Neolithic Climate Change

Bodmin Moor, Exmoor and particularly Dartmoor are upland areas of granite (Devonian sandstones and slates in the case of Exmoor), characterised through the Middle Holocene by the development of blanket (ombrogenous) mire. The peat that resulted developed where rainfall exceeded evapotranspiration, and in theory provides useful sequences for palynological and plant macrofossil study. Dartmoor is undoubtedly the most fully studied of the three and the most recent reviews of the pollen database have been made by Chris Caseldine (Caseldine and Hatton 1996; Caseldine 1999). Studies at a number of sites such as Bellever demonstrate that by the Late Mesolithic, oak, elm and hazel formed the major components of the Dartmoor woodland (Caseldine and Hatton 1996).