Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:01:44.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”: A Case Study from Yorkshire and Humberside, United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2017

Seren Griffiths  and
Benjamin R Gearey
Seren Griffiths*
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, United Kingdom
Benjamin R Gearey
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Connolly Building, Dyke Parade, University College Cork, Cork City, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Neolithic in Britain saw the first appearance of domestic plant and animal resources, pottery, polished stone axes, monuments, and new house structures. With the introduction of domesticates and associated subsistence strategies, the Neolithic represents a significant change in human–environment interaction. Other changes have been observed in the palynological record of Britain in the early fourth millennium cal BC, including the elm decline, and archaeologists and paleobotanists have long discussed the degree of human involvement in this. This paper presents the first Bayesian statistical analysis of the elm decline using the case study of the east of Yorkshire and Humberside and key sites in west Yorkshire, and evidence for the last hunter-gatherer Mesolithic material culture and the first Neolithic material culture record. This region is critical because it is the only area of Britain and Ireland where we have robust and accurate published estimates for the timing of the latest Mesolithic activity and timing for the earliest Neolithic activity. Unpacking this perceived chronological correlation between the elm decline and the start of the Neolithic is critical to understanding the scale of human–environment modification at this time, and the nature of the first Neolithic societies in Britain.

Keywords

Bayesianelm declinehuman–environment interactionMesolithicNeolithic
Type
Applications
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1321 - 1345
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

References

References 1

Albert, B, Innes, J. 2015. Multi-profile fine-resolution palynological and microcharcoal analyses at Esklets, North York Moors, UK, with special reference to the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24:357–375.Google Scholar
Atherden, M. 1976. Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors III: Fen Bogs. Journal of Biogeography 3:115–124.Google Scholar
Atherden, M. 1989. Three pollen diagrams from the Eastern North York Moors. The Naturalist 114:55–64.Google Scholar
Baillie, M. 1991. Suck in and smear: two related chronological problems for the 1990s. Journal of Theoretical Archaeology 2:12–16.Google Scholar
Bartley, D. 1975. Pollen analytical evidence for prehistoric forest clearance in the upland area west of Rishworth, W. Yorkshire. New Phytologist 74:375–381.Google Scholar
Bartley, D, Jones, I, Smith, R. 1990. Studies in the Flandrian vegetational history of the Craven District of Yorkshire: the Lowlands. Journal of Ecology 78:611–632.Google Scholar
Barton, N, Berridge, P, Walker, M, Bevins, R. 1995. Persistent places in the Mesolithic landscape: an example from the Black Mountain uplands of south Wales. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61:81–116.Google Scholar
Batchelor, C, Branch, N, Allison, E, Austin, P, Bishop, B, Brown, A, Elias, S, Green, C, Young, D. 2014. The timing and causes of the Neolithic elm decline: new evidence from the Lower Thames Valley (London, UK). Environmental Archaeology 19:3, 263–290.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A, Bronk Ramsey, C, Cook, G, van der Plicht, J, McCormac, G. 2008. Radiocarbon dates: from samples funded by English Heritage under the aggregates sustainability fund 2004–7. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Beckett, S. 1975. The Late Quaternary Vegetational History of Holderness [unpublished PhD thesis]. Yorkshire: University of Hull.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M, Christen, J. 2011. Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process. Bayesian Analysis 6:457–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridgland, D, Innes, J, Long, A, Mitchell, W. 2011. Late Quaternary Landscape Evolution of the Swale-Ure Washlands, North Yorkshire. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Lee, S, Housley, R, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2011. Variation in the radiocarbon age of different fractions of peat: a case study from Ahrenshöft, northern Germany. Quaternary Geochronology 6:505–555.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–430.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1998. Probability and dating. Radiocarbon 40(1):461–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon program OxCal. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Deposition models for chronological records. Quaternary Science Reviews 27:42–60.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Lee, S. 2013. Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon 55(2–3):720–730.Google Scholar
Bush, M. 1993. An 11400 year palaeoecological history of a British chalk grassland. Journal of Vegetation Science 4(1):47–66.Google Scholar
Caseldine, C, Fyfe, R. 2006. A modelling approach to locating and characterising elm decline/landnam landscapes. Quaternary Science Reviews 25:632–644.Google Scholar
Chapman, H, Gearey, B. 2013. Modelling archaeology and palaeoenvironments in wetlands: the hidden landscape archaeology of Hatfield and Thorne Moors. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Edwards, K, Hirons, K. 1984. Cereal pollen grains in pre-elm decline deposits: implications for the earliest agriculture in Britain and Ireland. Journal of Archaeological Science 11:71–80.Google Scholar
Fischer, A, Kristiansen, K. editors. 2002. The Neolithisation of Denmark: 150 years of Debate. Sheffield: J. R. Collis. p 305–317.Google Scholar
Gearey, B. 2008. Late-glacial vegetation change in East Yorkshire: a radiocarbon dated pollen diagram from Routh Quarry, Beverley. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 57(2):45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gearey, B, Lillie, M. 1999. Aspects of the vegetational history of the Vale of York: palaeoenvironmental investigations at Askham Bog. In: Van de Noort R, Ellis S, editors. Wetland Heritage of the Vale of York. Hull: University of Hull. p 35–79.Google Scholar
Griffiths, S. 2014a. Points in time. The mesolithic-neolithic transition and the chronology of late rod microliths in Britain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 33(3):221–243.Google Scholar
Griffiths, S. 2014b. A Bayesian radiocarbon chronology of the Early Neolithic of Yorkshire and Humberside. The Archaeology Journal 171:2–29.Google Scholar
Griffiths, S, Sturt, F, Dix, J, Gearey, B, Grant, M. 2015. Subtidal peats, chronologies and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction: towards models of complex Holocene palaeoenvironments from submerged sample sites, a case study from Hinkley Point. Journal of Archaeological Science 54:237–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirons, K, Edwards, K. 1986. Events at and around the First and Second Ulmus Declines: palaeoecological investigations in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. New Phytologist 104:131–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huntley, B, Birks, H. 1983. An Atlas of Past and Present Pollen Maps for Europe 0–13,000 Years Ago. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Innes, J. 1981. Environmental alteration by Mesolithic communities in the North York moors [unpublished M.Phil. thesis]. Durham University.Google Scholar
Innes, J, Blackford, J. 2003. The ecology of Late Mesolithic woodland disturbances: Model testing with fungal spore assemblage data. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:185–194.Google Scholar
Innes, J, Blackford, J, Simmons, I. 2010. Forest disturbance and possible land-use regimes during the Late Mesolithic in the English Uplands: pollen, charcoal and non-pollen palynomorph evidence from Bluewath Beck, North York Moors, UK. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 19:439–452.Google Scholar
Innes, J, Blackford, J, Rowley-Conwy, P. 2013. Late Mesolithic and early Neolithic forest disturbance: a high resolution palaeoecological test of human impact hypotheses. Quaternary Science Reviews 77:80–100.Google Scholar
Lee, S. 2012. Bayesian methods for the construction of robust chronologies [unpublished PhD thesis]. Oxford: University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Lillie, M, Gearey, B. 2000. The palaeoenvironmental survey of the Hull Valley and Research at Routh Quarry. In: Van de Noort R, Ellis S, editors. Wetland Heritage of the Hull Valley. Hull: University of Hull. p 31–87.Google Scholar
Long, A, Innes, J, Kirby, J, Lloyd, J, Rutherford, M, Shennan, I, Tooley, MJ. 1998. Holocene sea-level change and coastal evolution in the Humber Estuary. The Holocene 8:229–247.Google Scholar
Lowe, D, Higham, T. 1998. Hit-or-myth? Linking a 1259 AD acid spike with an Okataina eruption. Antiquity 72:427–431.Google Scholar
Parker, AG, Goudie, AS, Anderson, DE, Robinson, MA, Bonsall, C. 2002. A review of the mid-Holocene elm decline in the British Isles. Progress in Physical Geography 26(1):1–45.Google Scholar
Reimer, P, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, P, Bronk Ramsey, C, Grootes, P, Guilderson, T, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatte, C, Heaton, T, Hoffmann, D, Hogg, A, Hughen, K, Kaiser, K, Kromer, B, Manning, S, Niu, M, Reimer, R, Richards, D, Scott, E, Southon, J, Staff, R, Turney, C, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887.Google Scholar
Schofield, J, Bunting, M. 2000. Mid Holocene presence of water chestnut (Trapa natans L.) in the meres of Holderness. The Holocene 15(5):687–697.Google Scholar
Sheridan, J. 2011. The Early Neolithic of south-west England: new insights and new questions. In: Pearce S, editor. Recent archaeological work in South Western Britain. Papers in Honour of Henrietta Quinnell. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 21–40.Google Scholar
Simmons, I. 1969. Pollen diagrams from the North York Moors. New Phytologist 69:807–827.Google Scholar
Simmons, I. 2003. The Moorlands of England and Wales: An Environmental History 8000BC to AD2000. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Cundill, P. 1974. Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors I. Pollen analyses of blanket peats. Journal of Biogeography 1:159–169.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1981. Tree remains in a North York Moors peat profile. Nature 294:76–78.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1987. Mid-Holocene adaptations and Later Mesolithic forest disturbance in northern England. Journal of Archaeological Science 14:385–403.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1988a. Studies in the Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. VIII. Correlation of Flandrian II litho- and pollen stratigraphy at North Gill, Glaisdale Moor. Journal of Biogeography 15:249–272.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1988b. Studies in the Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. IX. Numerical analysis and pollen concentration analysis of Flandrian II peat profiles from North Gill, Glaisdale Moor. Journal of Biogeography 15:273–297.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1988c. Late Quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. X. Investigations on East Bilsdale Moor. Journal of Biogeography 15:299–324.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1988d. The later Mesolithic Period (6000–5000 bp) on Glaisdale Moor, North Yorkshire. Archaeological Journal 145:1–12.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1996a. Disturbance phases in the mid-Holocene vegetation at North Gill, North York Moors: form and process. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:183–191.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1996b. Prehistoric charcoal in peat profiles at North Gill. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:193–197.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1996c. An episode of prehistoric canopy manipulation. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:337–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, I, Innes, J. 1996d. The ecology of an episode of prehistoric cereal cultivation on the North York Moors, England. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:613–618.Google Scholar
Simmons, I, Turner, J, Innes, J. 1989. An application of fine-resolution pollen analysis to later Mesolithic peats of an English upland. In: Bonsall C, editor. The Mesolithic in Europe. Edinburgh: John Donald. p 206–217.Google Scholar
Smith, A, Pilcher, J. 1973. Radiocarbon dates and vegetational history of the British Isles. New Phytologist 72(4):903–914.Google Scholar
Spikins, P. 2002. Prehistoric Peoples of the Pennines. Reconstructing the Lifestyle of Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers on Marsden Moor. Leeds: West Yorkshire Archaeological Services.Google Scholar
Sugita, S. 1994. Pollen representation of vegetation in Quaternary sediments: theory and method in patchy vegetation. Journal of Ecology 82:881–897.Google Scholar
Tallis, J, Switsur, V. 1990. Forest and moorland in the south Pennine uplands in the mid-Flandrian period. II. The hillslope forests. Journal of Ecology 78:857–883.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2013. The Birth of Neolithic Britain: An Interpretive Account. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Troels-Smith, J. 1960. Ivy, mistletoe and elm: climatic indicators – fodder plants: a contribution to the interpretation of the pollen zone border VII-VIII. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse II, Series IV 4:1–32.Google Scholar
Turner, J, Innes, J, Simmons, I. 1993. Spatial diversity in the mid-Flandrian vegetation history of North Gill, North Yorkshire. New Phytologist 123:599–647.Google Scholar
Tweddle, J. 2000. A High Resolution Palynological Study of the Holocene Vegetational Development of Central Holderness, Eastern Yorkshire, with Particular Emphasis on the Detection of Prehistoric Human Activity [unpublished PhD thesis]. Sheffield: University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Tweddle, J, Edwards, K, Fieller, N. 2005. Multivariate statistical and other approaches for the separation of cereal from wild Poaceae pollen using a large Holocene dataset. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14:15–30.Google Scholar
Ward, G, Wilson, S. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20:19–31.Google Scholar
Warren, G, Davies, S, McClatchie, M, Sands, R. 2014. The potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscape of Mesolithic Ireland: a review of data and discussion of approaches. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 23:629–646.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, N, Schulting, R, McClatchie, M, Barratt, P, McLaughlin, T, Bogaard, A, Colledge, S, Marchant, R, Gaffrey, J, Bunting, M. 2014. Neolithic agriculture on the European western frontier: the boom and bust of early farming in Ireland. Journal of Archaeological Science 51:181–205.Google Scholar
Whittle, A, Healy, F, Bayliss, A. 2011. Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Williams, C. 1985. Mesolithic Exploitation Patterns in the Central Pennines. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 1

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 35.5 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 2

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 41.4 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 3

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 48.9 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 4

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 39.6 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 5

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 43.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 6

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 34.6 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 7

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 34.5 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 8

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 40.3 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 9

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 39.6 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 10

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 41.1 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 11

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 51.9 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 12

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 39.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 13

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 35.1 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 14

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 44.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 15

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 44.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material 16

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 34.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material

Table S1

Download Griffiths and Gearey supplementary material(File)
File 146.2 KB