Prospecting for submerged Mesolithic sites in the Solent

多年来，对中石器时代的解释主要依赖于陆地记录，尽管来自水下景观的证据越来越多。不愿与这些现在被淹没的地区接触，在我们的知识中留下了很大的空白；我们的记录与这一时期地势较低和沿海的方面存在偏见。然而，在过去的几十年里，欧洲西北部的水下景观研究卷土重来。这主要集中在北海的中石器时代；曾经将英国与欧洲大陆其他地区连接起来的大片宜居土地。这一领域的研究重点是利用陆上考古记录中的图案来更好地为近海调查提供信息，并将其作为目标，其中高潜力的河谷位置位居榜首。至关重要的是，这项工作强调了整合陆地和水下记录的必要性，以便重新评估和扩大我们对西北欧中石器时代的理解。然而，北海幅员辽阔，地质环境复杂，这反映在成功瞄准和调查考古遗迹方面的困难。相比之下，位于英国南海岸的索伦特不仅有中石器时代的泥炭，而且有大量拖网渔船发现的中石器文物，以及该国唯一的水下原址中石器遗址。作为一个高潜力的溺水河谷，这个位置提供了与淹没的中石器时代记录接触的最好机会，但在很大程度上被其他地方的调查所掩盖。本博士将利用这一机会，使用多学科方法来解决大环境变化时期中石器时代占领的问题。海平面正在上升，有时是以几代人的时间尺度，对可利用资源的存在和性质产生重大影响；关于人类如何应对这些变化的重大问题仍然存在。如果没有水下地貌数据的整合，这些问题是无法回答的，因为正是在这些地貌中，我们才能开始了解这些人对不断变化的土地/海景的反应。在水下，我们更有可能找到保存完好的有机材料和有机文物；这类考古材料很少在今天陆地上的遗址上幸存下来。但这些证据是零碎和有限的，并不断受到水动力和工业过程的威胁。海岸调整战略和索伦特快速流动的潮汐条件最终将导致重要的淹没地点的退化、侵蚀和丧失。例如，海洋考古信托基金自1999年以来对博尔德诺悬崖进行的监测显示，该遗址每年都在以相当快的速度被侵蚀。此外，鬼魂岛东南面对的悬崖形成了欧洲最大的沿海山体滑坡复合体(Farr等人。2017年)和东索伦特日益复杂的沉积物动力学(南太地科委)。因此，迫切需要开始完整地研究中石器时代的记录：制定方法，以水下考古为目标和进行调查，并将其与陆上和潮间带的考古记录结合起来。

For many years, interpretations of the Mesolithic have relied predominantly on the terrestrial record, despite the growing evidence from submerged landscapes. This reluctance to engage with these now-inundated areas has left significant gaps in our knowledge; our record is biased against the lower-lying and coastal aspects of this period. The past few decades, however, have seen a resurgence of submerged landscape research in north-west Europe. This has predominantly focused on the Mesolithic of the North Sea; swathes of habitable land that once connected Britain to the rest of the continent. Research in this area focuses on using patterning in the onshore archaeological record to better inform, and target, offshore investigations, with high potential river valley locations at the top of the list. Crucially, this work has highlighted the need to integrate the terrestrial and submerged records in order to re-evaluate and expand our understanding of the Mesolithic in Northwest Europe. The North Sea, however, is huge, with complex geological settings, reflected by difficulties successfully targeting and investigating archaeological remains. By contrast, the Solent, on the south coast of Britain, has a demonstrated presence of not only Mesolithic peats, but large numbers of trawler-recovered Mesolithic artefacts and the only submerged in situ Mesolithic site in the country. As a high-potential drowned river valley, this location provides the best possible chance of engaging with the submerged Mesolithic record, yet has largely been overshadowed by investigations elsewhere. This PhD will draw upon this opportunity, using multidisciplinary approaches to address questions of Mesolithic occupation in a period of great environmental change. Sea levels were rising, sometimes on generational timescales, having a significant effect on the presence and nature of available resources; significant questions remain about how human populations responded to these changes. These are questions that cannot be answered without the integration of data from submerged landscapes, as it is in these landscapes that we can begin to understand these people's responses to their changing land/seascapes. It is also underwater that we are more likely to find well-preserved organic material and organic artefacts; archaeological material of a type that has rarely survived on sites in present-day terrestrial locations. But this evidence is fragmentary and finite and is constantly under threat from hydrodynamic and industry processes. Coastal realignment strategies and the fast-flowing tidal conditions in the Solent will result in the eventual degradation, erosion and loss of significant submerged sites. Monitoring of Bouldnor Cliff by the Maritime Archaeology Trust since 1999, for example, has revealed that the site is eroding at a considerably rapid rate each year. Further, south-east facing cliffs of the Isle of Wight form the largest coastal landslip complex in Europe (Farr et al. 2017) and the increasingly complex sediment dynamics in the Eastern Solent (SCOPAC). Therefore, there is an urgent need to begin engaging with the Mesolithic record in its entirety: developing methods to target and investigate submerged archaeology and to integrate this with its onshore and intertidal counterparts.