Speaker: Dr Michael J Allen, MCIfA, FLS, FSA

Dr Mike Allen of “Allen Environmental Archaeology” is an experienced geoarchaeologist with extensive experience in the UK and abroad.

Environmental archaeologists have mostly relied on pollen survival in cores for interpretation of land use history., and for 30 years Mike followed this pattern to interpret the settlement, burial history and landscapes of the Wessex chalkland. However recent research using analysis of soils and snails has provided a new environmental narrative and completely new history for the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, Cranborne Chase and Dorchester. Come and listen to Mike’s exciting discoveries of how the chalklands became wooded after the glaciation and the mixed oak forest was later cleared for cattle herds, monuments, settlements and ultimately for farming and tillage.

For those attending in person, there will be archaeological samples of snails and soils, and a small library of books for sale. An INHOUSE talk not to be missed.