PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 135 
settlements (Brossler and Boyle 2001). These 
deposits may be seen as purely functional but are 
likely to have had a symbolic and/or a ritual 
meaning. Wet places may have been seen as liminal 
zones in a ritual, religious or political sense: 
possibly even as a meeting point between this world 
and the other. On the other hand, ancestral bones 
may have been used to legitimise a claim or mark 
out a settlement or region as belonging to a specific 
group of people (Briick 1995, 260). 
The Pollen 
by Elizabeth Huckerby 
Introduction 
Pollen analysis of fill (481) of the Bronze Age 
waterhole 421 provided an insight into the 
environment of the settlement when the fills of the 
waterhole were accumulating. 
Methods 
A monolith (0.50 m) was taken through part of fill 
419 and the entire depths of fills (480) and (481) 
from waterhole 421. The top of the monolith was 
0.66 m below the present surface (see Figure 5). 
Sediments were recorded in the laboratory and 
are described below. Initially six individual 
subsamples were taken for the assessment from the 
following depths, 0.66-0.665 m, 0.855-0.86m, 0.955- 
0.96 m and 1.055-1.06 m below the present surface. 
An additional seven subsamples were taken from 
between 0.96 and 1.16 m. Subsamples were 
prepared chemically for pollen analysis using 
standard techniques of hydrochloric acid, sodium 
hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, followed by 
sieving, hydrofluoric acid and acetolysis (Faegri et 
al. 1989). Samples were then mounted in silicone oil 
and examined with an Olympus BH-2 microscope 
using x400 magnification routinely and x1000 for 
critical grains. Counting continued until a sum of at 
least 300-500 grains of land pollen had been reached 
on two or more slides. This was done to reduce the 
possible effects of differential dispersal under the 
coverslips (Brooks and Thomas 1967). Pollen 
identification was carried out using the standard 
keys of Faegri et al. (1989) and Moore et al. (1991) 
and a limited reference collection. Cereal-type 
grains were defined using the criteria of Andersen 
(1979); indeterminate grains were recorded using 
| groups based on those of Birks (1973). Charcoal 
particles greater than 5 wm were also recorded 
following the procedures of Peglar (1993). Plant 
nomenclature follows Stace (1991). 
Analysis and storage of the data were 
accomplished using the tillia/tilliagraph software 
(Grimm 1991) to categorise data and aid its 
interpretation. The results are presented as a 
percentage pollen diagram of selected taxa. The 
pollen sum, on which the percentages are 
calculated, includes all land pollen and bracken 
spores. There are no obvious differences in the 
pollen assemblages and therefore the diagram has 
not been divided into local pollen assemblage 
zones. 
Results 
All depths quoted are given from below the present 
ground surface. 
Stratigraphy 
The sediment was predominately a silty clay with 
bone fragments above 0.96 m, pebbles between 
0.82-1.02 m, and wood fragments below 1.13 m. 
Sediments below 1.135 m were very crumbly and as 
a consequence lost when the monolith was 
unwrapped. All samples were calcareous and 
needed initial treatment of heating with 10% 
hydrochloric acid. Charcoal fragments, plant 
remains including wood fragments, bryophytes, 
sedge nutlets (Carex) and undifferentiated plant 
material, and insect remains increased in fill (481). 
Pollen (Figure 20) 
The pollen assemblages show little variation at the 
different depths except at 1.0575 m when grass 
(Poaceae) pollen falls sharply and dandelion-type 
(Liguliflorae), and Chenopodiaceae pollen, and 
bracken spores increase. However, at this depth the 
value of indeterminate grains rises and the 
concentration of identifiable pollen declines, 
resulting in a smaller pollen sum. Bracken spores 
and dandelion-type grains are more resistant to 
deterioration than other taxa, and may therefore 
indicate a skewed data set at this depth rather than 
a change in the local environment. The earlier 
assessment (LUAU 2001) highlighted that there 
was a high percentage of corroded or crumpled 
grains at 0.66 m to 0.65 m. 
Pollen from herbaceous taxa dominated the 
pollen assemblage throughout the profile, with a 
maximum of 90% of total land pollen. Tree and 
shrub pollen was less than 25% of total land pollen 
and bracken spores. The major components of the 
tree and shrub pollen are alder (Alnus glutinosa) and 
