Monument record 1474/0/1 - Buried soil deposit containing charcoal, Lindow Moss

<1> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner R C, 1984 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Two partly peat covered sand islands survive in the present Lindow Moss and they are good candidates for settlements contemporary with the bog bodies. One is bisected by a major drainage ditch. At the given NGR (SJ 8189 8075), a ditch can be seen in section filled with grey sand and charcoal and covered by c.1m of peat. As the peat bog grew, then landscapes would become buried. Geophysical survey failed to locate any buried features.

<2> Turner R C, 1987, Preliminary Report of the Lindow Moss Excavations 1987, Comments added 18/01/1989 (Unpublished Report). SCH2720.

Clearing of the ditch section and a small excavation in 1987 revealed the charcoal belongs to a complex soil horizon, partly sealed by the expanding peat. No definite evidence for man-made features found, but charcoal must relate to a clearance of the vegetation. A C14 date of 4980+/-70 BP (HAR 8875) has been obtained. Pollen analysis of this buried soil is being undertaken by Rob Scaife, Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage.
(See source 3 for more detail)

<3> Turner R C, 1987, Preliminary Report of the Lindow Moss Excavations 1987 (Unpublished Report). SCH2720.

Following the discovery of the Lindow III bog body in 1987, further archaeological investigation and excavation were undertaken at the site of the presumed findspot of the body (trench 1), also on the two sand islands which lay within the area of the moss (trenches 2 and 3). The drainage ditch which bisects the western sand island was re-investigated; a length of one section was cut back and cleaned to leave the junction of the sand and the peat at its centre. In the lee of a marked break in slope, there was a complex accumulation of bands of peat and sands containing large fragments of charcoal, this underlay a layer of peat. A small trench 4m by 2m (Trench 2) was dug alongside this section to investigate the charcoal layer, no finds were recovered but samples of the charcoal were collected. A soil and charcoal deposit was similarly recorded in Trench 3 located across the more easterly sand island. Also in Trench 3, a scatter of 21 flints (CHER 1474/0/2) were recovered from the B horizon podsol, above the level of the peat. These comprised mostly waste flakes, but also two blades, and are thought to be in the position that they fell. The two trenches investigated the surface of the sand islands and their relationship to the peat bog. They produced evidence for human activity involving clearance, possible cultivation and erosion of the islands' surfaces. The flint scatter could be contemporary with these events.

<4> Turner R. C. & Scaife R. G. A (eds), 1995, Bog Bodies. New Discoveries and New Perspectives, p.17 (Book). SCH4324.

The small excavation, trench 2, was laid out to look in more detail at the interface between the charcoal-rich soil and the fen carr woodland, a radiocarbon date was obtained from the charcoal of 4980+/-70 BP, or 3030 BC (HAR-8875). This lies in the early Neolithic and is contemporary with the Elm Decline, an event recorded by pollen analysts across the British Isles.

<5> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.49, 62-3 (Monograph). SCH3260.

The 1987 excavations at the Lindow Moss sand island demonstrated the presence of macroscopic charcoal in quantity at the interface between a paleosol developed on the sandy mineral ground and overlying fen-carr peats. This was interpreted as the effects of Neolithic buring of vegetation which produced a podsol and encouraged development of a heath vegetation sometime around 3970-3640 cal BC, a date very similar to that recorded Elm Decline at Red Moss. Fen-carr woodland subsequently encroached up the sand island resulting in paludification or formation of peat land. The sigificance of the findings is that they demonstrate that human activity was directly affecting the mire enviornment in the Neolithic and was aiding the spread of the mire across drier parts of the site by encouraging acidification and degradation of the soils.

<6> AJ Walker, A Young, R Otlet, 1991, Harwell Radiocarbon Measurements IX, Published in 'An International Journal of Cosmogenic Isotope Research’, p.110 (Article in Journal). SCH9740.

Published Harwell radiocarbon date, 1991. HAR-8875 LINDPODZ. 4980 +/- 70. Charcoal and soil, AML 876165, from sand island within peat bog at Lindow Moss, Cheshire (NGR 820805). Collected and submitted October 1987 by M. Canti.