Journal of Archaeological Science (2001) 28, 1069–1084 doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0642, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on An Assessment of the Impact of Trees upon Archaeology Within a Relict Wetland Margaret Cox School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole BH12 5BB, U.K. Caroline Earwood Ferney Cottage, Pentre Lliﬁor, Berriew, Powys SY21 8QJ, U.K. E. B. Gareth Jones Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China Julie Jones and Vanessa Straker School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS, U.K. Mark Robinson University Museum, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, U.K. Mark Tibbett School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole BH12 5BB, U.K. Steven West 6 Atlantic View Court, Highbury Road, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, BS23 2DJ, U.K. (Received 28 June 1999, revised manuscript accepted 27 October 2000) An evaluation of a surviving stretch of the Abbot’s Way, in the Somerset Levels and Moors, was undertaken to assess the consequences of the previous management regime and inform future management of the site. The scheduled site appeared to have been dewatered and desiccated as a consequence of tree planting and the eﬀects of a deep, adjacent drainage ditch during the previous decade. The evaluation considered the condition of the Neolithic timbers and associated palaeoenvironmental record from three trenches and, where possible, compared the results with those obtained from the 1974 excavation (Girling, 1976). The results of this analysis suggest that the hydrological consequences of tree planting and colonization had a detrimental eﬀect on both the condition of the timbers and insect remains. However, pollen and plant macro-fossils survived well although there was modern contamination. A trench opened outside the scheduled area, where the ground was waterlogged and supported a wet acid grassland ﬂora, revealed similar problems of survival and condition. This almost certainly reﬂects a period of peat extraction and an associated seasonally ﬂuctuating water table in the 1950s and 1960s; in fact pollen survived better in the scheduled dewatered area. These results are compared with those recovered from the Sweet Track which was evaluated in 1996. Both sites have been subject to recent tree growth but the Sweet Track has been positively managed in terms of hydrology. The most notable diﬀerence between the two sites is that insects and wood survived better at the Sweet Track site than at the Abbot’s Way. Insects seem to be a more sensitive indicator of site desiccation than plant 1069 0305–4403/01/1001069+16 $35.00/0  2001 Academic Press