The Archives of Peat Bogs

About this book

In this companion volume to his widely acclaimed Fenland, Godwin follows the same historical approach. Vast rain-fed peat bogs still cover the landscape of northern and western Britain, their ecology, vegetation and flora unfamiliar to most of our population. Yet, through the millennia since last Ice Age, they have accumulated ever-deepening acidic peat, whose plant remains are a precious archive of the events of the past.

Upon investigation, the reconstructed bog vegetation gave clues to former climatic history, pollen analysis provided a chronological scale dependent upon changes in upland forest composition and archaeological objects from the Mesolithic to the Roman period were recovered by peat-diggers from observed horizons in the bogs.

First published in 1981.

Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: Quaternary research and mires; 2. Living raised bog; 3. Raised bog stratigraphy: first steps; 4. Blanket bog; 5. Plants of the bogs: Sphagnum; 6. Plants of the bogs: sedges and such; 7. Plants of the bogs: dwarf shrubs etc.; 8. Recent peat of Somerset: a double inundation; 9. Trackways in context; 10. Geology of levels and lakes: marine transgressions and lake settlements; 11. Old peat and Neolithic culture; 12. Disforestation and agriculture; 13. Pollen zones and sea-level changes absolutely dated; 14. Climatic registration; 15. The archive appraised; References; Short glossary; Index.

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