EARLY HOLOCENE POLLEN AND MOLLUSCAN RECORDS FROM ENFIELD-LOCK, MIDDLESEX, UK

Pollen, molluscan data, and sediment analyses, are presented from Enfi eld Lock, Middlesex, UK. The pollen data, from organic muds, show simi larities with Pre-boreal and Boreal pollen spectra at other sites in t he Thames basin; an overlying non-polleniferous marl yielded a diverse molluscan fauna. Radiocarbon dates on organic sediments at the site c onfirm the pollen records are from the early Holocene, but the shelly marl is less easily dated; there are affinities with molluscan records of the early to mid Holocene from sites elsewhere in southeast Englan d. The biological and sedimentological data chronicle the changing dep ositional environments of the floodplain of the River Lea during four millennia of the early to mid Holocene. Charcoal records imply that fi re was, at times, a significant influence on early Holocene vegetation , bur a lack of local human artefacts contrasts with evidence for Meso lithic sites elsewhere, and has implications For the interpretation of early Holocene pollen assemblages from charcoal-rich sediments.