Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006) 89–113 Marine Isotope Stage 9 environments of fluvial deposits at Hackn north London, UK Christopher P. Green a, , Nicholas P. Branch a , G. Russell Coope a , Michael H. Field b , David H. Keen c , James M. Wells d , Jean-Luc Schwenninger a , Richard C. Preece e , Danielle C. Schreve a , Matthew G. Canti d , Christopher P. Gleed-Owen f a Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK b Church Cottage, Church Street, Fenny Compton, Warwickshire CV47 2YE, UK c School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK d Centre for Archaeology, English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD, UK e Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK f Herpetological Conservation Trust, 655A Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 4AF, UK Received 9 June 2003; accepted 29 October 2004 Abstract Middle Pleistocene deposits at Hackney, north London comprise a thick unit of organic sands and silts occupying a chann the confluence of the River Thames in south-eastern England and its left-bank tributary the River Lea. They represent a sh interval,perhaps no more than a few years, within a late Middle Pleistocene interglacial. The organic sediments are overlain by unfossiliferous sands and gravels indicating deposition on the floodplain of a braided river under cool or cold climatic cond The fossil plant, insect, mollusc and vertebrate remains from the interglacial deposits all indicate climatic conditions with s warmer than the present in SE England, and winters with a similar thermal climate. The biostratigraphic evidence suggest time period represented by the organic unit is part of MIS 9, although the geochronological evidence for such an age is inc The palaeontological evidence strongly suggests that this temperate stage was warmer than the succeeding temperate st the Holocene, and approaching the Ipswichian (MISs 5e) in its warmth. The multidisciplinary description of the Hackney de one of the first to reconstruct terrestrial conditions in Marine Isotope Stage 9 in Western Europe. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Few sites of MIS 9 age have been described in Britain. Thomas (2001) notes 11 possible sites of this age, but for a numberof these,neitherthe age northe detailed climatic conditions can be definitely confirmed. Repre- sentative of these sites is Barling, Essex ( Bridgland et al., 2001) where insect and molluscan faunas hint at summer temperatures higher than those of the present and where the relationship of the site to the stratigraphically robust Thames terrace sequence allows positive attribution to MIS 9 ( Bridgland et al., 1999; Schreve and Bridgland, 2002). The Hackney depositsoccurat Nightingale Estate (National Grid Reference TQ 3452 8587) ( Fig. 1) in the valley of the River Lea, ca 5 km north of its confluence with the Thames and ca 60 km upstream from Barling. The site occupies a remnant of river terrace regarded by Bridgland (1994) as the Lynch Hill Terraceof the Thameswhich he considersto be of MIS 8 age, underlain by sediments deposited in MIS 10, 9 and 8. Up to 2 m of organic sediment, underlain and overlain by gravelwere recorded by Gibbard (1994) at Night- ingale Estate. However, his view that the organic ARTICLE IN PRESS 0277-3791/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.10.011 Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1784 443 563; fax: +44 1784 472 836. E-mail address: greenc@waitrose.com (C.P. Green).