This volume is based upon a conference which took place in 1999, reflecting the developing interest in intertidal archaeology and concentrating on the Neolithic period, as well as elements of associated Mesolithic and Bronze Age archaeology. Since then, the papers have been revised to include new discoveries and reflect the increasing interest and importance attached to the intertidal zone. All papers have supporting environmental data and radiocarbon dates. The volume has a wide geographical spread and details the work of archaeologists working in fragile and rapidly eroding environments is evaluated: the papers demonstrate the high quality research being undertaken around the British coast to salvage archaeology by record and undertake detailed research to place it in its proper context.
Dedicated to Martin Bell (University of Reading), this book outlines how wetland and inland environments can be related and investigated using multi-method approaches. Papers fall under three themes: coastal and intertidal archaeology; mobility and human-environment relationships; heritage resource management, nature conservation and rewilding.
Wetland Archaeology and Beyond offers an appreciative study of the people, and their artefacts, who occupied a large variety of worldwide wetland archaeological sites. The volume also includes a comprehensive explanation of the processes involved in archaeological practice and theory.
Charles Thomas (1928-2016) was a Cornishman and archaeologist, whose career from the 1950s spanned nearly seven decades. This period saw major developments that underpin the structures of archaeology in Britain today, in many of which he played a pivotal part.
Providing evidence about prehistoric life in Britain, this book focuses on the little studied communities of the South West and Wales. It offers useful case studies from nationally important Bronze Age sites such as Brean Down on the Somerset Levels.
Between 2018 and 2019, Cornwall Archaeological Unit undertook two projects at Mounts Bay, Penwith. The first involved the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow and the second, environmental augur core sampling in Marazion Marsh. Both sites lie within an area of coastal hinterland, which has been subject to incursions by rising sea levels. Since the Mesolithic, an area of approximately 1 kilometer in extent between the current shoreline and St Michaels Mount has been lost to gradually rising sea levels. With current climate change, this process is likely to occur at an increasing rate. Given their proximity, the opportunity was taken to draw the results from the two projects together along with all available existing environmental data from the area. For the first time, the results from all previous palaeoenvironmental projects in the Mounts Bay area have been brought together. Evidence for coastal change and sea level rise is discussed and a model for the drowning landscape presented. In addition to modeling the loss of land and describing the environment over time, social responses including the wider context of the Bronze Age barrow and later Bronze Age metalwork deposition in the Mounts Bay environs are considered. The effects of the gradual loss of land are discussed in terms of how change is perceived, its effects on community resilience, and the construction of social memory and narratives of place. The volume presents the potential for nationally significant environmental data to survive, which demonstrates the long-term effects of climate change and rising sea levels, and peoples responses to these over time.
This Handbook sets out the key issues and debates in the theory and practice of wetland archaeology which has played a crucial role in studies of our past. Due to the high quantity of preserved organic materials found in humid environments, the study of wetlands has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct people's everyday lives in great detail.
This practical volume, the first book in the Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique series, examines in detail the factors that affect archaeological detectability in surveys whose methods range from visual to remote sensing in land, underwater, and intertidal zones - furnishing a comprehensive treatment of prospection, parameter estimation, model building, and detection of spatial structure.