Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:15:56.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mid-Holocene Ecological History of the Moorlands of England and Wales and its Relevance for Conservation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Ian G. Simmons
Ian G. Simmons
Affiliation:
Professor of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, England, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The nature of the moorlands of England and Wales is described and a brief outline of their postglacial ecological history is propounded. Emphasis then switches to a particularly critical phase in this evolution, namely the later centuries of the Mesolithic period of the mid-Holocene, when the human groups of the period employed fire as a management tool for vegetation.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring 1990 , pp. 61 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1990

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.)

References

Bunce, R.G.H. (1987). The extent and composition of upland areas in Great Britain. Pp. 19–21 in Agriculture and Conservation in the Hills and Uplands (Eds Bell, M. & Bunce, R.G.H.). Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Grange-over-Sands, England, UK: 120 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Chambers, F.M., Kelley, R.S. & Price, S.-M. (1988). Development of the late-prehistoric cultural landscape in upland Ardudwy, North-west Wales. Pp. 333–48 in The Cultural Landscape—Past, Present and Future (Eds Birks, H.H., Birks, H.J.B., Kaland, P.E. & Moe, D.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, UK: xi + 521 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Clarke, D.L. (1976). Mesolithic Europe: the economic basis. Pp. 449–82 in Problems in Social and Economic Archaeology (Eds Sieveking, G. de G., Longworth, I.H. & Wilson, E.K.). Duckworth, London, England, UK: xxvi + 626 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Edwards, K.J. & Hirons, K.R. (1984). Cereal grains in pre-elm decline deposits: implications for the earliest agriculture in Britain and Ireland. J. Archaeol. Sci., 6, pp. 225–70.Google Scholar
Huntley, B. (1988). Europe. Pp. 341–83 in Vegetation History (Eds Huntley, B. & Webb, T.). (Handbook of Vegetation Science vol. 7.) Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: xx + 803 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Huntley, B. & Birks, H.J.B. (1983). An Atlas of Past and Present Pollen Maps for Europe: 0-13000 years Ago, 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, UK: xiv + 667 pp., maps, overlays.Google Scholar
Innes, J.B. (1981). Environmental Alteration by Mesolithic Communities in the North York Moors. M.Phil, thesis, University of Durham, Durham, England, UK: 257 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Innes, J.B. (1989). Fine-resolution pollen Analysis of Late Flandrian II Peat at North Gill, North York Moors. PhD thesis, University of Durham, Durham, England, UK: 2 vols, 460 pp., illustr. (vol. II not paginated).Google Scholar
Jacobi, R. (1976). Britain inside and outside Mesolithic Europe. Proc. Prehist. Soc., 42, pp. 67–84.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R. (1978). The settlement of Northern Britain in the 8th millenium be. Pp. 295–332 in The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe (Ed. Mellars, P.). Duckworth, London, England, UK: ix + 408 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R. (1979). Early Flandrian hunters in the south-west. Devon. Archaeol. Soc. Proc., 37, pp. 48–93.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R., Tallis, J.H. & Mellars, P. (1976). The southern Pennine Mesolithic and the ecological record. J. Archaeol. Sci., 3, pp. 307–20.Google Scholar
Kaland, P.E. (1988). The development of blanket mires in Western Norway. p. 475 (Abstract only) in The Cultural Landscape — Past. Present and Future (Eds Birks, H.H., Birks, H.J.B., Kaland, P.E. & Moe, D.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, UK: xi + 521 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Lewis, H.T. & Ferguson, T.A. (1988). Yards, corridors and mosaics: how to burn a Boreal forest. Human Ecology, 16, pp. 57–77.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. (1974). The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. Pp. 41–99 in British Prehistory: A New Outline (Ed. Renfrew, C.). Duckworth, London, England, UK: xiv + 348 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. (1976). Fire ecology, animal populations, and Man: a study of some ecological relationships in prehistory. Proc. Prehist. Soc., 42, pp. 15–45.Google Scholar
Millward, R. & Robinson, A. (1980). Upland Britain. David & Charles, Newton Abbott, England, UK: 239 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D. (1974). Prehistoric human activity and blanket peat initiation on Exmoor. Nature (London), 250, pp. 439–41.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D. (1975). Origin of blanket mires. Nature (London), 256, pp. 267–9.Google Scholar
Moss, D. (1985). An initial classification of 10-km squares in Great Britain from a land characteristic data-bank. Applied Geography, 5, pp. 131–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearsall, W.H. (1968). Mountains and Moorlands, 2nd edn (Rev. W. Pennington). Collins, London, England, UK: 415 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. (1987). The History of the Countryside. Dent, London: England, UK: xv + 445 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Richards, K.S. (1984). Evidence of Flandrian valley alluviation in Staindale, North York Moors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 6, pp. 183–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, I.G. (1983). Mesolithic man and environment in upland Britain: an historiographic approach. Pp. 215–22 in Studies in Quaternary Geomorphology (Eds Briggs, D.G. & Waters, R.S.). Geobooks, Norwich, England, UK: ii + 260 pp.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G. (1989). Changing the Face of the Earth: Culture, Environment, History. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, England, UK: ix + 487 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G. & Dimbleby, G.W. (1974). The possible role of Ivy (Hedera helix L.) in the Mesolithic economy of western Europe. J. Archaeol. Sci., 1, pp. 291–6.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G. & Innes, J.B. (1981). Tree remains in a North York Moors peat profile. Nature (London), 294, pp. 76–8.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G. & Innes, J.B. (1987). Mid-Holocene adaptations and later Mesolithic disturbance in Northern England. J. Archaeol. Sci., 14, pp. 385–403.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G. & Innes, J.B. (1988). The Later Mesolithic period (6,000–5,000 bp)on Glaisdale Moor, North Yorkshire. Archaeol. J., 145, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Atherden, M.A., Cundill, Pr. & Jones, R.L. (1975). Inorganic layers in soligenous mires in the North Yorkshire Moors. J. Biogeogr., 2, pp. 49–56.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Dimbleby, G.W. & Grigson, C. (1981). The Mesolithic. Pp. 125–209 in The Environment in British Prehistory (Eds Simmons, I.G. & Tooley, M.J.). Duckworth, London, England, UK: x + 334 pp., illustr., maps.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Rand, J.I. & Crabtree, K. (1983). A further pollen analytical study of the Blacklane peat section on Dartmoor, England. New Phytologist, 94, pp. 655–7.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Turner, J. & Innes, J.B. (1989). An application of fine-resolution pollen analysis to Later Mesolithic peats of an English upland. Pp. in The Mesolithic in Europe (Ed. Bonsall, C.). John Donald, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: 500 pp., illustr., maps, tables.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. (1970). The influence of Mesolithic and Neolithic man on British vegetation; a discussion. Pp. 81–96 in Studies in the Vegetational History of the British Isles (Eds Walker, D. & West, R.G.). Cambridge University Press, London, England, UK: vii + 266 pp., maps, illustr.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. (1981). The Neolithic. Pp. 125–209 in The Environment in British Prehistory (Eds Simmons, I.G. & Tooley, M.J.). Duckworth, London, England, UK: x + 334 pp., illustr., maps.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. (1984). Newferry and the Boreal-Atlantic transition. New Phytologist, 98, pp. 35–55.Google Scholar
Spratt, D.A. (Ed.) (1989). The North York Moors: Landscape Heritage. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, England, UK: 232 pp., illustr., maps, tables.Google Scholar
Spratt, D.A. & Simmons, I.G. (1976). Prehistoric activity and environment on the North York Moors. J. Archaeol. Sci., 3, pp. 193–210.Google Scholar
Taylor, J.A. (1980). Environmental changes in Wales during the Holocene period. Pp. 101–30 in Culture and Environment in Prehistoric Wales (Ed. Taylor, J.A.). British Archaeological Reports British Series 76, Oxford: 387 pp., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Tranquillini, W. (1979). Physiological Ecology of the Alpine Timberline: Tree Existence at High Altitudes with Special Reference to the European Alps. (Ecological Studies 31.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin, FGR: xi + 137 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tranter, R.B. (Ed.) (1978). The Future of Upland Britain, 2 vols. University of Reading Centre for Agricultural Strategy, CAS Paper 2: 724 pp., tables, maps, diags.Google Scholar
Turner, J. (1984). Pollen diagrams from Cross Fell and their implications for former tree-lines. Pp. 317–57 in Lake Sediments and Environmental History (Eds Haworth, E.Y. & Lund, J.W.G.). Leicester University Press, Leicester, England, UK: xviii + 411 pp., illustr., maps.Google Scholar
Turner, J. & Hodgson, J. (1979). Studies in the vegetational history of the Northern Pennines, I: Variations in the composition of the early Flandrian forests. J. Ecol., 67, pp. 629–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J., Innes, J.B. & Simmons, I.G. (1989). Two pollen diagrams from the same site. New Phytologists, 113, pp. 409–16.Google Scholar
Usher, M.B. & Thompson, P.B.A. (1988). Ecological Change in the Uplands. (Special Publication No. 7 of the British Ecological Society.) Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, England, UK: xiv + 426 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Williams, E. (1989). Dating the introduction of food production into Britain and Ireland. Antiquity, 63, pp. 510–21.Google Scholar