POLLEN‐ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EFFECT OF PREHISTORIC AGRICULTURE ON THE VEGETATION OF NORTH DERBYSHIRE

Abstract

Summary: Six upland sites are investigated and a pollen diagram produced from each. On each diagram a series of clearance phases is detected. These clearance phases are dated on the Leash Fen diagram by a series of nine radiocarbon dates. The Totley Moss and Hipper Sick diagram each have a single radiocarbon date for the first appearance of Plantago lanceolata. The archaeological evidence for the region is reviewed and the distribution of artifacts for each period noted. Reference is also made to spot pollen counts made in association with archaeological sites. Individual clearance phases and archaeological periods are then correlated by means of the radiocarbon evidence.It is deduced that clearance of the Atlantic mixed‐oak forest was small scale and temporary throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and did not become extensive until the Iron Age. Up until and including the Iron Age pastoralism dominated the economy but during the Roman occupation a stimulus was given to arable cultivation. By the post‐Roman‐pre‐Conquest period, forest clearance and soil erosion had degraded the upland soils to such an extent that a shallow peat cover was able to develop over large areas. The treeless heather moorland of today represents a culmination of this process.