Land-use change plays an important role in shaping plant and insect diversity over long time timescales. Great Britain provides an ideal case study to investigate patterns of long-term vegetation and insect diversity change owing to the existence of spatially and temporally extensive environmental archives (lake sediments, peatlands, and archaeological sites) and a long history of landscape transformation through agrarian change. The trends identified in past environmental datasets allow the impacts of land-use change on plant and insect diversity trends to be investigated alongside exploration of the emergence of ecological novelty. Using fossil pollen, insect (beetle), archaeodemographic, archaeobotanical and modern landscape datasets covering Britain, similarities are identified between insect diversity and pollen sample evenness indicating that vegetation heterogeneity influences insect diversity. Changing land use captured by archaeobotanical data is significantly correlated with pollen diversity demonstrating the role of human activity in shaping past diversity trends with shifts towards ecosystem novelty identified in the form of non-analogue pollen taxa assemblages (unique species combinations). Modern landscapes with higher agricultural suitability are less likely to have pollen analogues beyond the last 1000 years, whilst those in areas less suited to agriculture and on more variable topography are more likely to have analogues older than 1000 years. This signifies the role of agriculture in the creation of novel ecosystems. Ecological assemblages characteristic of earlier periods of the Holocene may persist in areas less affected by agriculture. The last 200 years has witnessed major shifts in novelty in a low number of pollen sites suggesting that novel ecosystems emerged over a longer time period resulting from the cumulative impacts of land-use change.

Archaeological excavations ahead of the enlargement of Melton Quarry, in 2003, 2012 and 2015, have provided a regionally significant dataset which will aid better understandings of prehistoric occupation and burial on the south-eastern Yorkshire Wolds. Bayesian radiocarbon modelling has identified three main phases of occupation on the site, during the middle Neolithic and Beaker periods and the later Bronze Age. The character, dates and settings of the features share similarities with examples identified in the central and northern Wolds, which were investigated by antiquarians, and in the mid-twentieth century. In addition to providing comparative evidence for these better-known (but less well-understood) sites, Melton Quarry has provided an important suite of radiocarbon dates, scientific analysis of burials and evidence for prehistoric occupation and agricultural practice. A large Romano-British ditch also crossed the site, its upper fills containing a tenth- or eleventh-century AD inhumation.

Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer integration of palaeoecological and archaeological datasets in recent decades. Here we implement a fundamentally different method for reconstructing past land cover from pollen records to the landscapes of and around the Somerset Levels and Moors—the Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA)—to reconstruct land cover for a series of 200-year timeslices covering the period 4200–2000 cal BC. Modelling of both archaeological and sediment chronologies enables the integration of reconstructed changes in land cover with archaeological evidence of contemporary Neolithic human activity. The MSA reconstructions are presented as a series of land cover maps and as graphs of quantitative measures of woodland clearance tracked over time. Our reconstructions provide a more nuanced understanding of the scale and timing of Neolithic clearance than has previously been available from narrative-based interpretations of pollen data. While the archaeological record tends to promote a view of long-term continuity in terms of the persistent building of wooden structures in the wetlands, our new interpretation of the palynological data contributes a more dynamic and varying narrative. Our case study demonstrates the potential for further integration of archaeological and palynological datasets, enabling us to get closer to the landscapes in which people lived.

This report presents the results of three projects undertaken by Oxford Archaeology in North-West Kent from 2005-2007; on the A2/A282/M25 Improvement Scheme immediately south-east of Dartford, on part of the Eynsford to Horton Kirby Pipeline a little further south-east, and at Dartford Football Club. While different in character and scope, all three projects are located close together either within Dartford or just to the south and east, with a maximum distance of c 6 km between them. Not only, therefore, do they share a common geography (the area of the lower Darent valley and territory to the east of it), but, despite their multiperiod character – particularly in the case of work on the A2/A282/ M25 Improvement Scheme – all have a focus on the archaeology of the later prehistoric and Roman periods. For these reasons, and to allow presentation of the results of these pieces of work at reasonable length, it has seemed appropriate to publish the reports on these projects, originally conceived as separate pieces of work, together, offering both economies of scale and also the benefits of a wider view than that presented by each individually. The individual reports were themselves based on proposals for publication arising from separate programmes of post-excavation assessment. Most of the original format of each report has been retained, but the outlines of the archaeological background to the area formerly contained in each report have been combined (Chapter 1), and a short general discussion (Chapter 16) has been added to the site-specific ones.

Oxford Archaeology undertook a programme of archaeological work on land west of Mackie Avenue, Hassocks, West Sussex. Archaeological remains consisting of ditches, pits and postholes indicative of a number of phases of activity dating to the Bronze Age and Roman periods were revealed during these excavations. Excavated features include the remains of three post-built roundhouses of Bronze Age date, which were associated with a series of pits and possible field boundaries. A Roman rectangular structure was uncovered and this was associated with a field system. A ring-gully enclosing a number of pits, interpreted as a structure, was also excavated. By David Mullin Edward Biddulph & Richard Brown

Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by the Environment Agency to undertake a geoarchaeological investigation on land adjacent to the River Burn near Burnham Overy, Norfolk (centred NGR TF 837 432). The land is proposed for a habitat creation scheme, with five reedbeds comprising open water areas excavated, and any clay removed used to construct water-retaining banks. The site covers an area of approximately @ km by @ km, and is situated on the floodplain of the River Burn. Due to the site being within an area of high archaeological potential, an assessment of the impact of the proposed development on any archaeological remains was required, prior to the commencement of any construction works. The main objective of the geoarchaeological investigation was to characterise the sequence and patterns of accumulation across the site in relation to potential land surfaces/buried soils and localised features, such as topographic highs or palaeochannels. In addition, the investigations sought to identify the location and extent of any waterlogged organic deposits, and to clarify the relationship between sediment sequences and other deposit types.

Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook evaluations of Hanson Aggregates’ Sutton Courtenay Pit in 1993 and 1997 ahead of mineral extraction, and carried out a programme of more extensive work between 1997 and 2000, monitoring topsoil stripping and recording the archaeological remains exposed by this process. The earliest feature examined was a Neolithic pit but the main result of the fieldwork was to reveal extensive Bronze Age and early Roman period landscapes. The Bronze Age features, most of which were of middle Bronze Age date, were concentrated in the western and central areas of the site, and comprised rectilinear systems of trackways and field enclosures. Large pits or waterholes were associated with these systems, which were probably related to stock control. A small group of cremation burials to the south may have been contemporary with these features. There was no significant evidence for late Bronze Age or Iron Age activity but at about the middle of the 1st century AD a high-status double-ditched enclosure was established. This had an entrance to the south and contained slight traces of one or more timber structures. This settlement was associated with rectilinear field systems, further enclosures and trackways and two cremation burials. These features were on a similar alignment to that of the principal Bronze Age layout of the site. The early Roman settlement ceased to be occupied aft er c AD 120 and although trackways and possibly some other boundaries remained in use later Roman and subsequent activity was entirely agricultural in nature. This pattern of land use continued into modern times.