Ecological changes induced by prehistoric man at pitstone, buckinghamshire

This paper describes the study of a buried palaeosol of post-glacial age stratified between a periglacial coombe rock and a ploughwash deposit. Soil analysis (lithology and mineralogy) and molluscan analysis demonstrate a sequence of woodland, woodland clearance, and tillage. Radiocarbon assay of charcoal from the buried soil gave a date of 1960±220 bc which may date the clearance phase. The soil profile is part of a palaeocatena, the Mollusca from a drier phase of which have been published in an earlier paper. It has therefore been possible to check the relationship of the molluscan assemblages to the buried soil types and it is shown that both the morphology of the palaeosol and the composition of the fauna vary according to their position on the buried landscape.