Submerged archaeology and cultural responses to climatic amelioration

Abstract

Human technological development has been driven by a need to modify behaviour. The greatest influences that forced people to adapt were climate change and sea-level rise. These have invariably been linked with the result that many of the sites that witnessed technical change have become submerged. To access the archaeological material that can develop our understanding of early human adaptation and diffusion around the globe we need to look underwater. Historically, this has attracted little attention as archaeologists and historians believed the processes of erosion and sediment reworking greatly reduced the ability of anthropogenic material to survive. This was in spite of the recovery of material from the anaerobic environments within submerged deposits that demonstrated good in situ preservation of material. Recent technological advances, however, have been able to image extensive areas of palaeo-landsurfaces within our coastal seas. This paper considers what new information from submerged sites can tell us about past human dispersal, survival and cultural adaptation when influenced by changing climates. The work at Bouldnor Cliff in the Solent, UK and La Mondrée near Cherbourg in France is drawn on to help identify the ingredients for survival of sites, review the potential for long-term survival of substantive remains and to assess the potential for similar sites on the Northwest European continental shelf.