Source/Archive record SCH4997 - Technical Report: Invertibrate Remains from a Watching Brief at Danes Moss, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Ten litre bulk sediment samples were collected from 14 of 16 distinct layers exposed during an archaeological watching brief undertaken in 2002 (see R2653.1, SCH8874) to monitor excavation for a new lagoon at the Danes Moss Landfill Site. These were subjected to palaeoenvironmental assessment and analysis. Seven flots containing insect remains were examined to provide data on the ancient environment; plant remains from two of the deposits were radiocarbon dated. Preservation of insect material was rather poor in the flot from the lowest sample, however, substantial well preserved assemblages of beetles and bugs were recovered from the rest. The assemblages provide a consistent picture throughout the sequence of well vegetated acid bog conditions. There also appeared to have been trees providing dead and rotten wood habitats. A fauna associated with heathland plants was present in the upper parts of the sequence implying localised drying, however, the continuing abundance of aquatic and marshland insects indicated that the area remained substantially wet. Some of the beetles and bugs identified indicate that the climate may have been a little warmer which accords well with the radiocarbon dates which place the sequence in the warmer period of the early Holocene, with the earliest deposit dated being almost immediately post-glacial.