Identification of Karst Features in the Portsdown Chalk Fm. from Aerial Photography, Dorset, UK Morena N Hammer1, Paul D Burley2, Howard D Mooers1 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 2Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (email:
[email protected]) Introduction Cranborne Chase hosts a unique geological and archaeological landscape in south central England. The Chase occupies the chalk downlands underlain by the cretaceous White Chalk Subgroup plateau that extends from the northern Chalke Escarpment, southward across the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire (Hopson, 2005). In this region, there is extensive archaeological evidence supporting a large Neolithic population in southern central England from approximately 3600-3440 BC (Woodbridge et al., 2013). During the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic at about 4000 BC, there was a significant change in the tools, farming technique, and cultural tradition. Though archaeologically these transitions are significant, there is little to no data available recording the environment that the Neolithic people were living in and how they influenced the landscape through cultivation and related impacts. One site that has yielded an extensive collection of animal and cultural remains during this time period is the excavation of Fir Tree Field Shaft doline (Allen & Green, 1998). Other typical data archives that would be used for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Neolithic period, such as lakes or peat fens, do not exist in Cranborne Chase because of the well-drained karst landscape. These karst features developed in the chalk can be excellent paleoenvironmental archives. Chalk, a form of limestone, is developed by the accumulation and lithification of calcium carbonate shells from marine organisms.