ABSTRACT
The technique of investigating fossil insect assemblages was developed initially to investigate Pleistocene deposits and its value in this area has been successfully demonstrated from many sites. Since 1974, insect analysis has been extended to the peat deposits associated with the Neolithic and Bronze Age track ways of the Somerset Levels. With the continuing application of insect studies to archaeological deposits, a great deal of information is being acquired on the environmental background to man's activities and man's effect on the landscape. The insect fauna extracted from the peat monolith at Abbot's Way is perhaps the most typical of the central peat bogs. Higher in the peat there is a reduction in the numbers of species requiring reed swamp habitats accompanied by a relative increase in eurytopic beetles. The tree-dependent beetles, among them bark beetles, wood borers, leaf miners and tree fungus feeders, include 4 species no longer found in Britain.
