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1 results

  • Lynchet-Type Terraces, Loess, and Agricultural Resilience on Chalk Landscapes in the UK and Belgium

  • Ben Pears, Andreas Lang, Dan Fallu, Mark Roberts, David Jacques, Lisa Snape, Chiara Bahl, Kristof Van Oost, Pengzhi Zhao, Paolo Tarolli, Sara Cucchiaro, Kevin Walsh, Antony Brown
  • Journal:
    European Journal of Archaeology , First View
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    22 April 2024, pp. 1-24
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  • Lynchets, often the defining component of historic agricultural landscapes in northern Europe, are generally associated with soft-limestone geologies and are particularly well developed on loess-mantled landscapes. To understand their formation and chronology, the authors present their geoarchaeological analyses of lynchet soils and loess deposits at Blick Mead and Charlton Forest in southern England, and Sint Martens-Voeren in Belgium. The lynchets date from the late prehistoric to the medieval periods and were constructed by plough action at the English sites, and by both cut-and-fill and ploughing in Belgium. This has resulted in the preservation of highly fertile loessic soils across chalk slopes, lost elsewhere. Although each example is associated with local/regional agricultural histories, the lynchets’ effective soil-retention capacities allowed them to survive as important heritage features with environmental benefits over millennia.