Early Mesolithic Activity in the Wetlands of the Lake Flixton Basin

2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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This paper reports on new research into the timing and nature of post-glacial environmental change at Lake Flixton (North Yorkshire, UK). Previous investigations indicate a succession of wetland environments during the early Holocene, ultimately infilling the basin by ca 7,000 cal bp. The expansion of wetland environments, along with early Holocene woodland development, has been linked to changes in the human occupation of this landscape during the Mesolithic (ca 11,300-6,000 cal bp). However, our understanding of the timing and nature of environmental change within the palaeolake is poor, making it difficult to correlate to known patterns of Mesolithic activity. This paper provides a new record for both the chronology and character of environmental change within Lake Flixton, and discusses the implications for the Mesolithic occupation of the surrounding landscape.

Section: Electronic Supplementary Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Holocene wetland succession at Lake Flixton (UK) and its implications for Mesolithic settlement

2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…Within the woodland were small ponds, fringed with reeds and willow (Taylor 2012), and a shifting pattern of clearings created through ongoing processes such as windfall and animal action (Cummins 2003). At the lake shore, birch grew amongst aspen and willow, creating dense thickets in some places, whilst a suite of shrubs and fen plants thrived in areas with reduced tree cover (Taylor 2011(Taylor , 2012. Within the lake, extensive beds of swamp vegetation were growing in the areas of shallower water, filling many of the Fig.…”

Section: Aurochs Hunting Around the Palaeo-lake Flixtonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 Aurochs remains from Flixton School House Farm, demonstrating the over-abundance of ribs, and the original location of the pelvis fragment. Note the morphological variation of the rib heads, indicating they originated from both the anterior and posterior portions of the rib cage (Conneller and Overton 2018) small embayments around the edges of the basin, whilst aquatic plants grew in the deeper water beyond (Taylor 2011(Taylor , 2012. A range of animal species also inhabited this landscape, including large mammals such as elk, red and roe deer, and wild boar; predators such as wolf and fox; and smaller mammals such as beaver, pine marten, and squirrel (Clark 1954).…”

Section: Aurochs Hunting Around the Palaeo-lake Flixtonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humans in the Environment: Plants, Animals and Landscapes in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland

Overton

2018

J World Prehist

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Environmental archaeology has historically been central to Mesolithic studies in Britain and Ireland. Whilst processual archaeology was concerned with the economic significance of the environment, post-processual archaeology later rejected economically driven narratives, resulting in a turn away from plant and animal remains. Post-processual narratives focused instead on enigmatic 'ritual' items that economic accounts struggled to suitably explain. Processual accounts of landscapes, grounded in economic determinism, were also rejected in favour of explorations of their sociocultural aspects. However, in moving away from plant and animal remains, such accounts lacked the ability to rigorously explore the specificities of particular landscapes and humans actions within them. This paper will bridge this gap by considering how palaeoecological and zooarchaeological analyses can be used to explore human interactions with plants and animals, which were key in developing understandings and relationships that ultimately structured landscapes, influenced past human actions and shaped archaeological assemblages.

“…As such, the area would have been dry enough to allow in-situ activity during the summer months, when the site was inhabited, but would have been submerged during other times of the year (ibid). Alternatively, Taylor (2011) has argued that the assemblage actually spans a range of environments based on the results of environmental analysis at other parts of the basin (ibid: 80). By calculating minimum level for the lake, Taylor argued that deposition began in shallow standing water close to the lake shore, but continued into increasingly more terrestrialised environments as the wetlands developed (ibid:78-9).…”

Section: Changing Interpretation Of the Area Investigated By Clarkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the Issue of Artefact Deposition at Star Carr

Elliott

Conneller

et al. 2017

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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