Palaeoecological, archaeological and historical data and the making ofDevon landscapes.I.TheBlackdownHills

Abstract

This paper presents the first systematic study of the vegetation history of a range of low hills in SW England, UK, lying between more researched fenlands and uplands. After the palaeoecological sites were located bespoke archaeological, historical and documentary studies of the surrounding landscape were undertaken specifically to inform palynological interpretation at each site. The region has a distinctive archaeology with late Mesolithic tool scatters, some evidence of early Neolithic agriculture, many Bronze Age funerary monuments and RomanoBritish iron-working. Historical studies have suggested that the present landscape pattern is largely early Medieval. However, the pollen evidence suggests a significantly different Holocene vegetation history in comparison with other areas in lowland England, with evidence of incomplete forest clearance in later-Prehistory (Bronze−Iron Age). Woodland persistence on steep, but poorly drained, slopes, was probably due to the unsuitability of these areas for mixed farming. Instead they may have been under woodland management (e.g. coppicing) associated with the iron-working industry. Data from two of the sites also suggest that later Iron Age and Romano-British impact may have been geographically restricted. The documented Medieval land management that maintained the patchwork of small fields, woods and heathlands had its origins in later Prehistory, but there is also evidence of landscape change in the 6th-9th centuries AD. We conclude that the Blackdown Hills area was one of many 'distinctive subregions', which due to a combination of edaphic, topographic and cultural factors could qualify as an eco-cultural region or 'pays'. It is argued that the use of such eco-culturally distinctive regions or pays can provide a spatial and archaeological framework for palaeoecology, which has implications for landscape research, designation and heritage management.Antony G. Brown (Tony.Brown@soton.ac.uk),

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

“…Very early examples of Cereal-type pollen have been recorded in northern Europe, often as Hordeum or just as Cerealia, mostly based on size alone, and these have been regarded as almost certainly originating from wild grasses (Clark et al, 1989; Hörnberg et al, 2006; Kalis et al, 2003). Similarly, several records of pre-Elm Decline pollen grains in the British Isles have been dismissed as spurious as they occur well before 6000 radiocarbon years bp (7000 cal BP), including Hordeum type referred to Glyceria (Brown et al, 2014), and so well before any realistic introduction of cereal cultivation from Europe, whether by trade or migration (O’Connell, 1987). This presents a dilemma of interpretation.…”

Variation in the Continuity of Land-Use Patterns through the First Millennium AD in Lowland Britain

“…A regional case-study: South West Britain The South West has also benefited from new palynological work since The Fields of Britannia Project (Figure 13). 74 It presents a contrasting case study to East Anglia as the South West does not demonstrate the same degree of Romanization as other parts of lowland Britain, and it lay beyond the main zone of Anglo-Saxon influence, and as such it might be expected to have had a different land- 68 Godwin (1968) 102 72 Peglar et al (1989); Godwin (1968); Sims (1978) 73 Sims (1978) 57; K. Bennett (1983a, b) 74 e.g, Fyfe and Woodbridge (2012), Brown et al (2014), and Perez et al (2015) use history through the first millennium A.D. preserving the remnants of a late prehistoric pattern. It is a highly diverse landscape, with granite (e.g., Bodmin, Dartmoor) and shale (Exmoor) uplands, and lowlands characterised by rolling topography.…”

The Quaternary rivers of the Jurassic Coast region: From the Neogene to the Anthropocene

“…More research is required but it is likely that all these estuaries started silting when relative sea level reached it current levels, but that siltation increased leading to channel contraction over the last 1000 years (Murphy, 2011: Bennett et al, 2013. The cause of this siltation is now agreed to be fundamentally anthropogenic, caused by the deforestation of river catchments, largely in the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 4500 -2000 BP; Brown et al, 2014b) and the adoption of intensive arable cultivation especially in the Medieval period (Macklin et al, 2010;Brown et al, 2013c;Brown et al, 2017). The nature and extent of these legacy sediments (sensu Walter and Merrits, 2008) varies along the JCWHS from high rates on the erodible Triassic sands and silts of East Devon to the largely soluble chalk in the Isle of Purbeck to the east.…”