SOIL REPORT ON THE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC AND EARLY MESOLTHIC SITES AND LATE GLACIAL AND FLANDRIAN SOIL FORMATION AT HENGISTBURY HEAD, DORSET.
Author(s): R I Macphail
Late glacial and Holocene soils were examined through ten thin sections and the analysis of grain size, iron, aluminium, carbon and nitrogen. These studies, with two C14 assays of soil, were carried out to help establish the environmental conditions pertaining to, and taphonomically influencing the evidence of; Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic flint scatters and later prehistoric activities, especially in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The presence of intact freeze/ thaw microfabrics probably relating to conditions duringthe Late Devesian interstadial, undisturbed by the Zone III periglaciation encouraged the belief that the Upper Palaeolithic flints were similarly little disturbed, possibly because they were protected by locally blown sand. The Early Mesolithic flint scatter was also influenced by local aeolian activity including a deflationary phase(s). During the Flandrian a sequence of brown soil and argillic brown soil formation was succeeded by initial podzolisation of the Head under a coat of oak woodland (pollen evidence) during the BronzeAge, as dated by C14 assays of organic mattter in a podzol Mor horizon buried by a Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age bank and from a cemented Bhs horizon of an unburied podzol (mean residence date). After bank construction final clearnace of the oak woodland allowedCalluna to permanently invade (pollen evidence) continuing the podzolisation of the Head.
- Report Number:
- 79/1988
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 29
- Keywords:
- Soil/Sediment
