Invertebrate remains from excavations at Low Hauxley, Northumberland (site code: LH94): an assessment (original) (raw)
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An assessment was undertaken of the palaeoecological potential of a series of samples from excavations at Star Carr, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, as part of a research-driven evaluation of the archaeological potential of an area under threat of degradation of the buried archaeological record through a falling water table. The deposits encountered at this site primarily consisted of natural peats and humic silts. Most of the layers examined during the assessment contained sufficient plant and insect remains to allow a useful reconstruction of depositional regime, local ecology and climate, as well as their development through the sequences, which probably include early Holocene sediments, as well as those associated with more conventionally ‘Mesolithic’ deposits. The recovered biota were indicative of aquatic and marshland habitats: essentially swamp with evidence for open water at some stages. Strictly dryland habitats were only weakly represented. There were insects whose modern distributions are principally either to the north or south of the site. There were some notable records of charred herbaceous material and sedge fruits from some levels, presumably equivalent to the charred reedswamp material recorded at nearby locations and confirming the likelihood of extensive burning. Deposits of this date with good waterlogged preservation of plant and insect macrofossils have rarely been studied in the area, and (in the case of the insects) are restricted to a few locations elsewhere (notably the Somerset Levels and Humberhead Levels). Consequently, full analysis of the plant and invertebrate assemblages from all of the current sediment samples is recommended.
Summary A group of sediment samples and hand-collected bones and molluscs, from deposits of mostly Roman date (2nd to 4th Century AD), have been assessed for their bioarchaeological potential. Plant and invertebrate remains were present in approximately one-third of the samples but, with the exception of one context (1277), in numbers too small to be of interpretative value. One other context yielded some material which may be peat or mor humus. The bone assemblage, though only of modest size, is of some importance: rural animal bone assemblages from the North of England, and of this period, are rare. Shell assemblages of this region and period are also rare, and selected further work on this material is recommended.