Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T04:26:59.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pollen Evidence for the Environment of Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Petra Dark
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading

Extract

Pollen analysis has long been recognised as of key importance to archaeology for environmental reconstruction, but its application has concentrated on prehistory. This is, perhaps, due to a combination of two factors. First, there has been a greater interest by pollen analysts in questions relating to prehistoric than historic environments. Second, there are fewer suitable sequences available for later periods, especially from peat deposits where the upper layers have often been disturbed or removed by peat cutting. There is, however, an increasing amount of pollen-analytical data relevant to the first millennium A.D., and the purpose of this paper is to collate this information in order to illustrate the nature of the environment of Roman Britain.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 30 , November 1999 , pp. 247 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Petra Dark 1999. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, J.R.L., and Fulford, M.G. 1986: ‘The Wentlooge Level: a Romano-British saltmarsh reclamation in South-East Wales’, Britannia 17, 91117CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, J.R.L., and Fulford, M.G. 1992: ‘Romano-British and later geoarchaeology at Oldbury Flats: reclamation and settlement on the changeable coast of the Severn Estuary’, Archaeological Journal 149, 82123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, S.T. 1979: ‘Identification of wild grass and cereal pollen’, Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, Yearbook 1978, 6992Google Scholar
Atherden, M.A. 1976: ‘Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. III. Fen bogs’, Journal of Biogeography 3, 115–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, K.E. 1981: Peat Stratigraphy and Climatic Change, RotterdamGoogle Scholar
Bartley, D.D. 1975: ‘Pollen analytical evidence for prehistoric forest clearance in the upland area west of Rishworth, W. Yorkshire’, New Phytologist 74, 375–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartley, D.D., Chambers, C., and Hart-Jones, B. 1976: ‘The vegetational history of parts of south and east Durham’, New Phytologist 77, 437–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beales, P.W. 1980: ‘The late Devensian and Flandrian vegetational history of Crose Mere, Shropshire’, New Phytologist 85, 133–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckett, S.C., and Hibbert, F.A. 1979: ‘Vegetational change and the influence of prehistoric man in the Somerset Levels’, New Phytologist 83, 577600CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behre, K.-E. 1981: ‘The interpretation of anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams’, Pollen et Spores 23, 225–45Google Scholar
Bell, M. 1989: ‘Environmental archaeology as an index of continuity and change in the medieval landscape’, in Aston, M., Austin, D. and Dyer, C. (eds), The Rural Settlement of Medieval England, Oxford, 269–86Google Scholar
Bennett, J. 1983: ‘The examination of Turret 10A and the Wall and Vallum at Throckley, Tyne and Wear, 1980’, Archaeologia Aeliana5 11, 2760Google Scholar
Bennett, K.D. 1983: ‘Devensian late-glacial and Flandrian vegetational history at Hockham Mere, Norfolk, England’, New Phytologist 95, 457–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, K.D. 1994: ‘Confidence intervals for age estimates and deposition times in late-Quaternary sediment sequences’, The Holocene 4, 337–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bidwell, P.T., and Watson, M. 1996: ‘Excavations on Hadrian's Wall at Denton, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1986-89’, Archaeologia Aeliana5 24, 156Google Scholar
Boyd, W.E. 1984: ‘Environmental change and Iron Age land management in the area of the Antonine Wall, central Scotland: a summary’, Glasgow Archaeological Journal 11, 7581CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, R.H.W., Coxon, P., Greig, J.R.A., and Hall, A.R. 1981: ‘New fossil evidence for the past cultivation and processing of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in eastern England’, New Phytologist 89, 503–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, N.P., and Scaife, R.G. 1995: ‘The stratigraphy and pollen analysis of peat sequences associated with the Lindow III bog body’, in Turner, R.C. and Scaife, R.G. (eds), Bog Bodies. New Discoveries and New Perspectives, London, 1930Google Scholar
Buck, C.E., Kenworthy, J.B., Litton, C.D., and Smith, A.F.M. 1991: ‘Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration’, Antiquity 65, 808–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, C.E., Litton, C.D., and Smith, A.F.M. 1992: ‘Calibration of radiocarbon results pertaining to related archaeological events’, Journal of Archaeological Science 19, 497512CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. 1982: ‘Two radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams from high-altitude blanket peats in south Wales’, Journal of Ecology 70, 445–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. 1983: ‘The palaeoecological setting of Cefn Gwernffrwd—a prehistoric complex in mid-Wales’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49, 303–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M., and Lageard, J.G.A. 1993: ‘Vegetational history and environmental setting of Crawcwellt, Gwynedd’, Archaeology in Wales 33, 23–5Google Scholar
Chambers, F.M., Lageard, J.G.A., and Elliot, L. 1990: ‘Field survey, excavation and pollen analysis at Mynydd y Drum, Ystradgynlais, Powys, 1983 and 1987’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 37, 215–46Google Scholar
Chambers, F.M., and Price, S.-M. 1988: ‘The environmental setting of Erw-wen and Moel y Gerddi: prehistoric enclosures in upland Ardudwy, North Wales’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 93100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowell, R.W., and Innes, J.B. 1994: The Wetlands of Merseyside, Lancaster Imprints 2, LancasterGoogle Scholar
Crew, P. 1989: ‘Excavations at Crawcwellt West, Merioneth, 1986-89: a late prehistoric upland iron-working settlement’, Archaeology in Wales 29, 1116Google Scholar
Crew, P. 1991a: ‘Crawcwellt West, Trawsfynnydd’, Archaeology in Wales 31, 7Google Scholar
Crew, P. 1991b: ‘Late Iron Age and Roman iron production in north-west Wales’, in Burnham, B.C. and Davies, J.L. (eds), Conquest, Co-existence and Change: Recent Archaeological Work in Roman Wales, Trivium 25, Lampeter, 150–60Google Scholar
Dark, K.R., and Dark, S.P. 1996: ‘New archaeological and palynological evidence for a sub-Roman reoccupation of Hadrian's Wall’, Archaeologia Aeliana5 24, 5772Google Scholar
Dark, K., and Dark, P. 1997: The Landscape of Roman Britain, StroudGoogle Scholar
Dark, S.P. 1996: ‘Palaeoecological evidence for landscape continuity and change in Britain ca. AD 400-800’, in Dark, K.R. (ed.), External Contacts and the Economy of Late Roman and Post-Roman Britain, Woodbridge, 2351Google Scholar
Davies, G., and Turner, J. 1979: ‘Pollen diagrams from Northumberland’, New Phytologist 82, 783804CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Day, S.P. 1991: ‘Post-glacial vegetational history of the Oxford region’, New Phytologist 119, 445–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Day, S.P. 1993: ‘Woodland origin and “ancient woodland indicators”: a case-study from Sidlings Copse, Oxfordshire, UK’, The Holocene 3, 4553CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, W. 1975: ‘Recurrence surfaces in Rusland Moss, Cumbria (formerly North Lancashire)’, Journal of Ecology 63, 913–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, A.M., and Turner, J. 1977: ‘A pollen diagram from Hallowell Moss, near Durham City, U.K.’, Journal of Biogeography 4, 2533CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne, L. 1993: ‘Invader or native?—vegetation clearance in northern Britain during Romano-British time’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 2, 2936CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne, L. 1994: ‘The effect of the Roman occupation on the environment of Hadrian's Wall: a pollen diagram from Fozy Moss, Northumberland’, Britannia 25, 217–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne, L., and Barber, K.E. 1994: ‘The impact of the Romans on the environment of northern England: pollen data from three sites close to Hadrian's Wall’, The Holocene 4, 257–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne, L., Stoneman, R., Barber, K., and Harkness, D. 1995: ‘Problems associated with correlating calibrated radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams with historical events’, The Holocene 4, 118–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne-Peaty, L. 1998: ‘Human impact on the environment during the Iron Age and Romano-British times: palynological evidence from three sites near the Antonine Wall, Great Britain’, Journal of Archaeological Science 25, 203–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumayne-Peaty, L., and Barber, K. 1998: ‘Late Holocene vegetational history, human impact and pollen representivity variations in northern Cumbria, England’, Journal of Quaternary Science 13, 147–643.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, P.D., and Slater, D.S. 1990: ‘A record of vegetational and land use change from upland peat deposits on Exmoor. Part 2: Hoar Moor’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society 134, 125Google Scholar
Francis, P.D., and Slater, D.S. 1992: ‘A record of vegetational and land use change from upland peat deposits on Exmoor. Part 3: Codsend Moors’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society 136, 928Google Scholar
Fulford, M.G., Allen, J.R.L., and Rippon, S.J. 1994: ‘The settlement and drainage of the Wentlooge Level, Gwent: excavation and survey at Rumney Great Wharf 1992’, Britannia 25, 175211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gearey, B., and Charman, D. 1996: ‘Rough Tor, Bodmin Moor: testing some archaeological hypotheses with landscape palaeoecology’, in Charman, D.J., Newnham, R.M. and Croot, D.G. (eds), Devon and East Cornwall Field Guide, London, 101–19Google Scholar
Greig, J.R.A. 1991: ‘The British Isles’, in Zeist, W. van, Waslikowa, K. and Behre, K.-E., Progress in Old World Palaeoethnobotany, Rotterdam, 299334Google Scholar
Hall, A.R., Kenward, H.K., and Williams, D. 1980: Environmental Evidence from Roman Deposits in Skeldergate, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hanson, W.S. 1996: ‘Forest clearance and the Roman army’, Britannia 27, 354–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatton, J.M., and Caseldine, C.J. 1992: ‘Vegetation change and land use history during the first millennium AD at Aller Farm, east Devon as indicated by pollen analysis’, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings 49, 107–14Google Scholar
Higham, N.J. 1991: ‘Soldiers and settlement in northern England’, in Jones, R.F.J. (ed.), Roman Britain: Recent Trends, Sheffield, 93101Google Scholar
Jewitt, L. 1851: ‘On Roman remains recently discovered at Headington, near Oxford’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 6, 5267CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M. 1981: ‘The development of crop husbandry’, in Jones, M. and Dimbleby, G. (eds), The Environment of Man: the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon Period, BAR Brit. Ser. 87, Oxford, 95128Google Scholar
Jones, M.E. 1996: The End of Roman Britain, Ithaca/LondonGoogle Scholar
Jones, R., Benson-Evans, K., and Chambers, F.M. 1985: ‘Human influence upon sedimentation in Llangorse Lake, Wales’, Earth Surface Processes andLandforms 10, 227–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith-Lucas, D.M. 1984: ‘Analysis of pollen from south-east gate’, in Fulford, M., Silchester: Excavations on the Defences 1974-80, Britannia Monograph 5, London, 215–21Google Scholar
Kelly, R.S. 1988: ‘Two late prehistoric circular enclosures near Harlech, Gwynedd’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 101–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, R. 1996: ‘Transport logistics associated with the building of Hadrian's Wall’, Britannia 27, 129–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knights, B.A., Dickson, C.A., Dickson, J.H., and Breeze, D.J. 1983: ‘Evidence concerning the Roman military diet at Bearsden, Scotland, in the 2nd century AD’, Journal of Archaeological Science 10, 139–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, A.W., and Tallis, J.H. 1994: ‘The recent vegetational development of the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, UK’, New Phytologist 128, 571–84CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manning, A., Birley, R., and Tipping, R. 1997: ‘Roman impact on the environment at Hadrian's Wall: precisely dated pollen analysis from Vindolanda, northern England’, The Holocene 7, 175–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, R., Wells, C.E., and Huckerby, E. 1995: The Wetlands of North Lancashire, Lancaster Imprints 4, LancasterGoogle Scholar
Mighall, T.M., and Chambers, F. 1995: ‘Holocene vegetation history and human impact at Bryn y Castell, Snowdonia, North Wales’, New Phytologist 130, 299321CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mighall, T.M., and Chambers, F.M. 1997: ‘Early ironworking and its impact on the environment: palaeoecological evidence from Bryn y Castell hillfort, Snowdonia, North Wales’, New Phytologist 63, 199219Google Scholar
Moore, P.D., Merryfield, D.L., and Price, M.D.R. 1984: ‘The vegetation and development of blanket mires’, in Moore, P.D. (ed.), European Mires, London, 203–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, P.D., Webb, J.A., and Collinson, M.E. 1991: Pollen Analysis (2nd edn), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Newell, P.J. 1983: ‘Pollen analysis report’, in Hanson, W.S. and Maxwell, G.S., ‘Minor enclosures on the Antonine Wall at Wilderness Plantation’, Britannia 14, 227–43Google Scholar
Roberts, B.K., Turner, J., and Ward, P.F. 1973: ‘Recent forest history and land use in Weardale, northern England’, in Birks, H.J.B. and West, R.G. (eds), Quaternary Plant Ecology, Oxford, 207–21Google Scholar
Rowell, T.K., and Turner, J. 1985: ‘Litho-, humic- and pollen stratigraphy at Quick Moss, Northumberland’, Journal of Ecology 73, 1125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheepen, A. van, 1989: ‘The evidence of pollen for the environment of the amphitheatre’, in Fulford, M., The Silchester Amphitheatre: Excavations of 1979-85, Britannia Monograph 10, London, 147–59Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Atherden, M., Cloutman, E.W., Cundill, P.R., Innes, J.B., and Jones, R.L. 1993: ‘Prehistoric environments’, in Spratt, D.A. (ed.), Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire (rev. edn), CBA Research Reports 87, London, 1550Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., and Cundill, P.R. 1974: ‘Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. I. Pollen analyses of blanket peats’, Journal ofBiogeography 1, 159–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, R.E. 1978: ‘Man and vegetation in Norfolk’, in Limbrey, S. and Evans, J.G. (eds), The Effect of Man on the Landscape: the Lowland Zone, CBA Research Report 21, London, 5762Google Scholar
Smith, A.G., and Green, C.A. 1995: ‘Topogenous peat development and late-Flandrian vegetation history at a site in upland south Wales’, The Holocene 5, 172–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K., Coppen, J., Wainwright, G.J., and Beckett, S. 1981: ‘The Shaugh Moor Project: third report—settlement and environmental investigations’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 205–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Pearson, G.W. 1993: ‘High precision bidecadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, AD 1950-500 BC and 2500-6000 BC’, Radiocarbon 35, 123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J. 1993: ‘Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.014C age calibration program’, Radiocarbon 35, 215–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallis, J.H., and Switsur, V.R. 1973: ‘Studies in southern Pennine peats VI. A radiocarbon-dated pollen diagram from Featherbed Moss, Derbyshire’, Journal of Ecology 61, 743–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinsley, H.M., and Smith, R.T. 1974: ‘Surface pollen studies across a woodland/heath transition and their application to the interpretation of pollen diagrams’, New Phytologist 73, 547–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipping, R. 1995a: ‘Holocene evolution of a lowland Scottish landscape: Kirkpatrick Fleming. Part I: peat- and pollen-stratigraphic evidence for raised moss development and climatic change’, The Holocene 5, 6981CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipping, R. 1995b: ‘Holocene evolution of a lowland Scottish landscape: Kirkpatrick Fleming. Part II: regional vegetation and land-use change’, The Holocene 5, 8396CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipping, R. 1997: ‘Pollen analysis and the impact of Rome on native agriculture around Hadrian's Wall’, in Gwilt, A. and Haselgrove, C. (eds), Reconstructing Iron Age Societies, Oxbow Monograph 71, Oxford, 239–47Google Scholar
Topping, P. 1989: ‘Early cultivation in Northumberland and the Borders’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55, 161–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J. 1964: ‘The anthropogenic factor in vegetational history. I: Tregaron and Whixall Mosses’, New Phytologist 63, 7390CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J. 1979: ‘The environment of north-east England during Roman times as shown by pollen analysis’, Journal of Archaeological Science 6, 285–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J. 1981: ‘The vegetation’, in Jones, M. and Dimbleby, G. (eds), The Environment of Man: the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon Period, BAR Brit. Ser. 87, Oxford, 6773Google Scholar
van der Veen, M., 1992: Crop Husbandry Regimes, SheffieldGoogle Scholar
Waller, M. 1994a: The Fenland Project, Number 9: Flandrian Environmental Change in Fenland, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Waller, M. 1994b: ‘Redmere’, in Waller 1994a, 124–33Google Scholar
Waller, M. 1994c: ‘Wiggenhall St Germans site A’, in Waller 1994a, 259–63Google Scholar
Waller, M. 1994d: ‘Willingham Mere’, in Waller 1994a, 158–64Google Scholar
Waller, M., and Alderton, A. 1994: ‘Swineshead’, in Waller 1994a, 288–95Google Scholar
Watkins, R. 1990: ‘The postglacial vegetational history of lowland Gwynedd—Llyn Cororion’, in Addison, K., Edge, M.J. and Watkins, R. (eds), North Wales Field Guide, Coventry, 131–6Google Scholar
Waton, P.V. 1982: ‘Man's impact on the chalklands: some new pollen evidence’, in Bell, M. and Limbrey, S. (eds), Archaeological Aspects of Woodland Ecology, BAR Int. Series 146, 7591Google Scholar
Waton, P.V. 1983: A Palynological Study of the Impact of Man on the Landscape of Central Southern England, with Special Reference to the Chalklands, unpub. PhD thesis, University of SouthamptonGoogle Scholar
Wells, C., Huckerby, E., and Hall, V. 1997: ‘Mid- and late-Holocene vegetation history and tephra studies at Fenton Cottage, Lancashire, U.K.’, Vegetation History and Archeobotany 6, 153–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, G., and Edwards, K.J. 1993: ‘Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant: the Romans in Scotland, a palaeoenvironmental contribution’, Britannia 24, 1325CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiltshire, P.E.J. 1997: ‘Thepre-Roman environment’, in Wilmott, T., Birdoswald: Excavations of a Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall and its Successor Settlements: 1987-1992, English Heritage Archaeological Report 14, London, 2540Google Scholar
Young, C.J. 1977: The Roman Pottery Industry of the Oxford Region, BAR 43, OxfordGoogle Scholar