A review of work on buried paleosols in the disciplines of pedology, Quaternary geology, and archaeology is presented under the headings of (1) the problems of identification, (2) techniques of study, (3) buried paleosols and Quaternary stratigraphy, (4) archaeological stratigraphy and dating, (5) layered soils, and (6) past environment from buried paleosols. It is suggested that future pedological research of interest to Quaternary studies should concentrate on clarifying what is a soil as opposed to a weathered sediment, what processes and features are peculiar to pedogenesis as opposed to diagenesis, and what are the relationships between soil-site conditions and soil characteristics.
Two buried paleocatenas were studied to determine some features and techniques by which buried soils could be recognized, and to define their pedological characteristics, their lateral variation, and their contemporary environment. At Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, a ferric podzol to sandy gley sequence was developed in sands under marine clay and fen peat. The peat was radiocarbon dated at about 4100 yr BP. The buried soil was evident from its obvious catenary character and the soil characteristics and contemporary environment were determined using sand mineralogy, micromorphology, and pollen analysis. At West Runton, Norfolk, an apparently similar ferric podzol sequence occurred in Beestonian sands and gravels under a layer of Cromerian organic muds. However, only the uppermost profile contained definite evidence of soil formation. Other lower profiles contained pseudosoil features produced by sedimentation or diagenetic subsurface iron mobilization. It is suggested that the occurrence of a paleocatena is the most important criterion for the identification of a buried soil. Sedimentation and diagenesis cannot reproduce this lateral variation.
Summary
In archaeological sites of Pleistocene and Postglacial age fossil soil horizons may be buried or form part of a composite soil profile when they may be either degraded or relic in nature. Since the A horizons of soils may be identified by their humus forms and the B horizon by their fabrics, both immature and mature fossil soil horizons may be identified and distinguished from man‐made deposits such as occupation layers and ditch fillings. Thus, micromorphology can be used as a geochronological technique for supplementing the existing knowledge of the mild and cold phases of the Pleistocene and to a lesser extent of the Postglacial.
In mature fossil soils, since the fabrics of many B horizons are characteristic of certain soil types and are not altered by colluvial activity, it is possible to deduce something of the physiographic environment under which such fossil soil horizons were formed and, in particular, of the climate at the time of their formation. Thus, from composite soil profiles in archeological sections, relic fabrics have been observed and the primary origin of such colluvially derived soil material deduced. From buried profiles in loess sections of Europe the occurrence of braunerde fabrics with sol‐lessivé features confirms the other lines of evidence which suggest that the mild phases of the Pleistocene had similar climatic conditions and that these differ from those of today in the same area only in that the summers are today somewhat cooler and weetter.
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