The Sediments, Pollen, Plant Macro-Fossils and Insects from a Bronze Age Channel Fill at Yoxall Bridge, Staffordshire

Abstract

The integrated palaeoenvironmental results from a shallow palaeochannel in one of the old courses of the Trent at Yoxall Bridge, Staffordshire, are presented. The sampled deposit consisted of an accumulation of worked and fallen timbers, dated to 1049 to 810 cal BC, in the base of the channel. Sedimentological, pollen, plant macrofossil and insect analyses were carried out. The sediment seems to have been deposited by flooding within an area of back-swamp in the abandoned channel. The local landscape appears to have still included substantial woodland. There is also evidence for limited pasture and arable land. Pollen from the upper parts of the sampled horizons suggests that woodland clearance and cultivation may have increased in the area at this time. Although it was not possible to directly date the onset of the valley wide alluviation at Yoxall Bridge, it is probably consistent with the suggested date of around the first half of the first Millennium BC for this part of the Trent valley. One beetle present, Panagaeus cruxmajor (L.), is today very rare, its decline perhaps a result of habitat loss.