ABSTRACT
Twelve thousand years ago the great glaciers began their long, slow retreat north. As the Ice Age ended, the climate gradually improved and the look of the landscape was fundamentally altered. Botanists have been able to plot these changes by analysing pollen found preserved in waterlogged deposits. They have shown that the arctic tundra slowly gave way to woodland, as trees recolonized the land from their continental refuges. Initially these new forests were largely composed of pine and birch, but later, as Britain became warmer and wetter, deciduous trees such as oak, hazel and elm replaced them. For humans the consequence of these wide reaching changes was a complete reorientation of lifestyle. The great herds of horse, bison, reindeer and mammoth that had roamed the open tundra disappeared. In their place were forest species such as elk, red deer, wild cattle and pigs. Humans had but two choices-to follow the retreating herds north and try to maintain the old ways, or to grasp the opportunities offered by a Brave New World.
