The Soils of the Stonehenge Area -- no trace of Noah's Flood

 This is from the excellent Wessex Archaeology volume 2008 -- lots of interesting detail, but no trace of a flood either in the Mesolithic or Neolithic.....

Archaeology on the A303 Stonehenge Improvement
By Matt Leivers and Chris Moore
With contributions from
Michael J. Allen, Catherine Barnett, Philippa Bradley, Nicholas Cooke,
John Crowther, Michael Grant, Jessica M. Grimm, Phil Harding,
Richard I. Macphail, Jacqueline I. McKinley, David Norcott, Sylvia Peglar,
Chris J. Stevens, and Sarah F. Wyles
and illustrations by
Rob Goller, S. E. James and Elaine Wakefield

Wessex Archaeology 2008
This volume is available from Wessex Archaeology www.wessexarch.co.uk

Appendix 1: Soil

Richard I. Macphail and John Crowther
(Editorial note: this report was prepared before the analysis of the lithics from the site had been
completed. Interpretative differences between this report and the main text are due to the finer
dating that resulted from the lithic analysis)

Soil micromorphology, chemistry, particle size and magnetic susceptibility

Summary
Six thin sections and four bulk samples were analysed from two sites near Stonehenge. Remarkably,
the investigated soil sequences record rare examples of a prehistoric decalcified soil cover, in a now
generally rendzina-dominated landscape which reportedly has been extant since the Neolithic. At
Site 54379 in the valley of the Avon, Early Neolithic phosphate-enriched animal trampled soils
developed over river alluvium. Ensuing probable local cultivation (alongside likely continuing stock
management) led to colluviation, and evidence of in situ ard-cultivation in the accreting soils is
recorded. At site 48067, a bisequal soil profile had formed in reddish clay (of weathered chalk
origin) and silt (loess), by the early Holocene. This soil was buried by a prehistoric humic
colluvium of probable arable origin. These two soils give rare insights into an environment that is
generally believed to have been an open pastoral rendzina landscape by the Neolithic, and where
any cultivation impact has not been evident. These are also unique examples of in situ animal
herding and cultivation, and demonstrate how any remaining post-glacial decalcified brown soils
could have been eroded under human impact from Neolithic times onwards.

Introduction
Three soil monoliths from the A303 Stonehenge Improvement, Wiltshire were received from
Wessex Archaeology. Monoliths 30 and 31 came from a 0.46 m thick soil sequence containing a
Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic flint scatter at Site 54379 (NW of Amesbury), which overlies
alluvium and is sealed by some 0.70 m of later soil/colluvium. Monolith 15000 at Site 48067 (300
m south of Stonehenge)sampled the soil in a solution hollow in chalk, and up through the palaeosol
into stony colluvium(?). This soil, which contains less well dated prehistoric flints, occurs below
some 0.35 m of later soil/colluvium and topsoil.


OVERVIEW

There are models of land-use for the topographic variations present in the chalklands of southern
England (Barker 1985, fig 74; Whittle 1997), and a variety of soil types have been investigated
from Neolithic and Beaker sites, which include valley silty gleys (Silbury Hill), rendzinas, and
calcareous brown earths, and occupation sites (Belle Tout, Easton Down, Maiden Castle, Windmill
Hill; eg, Evans 1972; Macphail and Linderholm 2004; Cranborne Chase and Durrington Walls;
French and Lewis 2005; French et al. 2007; French pers. comm. 2008). At the two A303
Stonehenge sites, there are unusual examples of non-calcareous soil accumulations in a landscape
that is generally rendzina-dominated (Icknield soil association; Jarvis et al. 1983), and one that is
thought to have produced very little colluvium (Allen 1992), presumably because it only had a thin
decalcified drift cover. The rendzinas of the region have a silt content that is believed to have a
loessic origin (Catt 1978). This is also an area where a stable, rendzina-dominated pastoral
landscape was often formed by the Neolithic, as based upon numerous soil studies in the area (see
above; French pers. comm.). These two A303 prehistoric locations, including the Late
Mesolithic/Early Neolithic site, thus provide some unique insights into the use, and impact upon,
decalcified brown soils prior to the almost universal development of shallow calcareous rendzinas
and brown calcareous soils. Moreover, these two decalcified brown soils have effectively recorded
ancient land use.

Catt (1978; 1979; 1986) has suggested that much of the loess cover of southern England had
been eroded into valleys by the early Holocene, and clearly Neolithic Silbury Hill buries a valley
gley formed in loessic silt (review of Ian Cornwall’s thin section in Macphail 1986, and
unpublished report to Cardiff University). South of Stonehenge, Site 48067 records both the
presence and character of the bisequel (clayey ß/Bt and silty Eb&Bw) late glacial/early Holocene
argillic brown earth, with the overlying prehistoric humic hillwash apparently recording the erosion
of this decalcified soil cover. Traces of such loessic brown soils occur as decalcified turf fragments
in ditch fills at Neolithic Millbarrow, Wiltshire (Macphail 1994), while Neolithic clearance and
cultivation(?)-induced erosion of loess was reported at Pegwell Bay, Kent. Unfortunately, the
assumed cultivation and associated hillwash at site 48067 can only be broadly dated to prehistory
(Barnett and Norcott, pers. comm.).
At site 54379, however, soil accumulation which can be dated from the flint scatter to the
Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic seems to be associated with a primary land-use of stock
management and their passage effects at this location, presumably associated with grazing and
drinking along the valley of the Avon. This is both consistent with models of Neolithic valley land
use on chalklands (Barker 1985, fig. 74; Whittle 1997) and on floodplains in general (cf. Neolithic
Raunds, Northamptonshire; Macphail and Linderholm 2004). Ensuing local (upslope) cultivation is
presumed to have triggered additional colluviation that deposited flints, and which produced a
colluvial soil that was ard-ploughed in situ. The 302, 303, and 304 sequence thus records: stock
concentrations (304), presumed cultivation-induced colluviation (303) and in situ cultivation of this
accreting colluvium (302), with the likely continuing presence of stock throughout (303 and 302). It
has been suggested that after clearance of the Mesolithic woodland, soils of this chalkland region
were primarily stable rendzinas used for pastoralism (French and Lewis 2005), and there are plenty
of other buried soil records to support this view (Evans 1972; Macphail 1987; Macphail and
Linderholm 2004). Nevertheless, some Neolithic cultivation of ‘upland’ chalk soils was inferred at
Easton Down, Wiltshire (Macphail 1993), and here near Amesbury, there are clear indications that
cultivation was taking place in the Early Neolithic which was causing active erosion of a locally
present decalcified brown soil cover in the Avon valley.