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Social contexts of anthropogenic soil formation in Ireland

Thomas Cummins (UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science)

Abstract

Distinct social contexts have yielded characteristic anthropogenic soils in Ireland. Defining anthropogenic soil broadly, three case studies are offered: (1) high-status early medieval secular and ecclesiastical earthworks were deliberately leveled during later medieval times, truncating banks and thickening topsoils, without destroying churches. These sites may represent negation of an earlier secular authority; (2) coastal sanded plaggen soils reflect the partial transfer of early modern improving technology from landlords to less-enfranchised, cashless, insecure short-lease tenants, using sea-manures, direct labour and horse transport. These near-coastal soils are not intensively drained, have small and often irregular enclosure, and are confined to small tenant farms, not larger estate demesne lands; (3) reclaimed peatland soil profiles relate to distinct technological or economic conditions. Vernacular bog-margin reclamations followed early large-scale drainage; later agricultural reclamation of cutover bogs responded to commodity prices, with liming materials reflecting large-scale economics. In each case, identifiable past social processes determine extant soil morphology.