Palaeoecological Evidence for the Prehistoric Settlement of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, Southwest England. Part I: The Status of Woodland and Early Human Impacts

Abstract

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 (280m 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.