The idenTificATion And SignificAnce of inpuTS To AnThroSolS in norTh-WeST europe

The last decade has seen a growing and renewed interest regarding anthropogenic soils which owe their dominant characteristics to past land management practices. These soils, besides being of particular pedological interest, are also of high archaeological significance given the high density of sites which frequently occurs on them. According to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, anthrosols are distinguished by an uppermost horizon of at least 50 cm which has been substantially modified by human activity (Bridges et al., 1998). Integral to their formation was the addition of substantial manure and/or waste materials such as organic matter from cut turves (plaggen), forest litter, bracken, seaweed, manure from byres, waste materials from houses, and calcareous beach sand. A plaggic horizon is formed by the addition of turves whilst terric horizons result from the addition of mineral material. Early research on plaggen soils was done by Pape (1970) for the Netherlands and Conry (1974) for Ireland. In Scotland Davidson et al. (1998) and Carter (2001) investigated such deepened soils using micromorphology. Simpson (1997) and Simpson et al. (1998, 1999) integrated micromorphology with other techniques including the identification of biomarkers. In Denmark research on soil history has been discussed by Gormsen (1991), Stoklund (1999) and Dalsgaard et al. (2000). In The Netherlands, Spek (1992) and Smeerdijk et al. (1995) combined soil profile analysis, micromorphology and detailed investigation of landscape history with a similar approach in Belgium being adopted by Langohr (2001). The recent rise in research related to anthropogenic soils can be attributed to the realisation that such soils contain unique evidence regarding past use of soils. Furthermore, the need to formulate soil protection strategies as specified by the Commission of the European Communities (2002) is requiring member States to identify «valued» soils; it can be argued that