A Pollen Diagram from the Auld Wives' Lifts, Craigmaddie Muir, Strathclyde

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary A pollen diagram has been prepared from shallow mud and peat in the small basin surrounding the Auld Wives' Lifts, a large block of sandstone perched on two supporters and decorated with ancient carved heads. Sedimentation began during the early Flandrian period and soon gave way to peat formation. However there is little peat that could have formed in the last five thousand radiocarbon years. Therefore the pollen diagram may tell us little about the vegetation of the Iron Age, the probable period of the carvings. Nevertheless it is clear that if the Auld Wives' Lifts was erected by men, or if the perched block alone was placed by men, the builders had to cope with an at least partly peat-filled hollow.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: