Multi-profile fine-resolution palynology of Late Mesolithic to Bronze Age peat at Cat Stones, Rishworth Moor, Central Pennines, UK

Abstract

Palynological data from three radiocarbon dated peat profiles at Rishworth Moor in the Pennine hills of northern England provide a record of vegetation change and human impacts in the Late Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. All three cultures have archaeological sites present in the vicinity, with Late Mesolithic sites by far the most abundant, comprising mainly very late assemblages dominated by ‘rod’-shaped microliths. Pollen evidence of vegetation disturbance occurs during all three archaeological periods, and is attributed to the results of human activity. Microscopic charcoal and non-pollen palynomorph analyses support the pollen evidence. Sites at Cat Stones 2 and Cat Stones 3 record evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age date only. Cat Stones 1 extends into the Late Mesolithic period, and fine-resolution pollen analyses have been applied in this profile to the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition leading up to the mid-Holocene Elm ( Ulmus) Decline, which starts here at c. 4940 14C BP (5670 cal. BP), a typical date for it in the central Pennines. Bayesian age-depth modelling provides precise ages for the vegetation changes and their spatial correlation. The plateau was dominated by scrub and grassy Calluna heath from the Late Mesolithic onwards. Elevated microscopic charcoal levels and ruderal herb pollen record phases of fire disturbance below the Elm Decline, including a grain of Hordeum cereal-type. Whether this grain represents early cultivation requires further research. Bronze Age impacts are of greater intensity, but disturbances of all three cultural periods are low scale, agreeing with the results of previous research in the Pennines.

Testing the presence of cereal-type pollen grains in coastal pre-Elm Decline peat deposits: Fine-resolution palynology at Roudsea Wood, Cumbria, UK

“…Lynch (1981) recorded Hordeum type grains at Cashelkeelty in southwest Ireland. Some studies have applied morphology criteria to cereal-type grains, primarily Hordeum , from the beginning of this period in Britain (Albert et al, 2021) and northern Europe (Alenius et al, 2017; Poska and Saarse, 2006; Wieckowska et al, 2012) and concluded that they do represent Hordeum rather than any wild grass, presumably procured by hunter-gatherers during an ‘availability phase’ (Zvelebil and Rowley-Conwy, 1984) before the advent of the Neolithic, or by small groups of pioneer settlers with at least a partly ‘Neolithic’ resource base. As all of these studies separated Hordeum from Glyceria on morphological criteria, it seems that such records from this early time period must be accepted, or at least given serious consideration, even in these more peripheral areas of Europe.…”

“…BP (Griffiths, 2022; Gron et al, 2018; Warren, 2013; Zvelebil, 1994), although much shorter than in mainland Europe and with little genetic transfer (Mithen, 2022). ‘Terminal Mesolithic’ rod microlith sites in northern England, for example, date right up to the end the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition period and so overlap with Neolithic archaeological sites in the region (Albert et al, 2021; Albert and Innes, 2015; Griffiths, 2014; Spikins, 2002). The respective impacts of the late Mesolithic and the earliest Neolithic on the landscape might have been of a similar scale and difficult to distinguish, but a means of detecting the initial Neolithic might be through changes in human ecology and vegetation disturbance which, although probably subtle and spatially restricted, altered ecosystems (Welinder, 1983) and vegetation patterns (Caseldine and Fyfe, 2006; Woodbridge et al, 2014).…”