Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction and Evaluation: A Case Study from Orkney

One major aspect of an archaeological project concerned with the Orcadian Neolithic has been the reconstruction and evaluation of the palaeoenvironment during that period. Environmental reconstruction based largely upon palaeobotanical studies indicates the presence of a quite impoverished and virtually treeless landscape from at least 4ooo b.p. to the present day. Interpretation of this data allows the inference that geomorphic, edaphic and climatic conditions have changed relatively little throughout this time-span. Neolithic and later peoples adjusted to such terrain in pursuit of mixed agrarian economies. The relative importance of individual factors of the palaeoenvironment to early societies is evaluated by means of a simulation model designed to test the established view that Neolithic chambered tombs tend to be located at the back of better agricultural land. Seven environmental factors were recorded for a large number of points on the island of Rousay and were weighted in numerous ways. Sites were generated and the resultant simulated patterns compared to the actual distribution of tombs. It was found that a simulated pattern based on proximity to a beach coastline, or based on steep land, produced the best approximations and it is proposed that these, rather than the agricultural value of the land, are the chief factors influencing their distribution. ENVIRONMENTAL study today forms an integral part of most archaeological research projects in the field. The approach has led to many interesting investigations in which serious attempts have been made to reconstruct past landscapes. The treatment of this problem has evolved considerably in recent years. Whereas for some time it was usual to generalize and regard the salient features of the landscapes as uniform over a fairly wide region or ecological zone, more recently the aim has been to recognize for particular areas component microenvironments which differed in their resource value (e.g. Hole, Flannery and Neely, 1969). The insights into vegetational change in post-glacial times offered by pollen studies have more recently been followed by an appreciation of the sometimes very significant accompanying changes in landforms and soils which are open to study by geomorphological methods (Vita-Finzi, 1969; Davidson, 1971). Moreover, archaeologists are now analysing changing patterns of settlement in terms of dynamic cultural and social methods. In effect, they are beginning to reject deterministic approaches to man-land relationships and are adopting more behavioural viewpoints. Such a trend has marked implications for palaeoenvironmentalists connected with archaeological researches, since they must also attempt to recognize precisely those elements of the landscape which were of behavioural significance to early man (Davidson, 1972). The great difficulty, of course, is to visualize a former landscape as perceived by early inhabitants. One common method has been to note spatial correlations between archaeological remains and specific environmental factors, and hence to