Basic Biographical Information
Professor Geoffrey Dimbleby (1917–2000) was a pioneer in the research and development of soil pollen analysis and sediment from archaeologically related features.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, he trained as a botanist at Magdalen College, Oxford obtaining a B.A. and a B.Sc. He became demonstrator in Forest Ecology in 1947 where he obtained his D.Phil. (1950) entitled The Ecology of Some British Podzol Formations. This work examined soil formation in relation to vegetation history and pioneered the study of pollen preserved in soils underlying prehistoric funerary monuments and field banks of North East Yorkshire and the New Forest.
After joining the Oxford Forestry Commission, he published his work on vegetation change and soil genesis in The Development of British Heathlands and Their Soils (1962). In this seminal work, he demonstrated from his numerous examinations of the well-preserved pollen in acid soils: the transition from woodland to heathland due...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brothwell, D. & G.W. Dimbleby. (ed.) 1980. Environmental aspects of coasts and islands (Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology 1; British Archaeological Reports International series 94). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Dimbleby, G.W. 1961a. Soil pollen analysis. Journal of Soil Science 12: 1-11.
- 1961b. Transport material in the soil profile. Journal of Soil Science 12: 12-22.
- 1962. The development of British heathlands and their soils (Oxford Forestry Memoirs 23). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- 1978. Plants and archaeology., 2nd edn. London: Baker.
- 1985. The palynology of archaeological sites. London: Academic Press.
- 1997. Testing the foundations. St. Albans.
Evans, J.G. & S. Limbrey. 1974. The experimental earthwork on Morden Bog, Wareham, Dorset, England: 1963-1972. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 40: 170-202.
Jewell, P.A. & G.W. Dimbleby. 1966. The experimental earthwork on Overton Down Wiltshire, England: the first four years. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 32: 313-42.
Jones, M. & G.W. Dimbleby (ed.) 1981. The environment of man: the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon period (British Archaeological Reports British series 87). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Ucko, P. & G.W. Dimbleby. 1969.The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals. London: Gerald Duckworth Co.
Further Reading
Dimbleby, G.W. & J.G. Evans. 1974. Pollen analysis and land snail analysis of calcareous soils. Journal of Archaeological Science 1: 117-33.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Scaife, R. (2014). Dimbleby, Geoffrey W.. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_897
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_897
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law