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Roman impact on the environment at Hadrian's Wall: precisely dated pollen analysis from Vindolanda, northern England

Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland, UK

Robin Birley

Vindolanda, Chesterholm, Bardon Mill, near Hexham, Northumberland NE47 7JN, JK

Richard Tipping

Department of Environmental Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK

The results of pollen analyses from two ditch fills of early Roman age from the fort at Vindolanda, close to Hadrian's Wall, are presented. The ditch fills can be closely dated to the periods c. AD 85-92 and c. AD 160-180, and this chronological precision provides insights into the timing of human impacts on the vegetation around this part of Hadrian's Wall which are unobtainable from more conventional radiocarbon dated stratigraphies. The analyses show that anthropogenic woodland clearance occurred before c. AD 85 around Vindolanda. Deforestation may have been by native farmers rather than by Roman troops. Clearance occurred prior to the construction of Hadrian's Wall in the second century AD, and was probably intended to allow an expansion of agricultural land, and in particular pasture for grazing animals. Cereal cultivation was possibly established at Vindolanda in the early to mid-second century AD.

Key Words: Palynology • human impact • archaeology • ditch fills • Romans • Hadrian's Wall • Vindolanda • northern England • dating.

The Holocene, Vol. 7, No. 2, 175-186 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/095968369700700205


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