Chalkland landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, Dorchester & Cranborne Chase

Environmental archaeologists have mostly relied on pollen survival in cores for interpretation of land use history and for 30 years Mike Allen followed this pattern to interpret the settlement, burial history and landscapes of the Wessex chalkland. However recent research using analysis of soils and snails has provided a new environmental narrative and completely new history for the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, Cranborne Chase and Dorchester. The talk explores how the chalklands became wooded after the glaciation and the mixed oak forest was later cleared for cattle herds, monuments, settlements and ultimately for farming and tillage.

Mike Allen is one of the country’s leading environmental archaeologists with 35 years in the profession and wide ranging experience. This includes working on key projects such as Stonehenge and the Mary Rose as well as innumerable commercial archaeological a projects all over the country. He has also written the influential text book ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’.