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Stable isotope analyses of modern coastal and salt-marsh plant species (‘salt-loving’ plants or halophytes) have demonstrated that these are significantly enriched in 15N compared to other terrestrial plants. Coastal salt-marshes were far more extensive in the past than they are today. They represented a vast and much-exploited resource in many areas of the UK and north-western Europe and were considered to be prime land for the grazing of animal stock. This paper aims to test whether the unusual isotope chemistry of halophytes and other coastal plants allows for the identification of salt-marsh grazing in the past through the stable isotope analysis of herbivore skeletal remains. We present the results of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bone collagen of herbivores from the middle and late Bronze Age sites of Brean Down, Redwick and Peterstone in the Severn Estuary, UK. Here, direct archaeological evidence indicates salt-marsh grazing as a deliberate herding strategy. The animal bone isotope data from these three Severn Estuary sites are significantly enriched in 15N in comparison to other Holocene faunal data-sets from the UK. We interpret this as evidence that the isotopic signatures of coastal and salt-marsh plants are passed on through the food chain and conclude that stable isotope analysis of animal bone collagen has great potential for investigating salt-marsh or coastal exploitation in the past. Our results also demonstrate that herbivore stable isotope values may vary significantly between different sites and regions within the UK. They underline the necessity for complementary faunal data-sets when undertaking palaeodietary analyses of human remains.

Lichenometry is a method of dating that has been widely used in glaciated areas for determining the minimum age of exposure of a geomorphic landform during the late Holocene. This paper presents a regional calibration data set of lichen thallus sizes versus rock surface ages for the Huashan area, East China, based on measurements of yellow-green Rhizocarpon lichens on the known-age substrates at eight sites. An empirical relationship between thallus sizes and rock surface ages was established using both the traditional regression and the Bayesian approaches. Using the Bayesian calibration, the minimum age of the Huashan Grottoes was dated from 450 ± 60 to 330 ± 60 years ago, corresponding to the late Ming Dynasty (AD 1477–1632). These dates are generally consistent with those predicted from the regression-based linear growth curve. Our results suggest that applications of this technique can be safely extended to the non-glaciated areas.

Recent multidisciplinary investigations document an independent emergence of agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. In this paper we report preliminary usewear analysis and details of prehistoric use of stone tools for processing starchy food and other plants at Kuk Swamp. Morphological diagnostics for starch granules are reported for two potentially significant economic species, taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp.), following comparisons between prehistoric and botanical reference specimens. Usewear and residue analyses of starch granules indicate that both these species were processed on the wetland margin during the early and mid Holocene. We argue that processing of taro and yam commences by at least 10,200 calibrated years before present (cal BP), although the taro and yam starch granules do not permit us to distinguish between wild or cultivated forms. From at least 6950 to 6440 cal BP the processing of taro, yam and other plants indicates that they are likely to have been integrated into cultivation practices on the wetland edge.

This paper presents late Holocene pollen analytical, plant macrofossil and radiocarbon data from a sequence filling a natural pit developed in the gravel beaches of Dungeness Foreland, southeast England. Pollen analysis of organic muds from the base of Muddymore Pit contain exceptionally high pollen frequencies for Cannabis sativa L. and indicate the past use of the site as a hemp-retting pit. The timing of the pollen record for Cannabis (ca. AD 1000–1400) corresponds with a period during which the nearby town of Lydd reached the height of its prosperity and importance as one of the lesser havens of the ‘Cinque Ports’ confederation. It is proposed that the hemp-retting site at Muddymore Pit went a long way towards satisfying demand from the port for the products of hempen fibre such as rope (for ships rigging) and cloth (for ships sails).

This paper investigates the taphonomy of predominantly biogenic sediments and pollen in the key archaeological site in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak. Strong spatial patterning of sediments and pollen were found, with a zonation related to distance into the cave. Near the cave mouth, sedimentation is silty and derived from waters running down the cliff outside the cave, with leaves from external vegetation. Pollen assemblages are similar to forest floor samples outside the cave, and thus are of airfall or wash origin. In the interior of the West Mouth, sedimentation is highly organic and composed largely of bird droppings. Pollen assemblages in the interior are strongly but regularly biased, with ‘over-representation’ of mangrove and riverine taxa resulting from the recruitment of pollen by bats and swiftlets foraging preferentially in these zones, over 7 and over 2 km from the cave, respectively. The significance of these findings for the understanding of humid tropical cave sequences and particularly for the current reassessment of Niah Cave is discussed.

Using examples from dated alluvial deposits in the Trent basin, UK, this paper suggests that the waterlogged remains of insects, mainly beetles, can be used to detect the occurrence of varying discharge and changing patterns of flood-plain evolution in low gradient alluvial landscapes of Holocene age. This approach may provide invaluable data where the finer-grained nature of sedimentation means that other types of information such as coarse boulder berms are lacking. Comparison of Coleoptera assemblages from three high-energy and two lower-energy deposits indicates that a number of distinctive characteristics can be identified and criteria can be set for the distinction of these two contrasting depositional environments. This approach is tested using Coleoptera remains recovered from a palaeochannel fill at Spalford Meadows in the Lower Trent Valley. The application of this methodology could contribute to the reconstruction of river histories, a key factor in understanding the distribution of valley floor archaeological settlement patterns.

Archaeological evaluation of deeply stratified sedimentary sequences from lowland river valleys can be problematic because of the often excessive depth of the deposits, the associated high level of the water table and ground instability. In such situations conventional archaeological survey techniques are inappropriate and alternative methodologies are required. One suitable approach is to model subsurface stratigraphy, in an attempt to determine potential locations for buried archaeology, using an integrated borehole and geophysical program of ground investigation. Information of this type is often available in the form of geotechnical data that can be usefully augmented by geoarchaeological targeting of selected areas of the site for further information. In this paper we show how such techniques can be used to model buried gravel surfaces, peats within alluvial stacks and buried former clifflines in Holocene and Pleistocene sediments from southern England.

This paper presents the palaeoecological analysis of a sediment core extracted from the marsh of Gravgaz in the Pisidian Lake District (southwest Turkey). The sediments are Late Holocene, dating back toc . 3300 bp. The research is part of an inter-disciplinary project, aiming to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment of the Sagalassos' territory, and to determine the impact of the former inhabitants of the area on the landscape. The Late Holocene pollen diagram shows four pollen assemblage zones: a phase with dominance of pine forest (zone A:c . 3300–3200 bp; Cal. ∼1640–1520 bc till ∼1520–1430 bc), a deforestation phase (zone B: c. 3200–2300 bp; Cal. ∼1520–1430 bc till ∼410–240 bc) an important cultivation phase (zone C:c . 2300–1300 bp; Cal. ∼410–240 bc tillad 660–770) and a final reforestation phase (zone D: from c. 1300 bp; Cal. ∼ad 660–770, till the present day). The results are complimented with archaeological and sedimentological data.

Bodmin Moor is one of the most complete and best preserved upland prehistoric landscapes in Britain. The field archaeology has been described in some detail, although on the basis of comparatively little excavation, but this has nevertheless been used to generate hypotheses concerning the nature and timing of human settlement and impacts on the Moor. In contrast, there has been relatively little palaeoenvironmental work, due to a perceived lack of suitable deposits. These two articles present new palynological data from a series of recently discovered undisturbed profiles. This first paper describes the physical and archaeological settings of the sites and discusses the nature of the early Holocene vegetation on the Moor. Although previous work has suggested a dominance of open moorland throughout the Holocene, the two high-altitude (280 m OD) profiles presented here show that dense woodland dominated by Corylus avellana and Quercus was present until around 6500 BP and probably extended to the very highest points of the Moor. Other taxa, such as Ulmus, Betula, and Tilia cordata, were also subordinate components of the vegetation. Alnus glutinosa became established later, possibly after disturbance to the vegetation by human activity, although the nature and extent of Mesolithic disturbance to the vegetation is unclear. Thus, the early Holocene vegetation of the Moor was not predominantly open heath or grassland as has previously been assumed, but more probably a dense cover of hazel and oak woodland.

This paper sets out the history of aeolian deposition and soil formation over the last 14–15,000 calendar years along the exposed and gale-prone Atlantic coastlines of the Southern Isles of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Detailed palaeoenvironmental interpretation and chronological control have been provided by field-mapping, soil micromorphological analyses, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating programmes. Two dominant types of aeolian sands are described in this region. Quartzose sands are shown to originate mainly as periglacial wind-blown sands derived from glacial and periglacial deposits of Late Devensian age which were formerly exposed on the present continental shelf. This aeolian deposition did, however, continue into the Early Holocene, with re-working, perhaps by slope-wash, taking place as recently as the 4th millennium bp . Quartzose sands mantle valley floors and hillslopes. By the end of the Devensian and Early Holocene, a variety of soil types with extensive horizonation, had developed upon them, including podzolic brown earths, peaty gleys and peat soils. Radiocarbon and OSL dating demonstrate that the carbonate sands of the machair sand sheets which characterize the present Atlantic shorelines began to accumulate very early for a European shoreline: from approximately 8700 calendar years ago on Benbecula and North Uist; whereas further south, deposition began later. OSL-dating suggests that non-sequences and diastems are common. In greater part these machair sand sheets are best interpreted as a composite of separate slivers of sand reflecting small-scale and local episodes of sand drift, rather than distinct layers of region-wide distribution which might reflect past major storms or significant palaeoclimatic fluctuations. The new evidence presented here provides little support for the following explanatory geomorphic or stratigraphic models which have previously sought to explain the development of these coastal machair landscapes: “continuous development”; “layer cake”; or “step-wise prograding coastal barrier”. Qualified support is given for the explanations that emphasize (i) the long-term, spasmodic input and re-cycling of sands; and (ii) that the present smoothed landscapes and distinctive machair grassland vegetation are essentially recent in age and reflect the interactions of natural and human processes in a stormy environment characterized by re-working. Widespread layers of thick organic materials within the carbonate sands in the study area which have previously been regarded as dune palaeosols, dating to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, are suggested by soil-micromorphological analysis to be in significant part, anthropogenic in origin. They are organically-enriched layers or midden-soils, the consequence of human activities: notably the disposal of organic wastes and other forms of soil modification during times of significant settlement in these coastal sands. These periods of relatively intense human activity are therefore shown to be associated, at least locally, with periods of “soil” formation and stability; not universal instability and dune drift along these shorelines. In general, these extensive layers of midden-soil do not necessarily imply periods of decreased storminess. Relatively widespread soil formation in these coastal dunes did, however, take place in the period between 400 and 100 years ago: essentially within the period of increased storminess associated with the “Little Ice Age”. It is suggested that at some point(s) within the following periods of time (broadly defined in calendar years bp ), notable sand drift affecting the quartzose sands, the carbonate sands or both, took place within the study area: 13,700–13,000; 11,000–10,500; 9000–8300; 7500–7000; 6900–6400; 5800–4200 (one of the most notable episodes of drift in the Outer Hebrides, as well as elsewhere on the coast of north-west Europe); 3800–3300; 1700–1300; 600–200 (with individual great storms being recorded in the 17th and 18th centuries); and 100–present-day (limited drift associated with “machair stratification”).

Finding a causal mechanism to account for observed phases of valley alluviation in the Mediterranean region and southern Europe during the Holocene has been a subject of debate for more than 20 years. Three possible causes have been suggested: regional climatic change, anthropogenic induced erosion and the crossing of intrinsic thresholds within fluvial systems so that deposition, rather than erosion, is favoured. In this paper we report investigations carried out in the Algarve region (southern Portugal), where past research is interpreted as suggesting a climatic cause. Mapping and sedimentological investigations of Holocene sediments within three major valleys in this region are reported, together with the association of these deposits with artifacts, a Roman/Moorish mill and bands of charcoal. Chemical, as well as physical sedimentological interpretation, was carried out on the deposits. We also report the results of a detailed investigation and reconstruction of the land use and settlement history of the area and show that episodes of valley alluviation coincide in time with phases of intensive agriculture and clearance within the catchments of these valleys, whereas episodes of valley erosion coincide with episodes of relative stability. Whilst recognizing that temporal correlations are not necessarily causal, we argue that in this area anthropogenic forcing of phases of Holocene alluviation is the preferred mechanism.

Evidence from several disciplines supports the proposition that following the Wisconsinan and an initial but brief moist phase of the Holocene, there was a gradual drying trend in the mid-continent Prairie Peninsula that peaked about 7000 years ago, a pattern that was not reversed until about 4000 years ago. Except for minor perturbations, conditions during the past four millennia have essentially been similar to those of the present. Studies in palynology and geomorphology have shown that the climatic regimes of the early/mid Post-glacial had a marked influence on both the biota and landscape erosional patterns, especially along the margins of the Prairie Peninsula. Measurable changes in the landscape and attendant biota show a time-transgressive pattern of drought related phenomena recorded palaeo-ecologically from west to east. Few studies of archaeological sites in the Prairie Peninsula have examined the evidence in and around the sites themselves for data reflecting local environmental dynamics. In fact, earlier models proposed for explaining the evolution of food-procuring systems in eastern North America virtually ignored potential changes in the natural environment. This paper examines data from two archaeological sites along the prairie-forest border in Missouri that contain long cultural sequences. Evidence is presented that pronounced changes in the natural environment occurred and that these biophysical variables are indeed critical for understanding the evolution of food-procuring societies in the American Midwest.

Numerous archaeological sites dot the environs of the marine embayment at Navarino in the southwest Peloponnese. This paper presents palaeogeomorphic reconstructions necessary for the understanding of the late bronze age palace complex (“Nestor's Palace”) excavated by Blegen and provides a necessary topographic framework for the interpretation of human occupancy of the region during the last three millennia BC. Palaeoenvironmental data show that the epithet “Sandy Pylos” of Homer's Iliad, can be readily explained and justifiably attributed to this region. The pollen data presented appear to correlate well with the transgression-regression sequences developed from the geological information from subsurface boreholes.

This paper presents new 500 year interval palaeogeographic models for Britain, Ireland and the North West French coast from 11000 cal. BP to present. These models are used to calculate the varying rates of inundation for different geographical zones over the study period. This allows for consideration of the differential impact that Holocene sea-level rise had across space and time, and on past societies. In turn, consideration of the limitations of the models helps to foreground profitable areas for future research.