Barfield Tarn and the surrounding area
Since the classic work by Winifred Pennington in the 1960's the southwest corner of the Lake District has been an important site in understanding the Neolithic impact on the environment in northwest England. In addition Clive Bonsall has described Mesolithic settlement from Eskmeals, just north of Barfield.
The photo (above) shows a trench across a palaeochannel at High Hyton (between Barfield and Eskmeals). Wood remains from the channel bed can be seen in the foreground of the photo. Organic remains from the channel have been dated to 4400 BP. We also found plant remains of two Neolithic crops of this age, namely Emmer Wheat and Flax. In addition we were able to use plant macrofossils to describe the wet woodland vegetation of the Neolithic valley floor; this allowed us to identify many species that are invisible to pollen analysis (Clare et al. 2001). Sediments from the palaeochannel have been examined for insect remains by Steve Davis of the Archaeology Department, University College, Dublin who has identified a number of water beetle species. The photo below shows Tom Clare describing some of the laminated organic sediments from the palaeochannel.
In addition to the palaeochannels and plant macro data, Clare et al. (2001) present new diatom data from Barfield Tarn. This showed that during the soil erosion of Neolithic date (previously described by Pennington) sediment inwash was not severe enough reduce light levels to a point where diatoms could not survive, however it did have some effects on diatom diversity. We also presented new data on the local submerged forest and argued that the putative Mesolithic structure described by Bonsall from Eskmeals was probably of mainly natural origin, as we found similar alignments of tree trunks in what were clearly natural deposits. Additional studies on the archaeology and palaeohydrology of the area are recorded in Clare (1997, 2000).
During August 2008 we extracted cores from a small wetland near the site of the former Gutterby stone circle (see Clare, 2007, for more details). These cores were studied by two final year undergraduates, Julie Valentine and Dominic Murphy. Radiocarbon dates demonstrated the survival of Mesolithic/Neolithic peat, followed by a large gap (presumably caused by peat cutting) before recent peat formation. Archival work by Tom Clare as shown that pools on the site were being exploited for medical leeches, sold in Edinburgh during the 18th century. We are currently writing up this work for publication. The photograph to the right shows part of a gutterby core, showing the transition from grey sediments laid down in water to darker peat, approximately 9,500
References
Clare T. (1997) The palaeohydrology of a river basin in the English Lake District: an interim view. In: Sinclair, A. et al. (eds) Archaeological Sciences 1995. p.260-264. Oxbow Monograph 64.
Clare T. (2000) The distribution of some archaeological sites in relation to features of Holocene coastal change. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Second Series 100, 1-23.
Clare, T. (2007) Prehistoric monuments of the Lake District. Tempus Publishing, Stroud.
Clare T, Clapham, A.J., Wilkinson D.M. & Haworth E.Y. (2001) The Mesolithic and Neolithic landscapes of Barfield Tarn and Eskmeals in the English Lake District: some new evidence from two different wetland contexts. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 1, 83-105. (a PDF of this paper is available from Dave Wilkinson).
