SOIL REPORT ON THE CAIRN AND FIELD SYSTEM AT CHYSAUSTER, PENZANCE, CORNWALL.
Author(s): R I Macphail
The soils associated with the cairn and field system at Chysauster, Cornwall were studied by field, physical andchemical laboratory techniques, and by the investigation of 18 large thin sections. Late Devension periglacial soil formation in granitic head (including probable patches of loess) was differentiated from Flandrian pedogenesis. The acid brown soils developed by the Bronze Age which were cleared and probably cultivated atthis time were succeeded by a podzol cover which has been present from Iron Age to contemporary times. This is both the first example of the brown soil progenitor of the present day podzol cover on the granite and clearest evidence of Bronze Age cultivation so far. The sites comprising lynchets and succeeding walls and colluvial banks occur on a deeply eroded landscape. Podzolisation was apparently coeval with continuous cultivation which produced these features. Possibly lyncheting was "encouraged" to offset erosion, whereas there is some evidence later for animal stocking. The report is supported by 75 colour plates.
- Report Number:
- 111/1987
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 100
- Keywords:
- Soil/Sediment
