Early Holocene pollen and molluscan records from Enfield Lock, Middlesex, UK

Abstract

Pollen, molluscan data, and sediment analyses, are presented from Enfield Lock, Middlesex, UK. The pollen data, from organic muds, show similarities with Pre-boreal and Boreal pollen spectra at other sites in the Thames basin; an overlying non-polleniferous marl yielded a diverse molluscan fauna. Radiocarbon dates on organic sediments at the site confirm the pollen records are from the early Holocene, but the shelly marl is less easily dated; there are affinities with molluscan records of the early to mid Holocene from sites elsewhere in southeast England. The biological and sedimentological data chronicle the changing depositional environments of the floodplain of the River Lea during four millennia of the early to mid Holocene. Charcoal records imply that fire was, at times, a significant influence on early Holocene vegetation, but a lack of local human artefacts contrasts with evidence for Mesolithic sites elsewhere, and has implications for the interpretation of early Holocene pollen assemblages from charcoal-rich sediments.