Palaeoenvironmental site

A site where evidence survives that may help to reconstruct aspects of the past environment of the area. There are many types of palaeoenvironmental evidence and many consist of organic remains such as plants and animals and insects. These remains have not usually been disturbed or deliberately altered by man and are known as ‘Ecofacts’. Ecofacts include such things as pollen (the study of which is termed palynology), insect remains, bones, leaves, seeds, shells, sediments and soils. If it is known what type of environments these plants and animals prefer to live in it is possible to begin to understand what the past environment may have been like.