Vegetation Hist Archaeobotany 17 (3)

Pollen, microscopic charcoal, palaeohydrological and dendrochronological analyses are applied to a radiocarbon and tephrochronologically dated mid Holocene (ca. 8500--3000 cal bp) peat sequence with abundant fossil Pinus (pine) wood. The Pinus populations on peat fluctuated considerably over the period in question. Colonisation by Pinus from c. 7900--7600 cal bp appears to have had no specific environmental trigger; it was probably determined by the rate of migration from particular populations. The second phase, at c. 5000--4400 cal bp, was facilitated by anthropogenic interference that reduced competition from other trees. The pollen record shows two Pinus declines. The first at c. 6200--5500 cal bp was caused by a series of rapid and frequent climatic shifts. The second, the so-called pine decline, was very gradual (c. 4200--3300 cal bp) at Loch Farlary and may not have been related to climate change as is often supposed. Low intensity but sustained grazing pressures were more important. Throughout the mid Holocene, the frequency and intensity of burning in these open Pinus--Calluna woods were probably highly sensitive to hydrological (climatic) change. Axe marks on several trees are related to the Mid to Late Bronze Age, i.e., long after the trees had died.