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，尽管越来越多的证据来自水下景观。这种不愿与这些现在被淹没的地区接触的态度给我们的知识留下了巨大的空白；我们的记录对这一时期的低洼地区和沿海地区有偏见。然而，在过去的几十年里，欧洲西北部的水下景观研究又复苏了。这主要集中在北海的中石器时代；曾经连接英国和欧洲大陆其他地区的大片可居住土地。该领域的研究重点是利用陆上考古记录中的模式来更好地为海上调查提供信息和目标，并将高潜力的河谷位置放在列表的首位。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，北海面积巨大，地质环境复杂，这反映在成功定位和调查考古遗迹的困难上。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打捞到的中石器时代的人工制品，这是英国唯一一个淹没在水中的中石器时代遗址。作为一个极有可能被淹没的河谷，这个位置提供了研究中石器时代淹没记录的最佳机会，但在很大程度上被其他地方的调查所掩盖。本博士将利用这个机会，使用多学科方法来解决环境大变化时期的中石器时代职业问题。海平面在上升，有时以世代为单位，对现有资源的存在和性质产生重大影响；人类是如何对这些变化做出反应的，这仍然是一个重要的问题。如果不整合水下景观的数据，这些问题是无法回答的，因为只有在这些景观中，我们才能开始了解这些人对不断变化的陆地/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人工制品；一种在当今陆地上的遗址上很少幸存的考古材料。但这些证据是零碎和有限的，并且不断受到水动力和工业过程的威胁。海岸调整策略和索伦特快速流动的潮汐条件将导致最终的退化、侵蚀和重要水下遗址的丧失。例如，海洋考古信托基金会自1999年以来对博尔德诺悬崖的监测显示，该遗址每年都在以相当快的速度受到侵蚀。此外，怀特岛面向东南的悬崖形成了欧洲最大的沿海滑坡复群（Farr et al. 2017）和东索伦特日益复杂的沉积物动力学（SCOPAC）。因此，迫切需要开始全面研究中石器时代的记录：开发针对和调查水下考古的方法，并将其与岸上和潮间带考古相结合。

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.