The late quaternary vegetational history of Holderness, Yorkshire

This study was undertaken to reconstruct the regional vegetational history of Holderness, in south-east Yorkshire. It is an area with great potential for palaeo-ecological investigations and yet it has been largely ignored during the great increase of research in this field in recent years. Being on the east coast, Holderness is well placed to provide information on the migration of plants into this country, particularly in Late-glacial and early Flandrian times, when the region was joined to the continent by dry land. As a distinct and somewhat isolated region of low-lying land which must have been rather waterlogged for much of Post-glacial time it would have provided a considerable challenge to prehistoric man. Therefore an examination of the extent to which early man was able to emploit this difficult environment seems to be worthwhile.Among the most interesting advances in the study of vegetational history have been the introduction of the evaluation of pollen concentration and absolute pollen frequencies in an attempt to give a more quantitative picture of post vegetational communities, and also the considerable reassessment of climatic conditions during the Late glacial period. Consequently, in the elucidation of the vegetational history of Holderness, the intention has also been to throw some light on these current problems. The Late-glacial of Holderness has therefore been studied in terms of pollen concentrations and absolute pollen frequencies, and the results obtained compared with other recent evidence, much of which has come from north-western England, to try to establish to what extent conditions varied within northern England during this period. Somewhat more approximate estimates of absolute pollen frequencies in Post-glacial times have been made, and the value that this information adds to the understanding of vegetational history of the area, has been considered