Sedimentology, palaeoecology and geochronology of Last Interglacial deposits from Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, England

Pollen, plant macrofossil, molluscan and coleopteran data from organic muds below the low terrace of the River Welland at Deeping St lames, Lincolnshi re indicate deposition in the mixed oak forest phase of a Late Pleistocene interglacial. Coleopteran and molluscan data suggest summer temperatures up to 4 degrees C warmer than at present in eastern England, and plant macrof ossil material suggests a climate more continental than that of Britain in the Holocene. No direct analogue of this biota, however, exists currently i n Europe. Biostratigraphical indications from the pollen coleoptera and Mol lusca suggest an age in the Ipswichian Interglacial. Thermoluminescence dat es between 120 ka and 75 ka and amino-acid ratios with a mean of 0.11 show that deposition of the sediments took place during Oxygen Isotope Stage 5. This accurate dating of a partial Ipswichian succession allows discussion o f the ages of a number of other interglacial sites in eastern England of as sumed Ipswichian age. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.