman, 1998a;Cloutman and Smith, 1988;Day, 1996;Dark, 1998) and, 2) the stratigraphy of the basin fill, i.e. the relative height of the units and the superimposition of these sequences, at various locations, above deposits with attributions to the Lateglacial stadial (Palmer et al, submitted).…”

“…the Lateglacial stadial, only the deepest part of the lake basin would have remained lacustrine with the topographic highs becoming emergent and exposed. Consequently, the deepest parts of the basin would preserve sediments deposited during the entire Lateglacial/early Holocene interval, see Figure 2 (Day, 1996;Dark, 1998Lowe et al, 1999. The topographic highground within the basin would, however, only have accumulated sediments during the early Holocene when lake levels were at their highest, Figure 2 (Cloutman, 1988a;Cloutman and Smith, 1988).…”

“…Periods of climatic amelioration, the Lateglacial Interstadial and the early Holocene, are characterised by the accumulation of carbonate-rich lacustrine marl (Day, 1996;Dark, 1998;Palmer et al, submitted). This reflects the relatively high vegetation cover in the area around Palaeolake Flixton at this time, which stabilises the landscape and reduces allogenic input, and the high bio-productivity of the lake waters, which cause regular changes in the pH of the lake waters and triggers carbonate precipitation (Palmer et al, submitted).…”

“…The intervening cold interval, the Lateglacial Stadial, is dominated by allogenic inputs, reflecting the reduction in vegetation cover in the area surrounding Palaeolake Flixton and the subsequent increase in soil/sediment erosion (Palmer et al, submitted). During the early Holocene the progressive sediment infilling of the basin caused sufficient shallowing to propogate a shift from a lacustrine to a mire environment, as reflected by a shift from carbonate marl to peat accumulation, as part of a hydroseral succession (Day, 1996;Dark, 1998). A radiocarbon date at the base of the peat generated an age of 7640 14C yrs +/-85 (OxA-4042, Day, 1996) that is calibrated, using Intcal 13 (Reimer et al, 2013) to 8415-8050 cal yrs BP, implying that marl accumulation had ceased by this age.…”