Prehistoric Farming Impacts and Erosion Revealed Through a Palaeolimnological Investigation of Lough Inchiquin, Co. Clare, Western Ireland

Daisy Eleanor Spencer, Aaron Potito, Karen Molloy, Anna Martini, Henry Frentzel and Carleton Jones

Environmental Archaeology, 2023, vol. 28, issue 3, 150-165

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a multi-proxy, palaeolimnological investigation of Lough Inchiquin, a large lake located immediately south of the Burren, a distinctive karst landscape in Co Clare, western Ireland which has been exploited since the Neolithic period. Chironomid sub-fossil analysis and lake sediment geochemistry provides an opportunity to infer lake response to prehistoric farming activity. The results of these new analyses are contextualised by pollen and loss-on-ignition evidence from the same lake catchment. The combined data of chironomid, loss-on-ignition (LOI550, LOI950 and non-combustible fraction (NCF)), organic geochemistry (δ13Corg, δ15N, Corg:N ratio), inorganic geochemistry (Ti, Fe, Mn, S and δ18O) and fossil pollen has allowed for an in-depth understanding of the palaeolimnological and palaeoenvironmental changes from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (c. 4590–660 BC) in the catchment of Lough Inchiquin. The data highlight the increasing ecological impact of anthropogenic activity through time and provide well-dated evidence for the initiation of Holocene soil erosion from the Burren.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14614103.2021.1888847 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:28:y:2023:i:3:p:150-165

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/yenv20

DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2021.1888847

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental Archaeology is currently edited by Tim Mighall

More articles in Environmental Archaeology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().