The aim of this thesis is to investigate the environmental changes across the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition (c.7000-5000 cal BP) at two sites in north-west Europe. Specific research questions focus on the role of fire, the interaction of climate and environmental change and human impacts, and the degree of continuity across the transition. Previous work has led to hypotheses of human impacts in the late Mesolithic, usually through the use of fire, increasing the abundance of food. Detection of these practices and the change to farming in the Neolithic has long been the study of pollen analysts, but in this project additional techniques of NPPs, size-class differentiated charcoal, and silicon and titanium were added at high resolution in order to determine the relationships between the different forcing factors on mid-Holocene environments. Sites were selected close to locations where known later Mesolithic artefacts have been found, with dated archaeological excavations. An upland UK bog site (Dan Clough Moss, near March Hill, West Yorkshire) and a lowland Swedish lake (Bökeberg, Skåne) provided contrasting environments, and enabled a range of proxies to be used from terrestrial peat and limnic sediments. 14C dates from selected macrofossils enabled an age-depth curve to be produced from each profile, with a Bayesian model applied to estimate the age of each sample. Results show a detailed record of woodland change from both areas. At Dan Clough Moss, disturbance phases with evidence of local fires occur frequently (typically every 20-30 years) in the late Mesolithic, and have low magnitude but consistent records of coprophilous fungi. Some phases of disturbance are different however, without the fungal spore evidence, and with heath plants increasing in representation. Drier phases appear to correlate with more local fire, and increased hazel. The transition is marked by a change to longer duration but distant fires, and longer periods of woodland disturbance, increased ruderal species and more heathland. The dates of occupation phases show a late survival of Mesolithic practices, overlapping with the Neolithic by around 300 years. At Bökeberg, a contrasting pattern is shown, with longer-duration phases of inferred human impact being replaced by shorter episodes of fire-associated disturbance after the date of the transition. Pollen and spore zones of disturbance concur with the dated occupation of late Mesolithic sites at the former lake edge. There is some evidence for markedly wetter, and then significantly drier, climate through the transition, and it could be inferred that this influenced the change in food production economies. However, the overall landscape changed only subtly, with more evidence of potential weeds of cultivation. At Bökeberg, there was no overlap- both radiocarbon and palynology suggest an abrupt transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic. The landscape impact of the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic at both sites was not a clear and consistent one. While Ulmus decline levels and thereafter had increases in weed species and other herbs the overall balance of trees and shrubs changed less than 20%. At both sites, climate may have been influential, although the evidence is inconclusive. Fires were important at both sites and in both periods, but at different scales and duration. Disturbance phases varied within the Mesolithic as well as between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic.

No description available.

Microscopic charcoal analyses of sediment cores are used widely by palaeoecologists for reconstructing proxy records of past fire activity. Few studies, however, have reconstructed fire histories from UK and Irish moorland environments, a rather surprising situation considering the fact that much of the heather-dominated moorland in the UK and Ireland has been managed and maintained using fire for many centuries, and in some instances millennia. This thesis addresses the main issues regarding the use and applicability of microscopic charcoal analyses in moorland contexts. The literature pertaining to the theory and practical application of microscopic charcoal analyses is comprehensively reviewed, and all aspects of microscopic charcoal analysis, from charcoal production through to the interpretation of sediment charcoal profiles, are discussed and wherever possible related to their applicability in moorland contexts. An investigation of the taphonomy of microscopic charcoal around small moorland fires was conducted in order to provide an appreciation of the processes of charcoal production and the extent of charcoal particle dispersal. The results suggest that small moorland fires produce differential quantities of charcoal particles of different size ranges, smaller particles are produced in significantly greater quantities than progressively larger ones. The majority of charcoal particles produced by small muirburns are deposited locally, within approximately 70-100 m of parent fires, and the wind direction at the time of the fire may be a key factor determining the dispersal of microscopic charcoal particles, the majority being deposited down-wind of fires, few are dispersed laterally or into the wind. A microscopic charcoal quantification technique was developed to reconstruct extended (>50 year) fire histories from moorland soil profiles. A number of fire histories from mor humus-rich moorland soil cores of approximately several centuries duration were reconstructed. Fossil charcoal assemblages produced by in situ fires were distinguished from those produced by nearby ex situ fires on the basis of differences in gross charcoal abundance and charcoal size class distributions. Charcoal assemblages produced by in situ fires are determinable from those produced by ex situ fires because they generally contain a greater total abundance of charcoal particles and higher proportions of medium to large particles. Microscopic charcoal analyses of lake sediment cores from seven UK and Irish moorland catchments were used to reconstruct long-term (>100 year) fire histories. The reconstructed fire histories were used to assess whether changes in fire activity in the catchments may have been responsible for initiating past -episodes of peat erosion, inferred from loss on ignition measurements, and declines in Calluna cover, inferred from pollen analyses, evident at all of the sites. The results suggest that moorland burning may have been an influential factor contributing to the initiation of peat erosion at only one of the seven sites studied. Similarly, fire activity was only significantly related to the loss of Calluna at two of the seven sites studied.

Pollen and charcoal percentage and concentration analyses have been conducted upon several upland peat profiles of late Flandrian II and early Flandrian III age at North Gill, North York Moors, where earlier research had proven recurrent major pre Elm Decline woodland disturbance, supported in one profile by radiocarbon dating. Fine temporal resolution pollen analysis (FRPA) involving the use of contiguous millimetre sampling was applied to Flandrian II disturbance phases at five of the North Gill profiles. At North Gill 1A a further phase of disturbance near the end of Flandrian II was examined using FRPA to study evidence of pre Elm Decline agricultural activity, and at this profile both the horizontal and vertical resolution limits of the technique were tested by progressively finer sub-sampling. The millimetre level FRPA analyses showed that each of the examined pre Elm Decline disturbance phases was an aggregate feature, composed of a number of smaller sub-phases, the ecological effects of which in terms of spatially-precise woodland successions and community structures were assessed and contrasted. Inter-profile spatial comparison of the ecology of woodland disturbances has been made at both FRPA and conventional scales of temporal resolution. FRPA study of the late Flandrian II disturbance phase at North Gill 1A showed that cereal cultivation had occurred prior to the Elm Decline as part of a multi-phase period of agricultural land-use activity. The high resolution spatial and temporal data from North Gill have shown FRPA to be a most sensitive palaeoecological technique, and are discussed in relation to the effects of disturbance upon mire and woodland ecosystems, Mesolithic land-use, pre Elm Decline cereal cultivation and early Neolithic land-use.

The Eocene Nummulitique (Lutetian to Priabonian) has been studied in the external chains of the French Alps in Haute Savoie and Haute Provence. The Nummulitique unconformably overlies the Mesozoic passive margin succession and represents the onset of sedimentation in the Alpine Foreland Basin which formed due to lithospheric flexure caused by the advance of the Alpine orogeny. The base of the formation is marked by a regional erosional unconformity that developed during subaerial exposure of the Alpine foreland. The Nummulitique may be divided into two informal members: the lower Infranummulitique, a succession of terrigenous carbonates, and the overlying Nummulitic Limestone, a shallow marine carbonate ramp succession. The Infranummulitique is composed of terrigenous carbonates thought to have been derived from the uplifted and eroding foreland which were redeposited in local depocentres due to the topography on the erosion surface. The Infranummulitique can be divided into four facies associations: i) a lenticular conglomerate/nodular marl deposited from ephemeral streams, ii) a sheet conglomerate deposited in a marginal marine fan delta, iii) a Cerithium marl deposited in a brackish water coastal plain/lagoon and iv) a Microcodium wackestone deposited from coastal marine channels. The Nummulitic Limestone is marked by the appearance of the first fully marine foraminifera and a change from terrigenous to autochthonous carbonate sedimentation on a low-energy ramp dominated by larger benthonic foraminifera. The inner-ramp is represented by the deposition of bioclast shoals (packstones and grainstones) dominated by either calcareous red algae, Nummulites or peloids. The middle-ramp is dominated by mud-rich wackestones with a fauna of flat foraminifera, with local winnowed accumulations attributable to storm reworking. The outer ramp and basin are represented by mudstones and marls with a sparse benthos. The Nummulitique shows a marked cyclicity within an overall deepening upwards succession which is interpreted to be the combined effects of tectonic basin subsidence and high-frequency (4th order) eustatic sea-level variations. As the basin developed, the eustatic signature producing the small-scale cyclicity was successively overprinted by accelerating basin subsidence which controlled the stratigraphy of the underfilled foreland basin. Initially, the carbonate productivity is able to keep pace with the relative sea-level changes and the ramp prograded into the basin. The combination of accelerating subsidence rates and nutrient and detrital influx from the approaching orogenic wedge reduced the carbonate productivity and the ramp drowned, leading to pelagic marl deposition. The drowning surface and small-scale cyclicity have been used to correlate between measured sections within each field area, but problems occur in correlating between areas due to the migration of the foreland basin producing a diachronous sedimentary succession, which shows a similar development around the Alps, regardless of the age of the sediments. This diachroneity is evident in the two study areas with similar sediments, cycles and key surfaces developed at different stages of the basin development. The similarity in the successions demonstrates that the early sedimentation in the French Alpine Foreland Basin was controlled primarily by flexural subsidence.

Despite nearly one hundred years of archaeological and palaeoecological research in Madagascar, the human colonisation of the island remains poorly understood. Long- standing narratives of this colonisation described the arrival of Austronesian- speaking peoples by AD 400, eventually reaching the Central Highlands by the 12th century. The recent discovery of microlithic tools at the rockshelter of Lakaton'i Anja has radically disrupted conventional narratives for this colonisation by more than doubling the known period of Madagascar's human history, and questioning the presumed Austronesian origins of these first Malagasy peoples. This discovery also challenges existing models for the late Holocene extinction of the island's megafauna. This thesis constitutes the first systematic review in the last thirty years of literature relating to the colonisation of the island, as well as the first to approach this multidisciplinary material in light of new archaeological evidence from Lakaton'i Anja. This study also represents the first comprehensive and comparative phytolith analysis conducted on Madagascar. Despite the wide application of phytolith analysis across regional archaeological and palaeoecological contexts, it has never before been applied here. This thesis explores the botanical impact of these early colonists in and around sites of occupation, as well as tracing the introduction of Asian rice (Oryza sativa) and domesticated bananas (Musa acuminata). New methods of phytolith analysis were developed, adapted, and applied to sediments collected from two seasons of excavations in 2012 and 2013. The sites of Lakaton'i Anja, Mahilaka, and Ankadivory D'Ralambo were re-excavated, as well as the new site of Ampasimahavelona, near Vohémar. This thesis presents and discusses these excavations as well as the earliest evidence for the cultivation of both Musa acuminata and Oryza sativa on Madagascar, and an ultra-high resolution botanical perspective on the last four millennia of Madagascar's prehistory.

No / Abstract: This paper focuses on the submerged landscapes of the southern North Sea, an area often referred to as Doggerland, which was inundated as a result of relative sea-level rise at the start of the Holocene. The timing, pattern and process of environmental changes and the implica­ tions for prehistoric (Mesolithic) human communities living in this area have long been a subject of debate and discussion. Recent developments in marine geophysics have pemtitted the mapping of the pre-submergence landscape, leading to the identification oflandforms including river channels and other contexts suitable for the preservation of palaeoecological records. The paper describes multi-proxy (pollen, foraminifera, plant macrofossil and insect) palaeoenvironmental analyses of a vibrocore sequence recovered from a palaeochannel feature c. 80 km off the coast of eastern England. The palaeocbsnnel preserves sediments of Late Pleistocene and Holocene age (MIS2/l); the record suggests that channel incision, probably duting the early Holocene, was followed by a phase of peat formation (c. 9-10 cal ka BP) indicating paludification and the subsequent reactiva­ tion of the cbsnnel (c. 9-6 cal ka BP), initially under freshwater and increasingly brackish/saline conditions, and a final transition to full marine conditions (6-5 cal ka BP). The pollen, macrofossil and beetle records indicate the presence of pre-submergence deciduous woodland, but detailed interpretation of the data is hindered by taphonomic complications.The paper concludes with a dis­ cussion of the problems and potentials of using palaeoenvironmental data to reconstruct complex patterns of environmental change across Doggerland in four dimensions, and considers specific questions concerning the implications of such processes for Mesolithic human communities.

Tree-ring studies started in the Palaeoecology Laboratory in 1968. The impetus for the work was provided by the large amount of sub-fossil oak and pine that was brought to our notice by archaeological excavation and road construction. Sample preparation and ring measurement techniques were developed and crossdating was demonstrated in some of the sub-fossil material. A program of field collection was started and a research assistant employed on the laboratory treatment of samples. Good crossdating over a wide area was then established for both oaks and pines, demonstrating an overriding climatic influence on tree growth even under bog conditions. A number of floating sequences in excess of 500 years length have been constructed and timbers have been found from every half millenium back to 8000 radiocarbon years before present. Over 1400 timber samples have been collected and a large amount of material remains to be collected.

The submitted thesis deals with the analysis of selected fish coprolites found in the Loučka site (Moravia; Menilite Fm.). Eleven specimens was selected (provisionally numbered I-XI) of which two were macerated (specimens I and II). The remaining nine specimens were examined at the surface of the sedimentary layers. Recognizable elements were classified to the following taxa: Keasius parvus, Alopias exigua, Squalus cf. alsaticus, Sardinella sardinites, Anenchelum glarisianum, Palimphyes sp., Palaeogadus sp., Gonostomatidae (gen. et. sp. indet.), Perciformes (gen. et sp. indet.), and Teleostei (gen. et sp. indet.). Composition of the studied coprolites I, II and IV suggest that these were produced by shark species Alopias exigua and Squalus cf. alsaticus. Studied coprolites V, VIII, X and XI were produced by some type of undetermined predatory fish (probably piscivore predator). For coprolites III, VI, VII and IX producer can not be determined.

Riversleigh, World Heritage Property, located in North-western Queensland, Australia, contains over 200 fossil bearing localities from the Oligo-Miocene. The study presented here aims at finding new methods to improve the accuracy of palaeoecological and biochronological studies and describe the palaeoenvironmental and chronological settings of the Riversleigh fossil deposits. One of the methods developed in this thesis, Minimum Sample Richness (MSR), determines the minimum number of species that must be present in a fauna to allow meaningful comparisons using multivariate analyses. Using MSR, several Riversleigh localities were selected for a palaeoecological study using the cenogram method to determine the palaeoenvironment during the Oligo-Miocene. Finally, the Numerical ages method was used to refine the relative ages of the Riversleigh localities and a re-diagnosis of the Riversleigh Systems is proposed.