Faunal remains from radiocarbon-dated soils within landslip debris from The Undercliff,Isle of Wight,Southern England

An examination of coastal sections of landslip material forming The Undercliff of the Isle of Wight has revealed the presence of buried soils, in places, within the debris. Critical sections at Binnel Point and St. Catherine's Point have been logged and the contained vertebrate and molluscan faunas analysed. The Mollusca from both sites are very similar and indicate a shaded environment, contrasting sharply with the immediate local environments today. The vertebrates, present only at Binnel Point, again suggest woodland. The presence of red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) is especially noteworthy constituting their earliest and only secure British fossil records respectively. Some marine shells (Patella, Gibbula) and remains of larger vertebrates (including red deer) possibly represent midden debris. Charcoal from the lower soil at Binnel Point yielded a radiocarbon date of 4480 ± 100 bp (BM-1737) indicating that at least some of the middens at Binnel date from the Neolithic, much earlier than previously demonstrated. The sections at St. Catherine's Point provided no evidence of human occupation but yielded two further radiocarbon dates of 4490 ± 40 bp (SRR-1813) and 3960 ± 50 bp (SRR-1947) from wood incorporated within the landslips. The significance of these dates in relation to the history of landslipping is discussed.