Dissertation Research: Development of the Cultural Landscape Around Lough Gur, Ireland

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This research will investigate the development of the cultural landscape around Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, Ireland. It will be primarily based on analysis of lake sediments and archaeological sites from the Neolithic the Medieval period. These materials are particularly well suited for testing several hypotheses concerning vegetational and erosional changes resulting from human impact on the environment through time. The overall hypothesis states that Post-Boreal changes in the vegetation accompanied by erosion reflect local prehistoric and historic farming. Subsidiary hypotheses are: That the locality of vegetation disturbance in the lake catchment changes through time and can be traced by paleomagnetic analysis of the lake sediment. That the elm population was primarily affected by tree cutting during the early colonization of lighter soils by humans. That the relative frequency of algae in the sediment corresponds to fluctuations in lake catchment settlements. And that the elm decline is an outcome of disease and is not associated with erosion.