Holocene history of environment, vegetation and human settlement on Catta Ness, Lunnasting, Shetland

Pollen, charcoal, chemical, physical, magnetic and tephra analyses of ¹⁴C-dated Holocene lake sediments from Dallican Water, Catta Ness, north-east Shetland, are presented and interpreted in the light of models of Holocene climatic change, the Shetland archaeological record, and local documentary evidence. The sequence was subdivided and analysed using principal components analysis, a numerical zonation of the pollen data using optimal and binary divisive techniques, and measures of palynological richness and rates of change between samples. This is the first complete Holocene tephra record to be obtained from the British Isles. -from Authors