Medieval land remediation of a quarry site at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, revealed by microfossil analysis

Backfill material from a 12th- to13th-century quarry, north of Wallingford, south Oxfordshire, comprises sandy loam overlain by Cretaceous (early Cenomanian; Mantelliceras mantelli Macrofaunal Biozone) Glauconitic Marl Member, of the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation as identified by its abundant,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental archaeology : the journal of human palaeoecology 2014-06, Vol.19 (2), p.124-130
Main Authors: Janssen, D. M., Wilkinson, I. P., Williams, M., Gouldwell, A., Christie, N., Edgeworth, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Foraminifera
Land restoration
Ostracods
Provenance
Wallingford
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Summary:Backfill material from a 12th- to13th-century quarry, north of Wallingford, south Oxfordshire, comprises sandy loam overlain by Cretaceous (early Cenomanian; Mantelliceras mantelli Macrofaunal Biozone) Glauconitic Marl Member, of the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation as identified by its abundant, biostratigraphically useful, foraminifera and ostracods. A local outcrop source of the Glauconitic Marl Member, less than 1 km north of the quarry pit, is the likely provenance of this material, and a contemporaneous road, which was discovered adjacent to the medieval quarry by magnetometer surveys and archaeological excavation, would have aided its transportation, into the town via the North Gate. We hypothesise that the use of a calcareous marl to overlay sandy loam deposits probably encouraged land restoration when the quarried area was returned to pastoral agriculture.
ISSN:1461-4103
1749-6314
DOI:10.1179/1461410313Z.00000000056