Abstract
IT now seems that the shallow tracts of peat which are so abundant in western parts of the British Isles began their development at about the time when the first signs of human activity became evident in the pollen record1,2 contained in the peat. These blanket mire complexes or “Terrainbedeckende Moore”3 have received relatively little attention from palaeoecologists and radiocarbon-dated pollen profiles are few; those which exist refer mainly to deposits from Ireland4,5 and the Southern Pennines6,7. We now present a radiocarbon-dated pollen diagram, from a blanket mire on Exmoor, Somerset, which throws further light on the coincidence of prehistoric human activity and the initiation of blanket peat formation.
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MERRYFIELD, D., MOORE, P. Prehistoric human activity and blanket peat initiation on Exmoor. Nature 250, 439–441 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250439a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/250439a0
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