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Palaeoecological and archaeological evidence for Bronze Age human activity on the Isle of Man

Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, Liverpool L69 3BX, UKrchiv{at}liv.ac.uk

J. B. Innes

J. J. Blackford

Department of Geography, Queen M ary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK

J. J. Woodcock

Department of Archaeology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK

P. J. Davey

P. R. Tomlinson

Centre for M anx Studies, 6 Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of M an IM 1 3LX

M. M. Rutherford

Department of Geography, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

G. S.P. Thomas

Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK

Pollen analytical data and the archaeological record for the Isle of Man identify increased human impact on the landscape during the Bronze Age. Pollen profiles from seven sites are presented, all identifying a greater scale of activity than existed during the preceding Neolithic. The archaeological record shows similar increases in both the number and the distribution of finds. Both the archaeology and palaeoecology indicate an increase in human presence in the lowlands, with some sustained arable and pastoral farming and increased evidence of burials. The uplands were perhaps less affected. Four sites have yielded palaeoecological information from archaeological contexts that unambiguously link pollen analytical evidence for disturbance with archaeological evidence for the presence of people. The scale of human disturbance of woodlands on the Isle of Man is similar to that found in southern Scotland and northern England during the Bronze Age, but less intensive than that encountered in northern Ireland. Cereal pollen indicates limited cultivation in lowland areas of the Isle of Man throughout the Bronze Age, perhaps on a lesser scale compared with surrounding regions and with some periods of woodland regeneration.

Key Words: Isle of Man • Bronze Age • peat • palynology • environmental archaeology • settlement • human impact • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 14, No. 3, 346-360 (2004)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683604hl711rp


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