argyll-1971/01-050

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

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hanish. Pollen analysis of peat samples has shown that at the transition from the Atlantic to the
sub-Boreal Post-Glacial climatic phases (Pollen Zones VIIa/VIIb), for which there are
radiocarbon dates centred on 3000 B.C. or slightly earlier, 1 there was a marked decline in Ulmus
(elm) pollen and a corresponding increase in the frequency of grass and other non-arboreal
pollens, in particular of Plantago lanceolata (ribwort plantain) and similar light-seeking weeds
of cultivation. This might suggest that in this area of Kintyre, as elsewhere in the British Isles,
deliberate forest-clearance may have been taking place as the result of the arrival of new
immigrants at the end of the fourth millennium B.C.

1 Clark, J.G.D. and Godwin, H., Antiquity, xxxvi (1962), 10ff.

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