Prehistoric Plant Communities

Summary

Our knowledge of past landscapes is drawn from a number of different sources. Primarily we rely upon assemblages of carbonised and charred seeds recovered from excavations of settlement sites of different periods. Alternatively pollen grains preserved in acid soil conditions, usually peat bogs, allow us to identify vegetation

through time even down to individual plants. The third source, no Iess significant but unfortunately much rarer, are waterlogged deposits were normally biodegradable material survives virtually intact in the anaerobic conditions. While important, this last category, by definition, argues that they are untypical of the broad picture of the dry landscape representing as they do wet sites with the attendant flora of such zones. Similarly pollen grains recovered from cores taken from peat bogs can only give a generalised picture since their arrival in the peat is subject to a number of vagaries both of the individual plants and the changing weather patterns. Even more careful and precise sampling from such cores, along with improved dating systems, allow great insight not only into the plant communities, whence the pollen originated, but also the prevailing climate at those specific times. Plants, perhaps more than any other indicator, are sensitive to climate variation and change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Butser Ancient Farm Archive 1973-2007   •
• EXARC Experimental Archaeology Collection

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): EXARC Experimental Archaeology Collection Manager

Record Identifiers

ExArc Id(s): 724

Notes

Rights & Attribution: The information in this record was originally compiled by Dr. Roeland Paardekooper, EXARC Director.

Rights & Attribution: Christine Shaw contributed a copy of this document to the collection. EXARC thanks her for her dedication to preserving the Butser Ancient Farm Archive.

General Note: More information about the Butser Ancient Farm Archive and this document can be found at butser.org.uk.

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