Abstract

Methods of palaeoenvironmental analysis (e.g., pollen, plant macrofossils and charcoal) play an increasingly central role in investigations of hunter-gatherer lifeways in the British Isles (10,000-4,000 cal BC). This presentation examines the results of the application of these methodologies to late Mesolithic hunter-gatherer sites (c. 6500-4000 cal BC) within the coastal zone of the Severn Estuary, southwest Britain, and their potential application to other geographical areas of study. Research in the Severn Estuary involved the excavation and investigation of stratified occupation contexts, many waterlogged or sealed by peat, in addition to analysis of off-site environmental sequences. Analytical techniques included high resolution pollen, plant macrofossil and quantified charcoal analysis. Marked charcoal horizons were identified from all the sites investigated, some suggesting distinct phases of anthropogenic activity involving the disturbance and manipulation of a range of vegetation environments from reedswamp to woodland edge. Charred seeds from occupation contexts, in cases associated with chipped stone and pollen evidence for small-scale woodland clearances, suggest that hunter-gatherers were managing seasonally available wild resources growing along the coastal woodland edge. The ubiquitous presence of charcoal in sedimentary sequences, sometimes occurring over several hundred years, is argued to reflect the deliberate management of the landscape by hunter-gatherers, either to promote the increased growth and productivity of a range of edible plants, and/or to provide improved graze for ungulate herbivores upon which humans could predate. This viewpoint is supported by ethnohistorical accounts of the role and use of fire in recent aboriginal populations, most notable the pre-Colonial Indians of the Pacific northwest coast of America (Boyd 1999a, 1999b; Turner 1999), the Atlantic coast of New England (Cronon 1983) and Australia (Flood 1983; Bickford and Gell 2005), suggesting that postglacial hunter-gatherers had a significant and sustained impact on the landscape. The application of palaeoenvironmental analyses has proven highly successful in furthering our understanding of Mesolithic lifeways in Britain, in particular, concerning patterns of seasonality, subsistence and settlement. This paper provides an opportunity to explore the applicability of these methodologies to other geographical areas where there is abundant archaeological evidence for hunter-gatherer activities (e.g., continental northwest Europe and northwest America), but where the potential of these methodologies may not yet have been explored or perhaps fully realised.