Palaeoecological and archaeological evidence for Bronze Age human activity on the Isle of Man

Pollen analytical data and the archaeological record for the Isle of Man identify increased human impact on the landscape during the Bronze Age. Pollen profiles from seven sites are presented, all identify-ing a greater scale of activity than existed during the preceding Neolithic. The archaeological record shows similar increases in both the number and the distribution of finds. Both the archaeology and palaeoecology indicate an increase in human presence in the lowlands, with some sustained arable and pastoral farming and increased evidence of burials. The uplands were perhaps less affected. Four sites have yielded palaeoecological information from archaeological contexts that unambiguously link pollen analytical evidence for disturbance with archaeological evidence for the presence of people. The scale of human disturbance of woodlands on the Isle of Man is similar to that found in southern Scotland and northern England during the Bronze Age, but less intensive than that encountered in northern Ireland. Cereal pollen indicates limited cultivation in lowland areas of the Isle of Man throughout the Bronze Age, perhaps on a lesser scale compared with surrounding regions and with some periods of woodland regeneration.