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POLLEN ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE FOR PREHISTORIC FOREST CLEARANCE IN THE UPLAND AREA WEST OF RISHWORTH. W. YORKSHIRE
Author(s) -
BARTLEY DAVID D.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1975.tb02624.x
Subject(s) - woodland , prehistory , radiocarbon dating , pollen , archaeology , bronze age , palynology , arable land , peat , geography , mesolithic , period (music) , phytolith , agriculture , ecology , biology , physics , acoustics
SUMMARY A pollen diagram from blanket peat at about 410 m on Rishworth Moor in the Yorkshire Pennines is discussed with particular reference to forest clearance. The evidence suggests that there was relatively little clearance in the Neolithic and Bronze Age but considerable activity accompanied by pastoral and some arable agriculture occurred in the Iron Age. This intensive agriculture seems to have ended early in the Roman period, when there was a recovery of the woodlands. The sequence is dated by four radiocarbon assays and its significance is discussed in relation to the archaeological and historical data available.