Looking Back to the Future: Ancient, Working Pollards and Europe’s Silvo-Pastoral Systems

Abstract

A few years ago, a strange piece of oak was dug up from gravel workings along the Trent near Nottingham. This was one of a number of sub-fossil pollards that have now been carbon dated at 3,400 years old. Similar cut trees, pollards and shreds, have been excavated from gravels in the River Meuse in the Netherlands and carbon dated at 1,800 years old. There is much evidence of pollards and cutting trees in works of art (Haeggström 2006). The oldest works of art are frescos from Akrotiri, Greece and two gold cups from a Tholos grave in Vaphio near Sparta, which are now in the National Museum in Athens dated from the fifteenth millennium B.C. Perhaps closer to home, there are the illustrations of pollards being cut in the Bayeux Tapestry and in many other major European works of art. Although it has been a widespread common practice, there is surprisingly little written record of this ancient cultural tradition.