Models of mid-Holocene forest farming for north-west Europe

Summary

• 1. Patterns of woodland pollen taxa for forested areas of north-west Europe are considered.

• 2. There follows a presentation and critique of four models that address the theme of forest farming in mid-Holocene times — the landnam, leaf-foddering, expansion-regression and forest-utilization models.

• 3. The early conceptualizations of Iversen and Troels-Smith contained elements that continue to be relevant, while the forestutilization model of Göransson is more radical and ambitious.