ROMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT AT HADRIANS WALL - PRECISELY DATED POLLEN ANALYSIS FROM VINDOLANDA, NORTHERN ENGLAND

The results of pollen analyses from two ditch fills of early Roman age from the fort at Vindolanda, close to Hadrian's Wall, are presented. The ditch fills can be closely dated to the periods c. AD 85-92 and c. AD 160-180, and this chronological precision provides insights into t he timing of human impacts on the vegetation around this part of Hadri an's Wall which are unobtainable from more conventional radiocarbon da ted stratigraphies. The analyses show that anthropogenic woodland clea rance occurred before c. no 85 around Vindolanda. Deforestation may ha ve been by native farmers rather than by Roman troops. Clearance occur red prior to the construction of Hadrian's Wall in the second century AD, and was probably intended to allow an expansion of agricultural la nd, and in particular pasture for grazing animals. Cereal cultivation was possibly established at Vindolanda in the early to mid-second cent ury AD.