A submerged Middle Stone Age settlement off Britain’s South Coast has been detailed in a new archaeological publication.
The Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Village, near Yarmouth in the Solent, has been investigated by Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology for the past 13 years.
Working in 11m of water, the team has collaborated with universities, archaeologists and other specialists to survey the site and to excavate and analyse key artefacts.
Findings have demonstrated “technological abilities some 2000 years ahead of those seen on sites in mainland Britain”.
They have shown also that “it is in our coastal waters that we should be looking for information on the story of human dispersal and adaptation to sea-level change in north-west Europe at the end of the last Ice Age”.
The 8000-year-old site would have existed at a time when “sea levels in the North Sea and the English Channel were some 30-40m lower than those of today”, with Britain “a peninsula of northern Europe”.
The Trust’s publication, Mesolithic Occupation at Bouldnor Cliff and the Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes of the Solent, is published by the Council for British Archaeology.
It is described as “suitable for specialists and students working on the Mesolithic period, but also those interested in the general prehistory of southern Britain and the North Sea littoral”.
Source: Divernet [October 11, 2011]
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| Archaeologists worked in murky underwater conditions during their Solent excavations [Credit: This is Hampshire] |
Working in 11m of water, the team has collaborated with universities, archaeologists and other specialists to survey the site and to excavate and analyse key artefacts.
Findings have demonstrated “technological abilities some 2000 years ahead of those seen on sites in mainland Britain”.
They have shown also that “it is in our coastal waters that we should be looking for information on the story of human dispersal and adaptation to sea-level change in north-west Europe at the end of the last Ice Age”.
The 8000-year-old site would have existed at a time when “sea levels in the North Sea and the English Channel were some 30-40m lower than those of today”, with Britain “a peninsula of northern Europe”.
The Trust’s publication, Mesolithic Occupation at Bouldnor Cliff and the Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes of the Solent, is published by the Council for British Archaeology.
It is described as “suitable for specialists and students working on the Mesolithic period, but also those interested in the general prehistory of southern Britain and the North Sea littoral”.
Source: Divernet [October 11, 2011]