ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF CEFN GWERNFFRWD, NEAR RHANDIRMWYN, MID‐WALES

Abstract

SUMMARYData are presented from pollen analytical investigations of an upland basin peat site (GWC) at c. 395 m.o.d. on Cefn Gwernffrwd, mid‐Wales, 15 km north of Llandovery and 15 km southeast of Tregaron Bog. The data are presented in an outline radiocarbon‐dated pollen diagram, covering more than 9500 radiocarbon years and zoned in the conventional manner, and in a detailed pollen diagram covering Atlantic and Sub‐Boreal times, divided into eight phases.The evidence indicates that pine (Pinus) was not a major post‐glacial forest component in this locality, but that hazel (Corylus) may have dominated the upland plateau woods for much of the Boreal. The composition of the Mesolithic forest is discussed and compared with neighbouring areas of the British Isles in the light of this apparent abundance of Corylus and with regard to its migration route into mid‐Wales in the Flandrian.The date for the elm (Ulmus) decline horizon at site GWC is within the expected range and consistent with that obtained from Tregaron Bog.The site is 0.5 km from a recently discovered prehistoric complex of presumed Bronze Age date. Although there is firm evidence for Neolithic clearances, the impact on the forest in this locality was more severe in the Bronze Age. This is apparently at variance with sites elsewhere in mid‐Wales, where an open upland landscape has been claimed since the early Neolithic, and more closely parallels findings in Northern Ireland.