Grey waters bright with Neolithic argonauts? Maritime connections and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain,c. 5000–3500 BC

Abstract

Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incomers nor on proximity to the continent. More interesting forces were probably operating on an already busy seaway.

Understanding the rates of expansion of the farming system in Europe

“…The Irish site at Ferriter's Cove has yielded a few cattle bones, dated to 4495e4195 BC. These are considered either as 'imported' by Mesolithic seafearers, or as traces of early Neolithic migrants (see, recently, Garrow and Fraser, 2011).…”

The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in the Channel Islands: Maritime and Terrestrial Perspectives

“…It is probable that some coastal sites have since been lost to the sea as a result of sea‐level rise. However, as with the Mesolithic record from many other islands around Britain (Garrow and Sturt ; Garrow and Sturt in prep. ), and indeed elsewhere on the mainland, it is likely that this bad impression was formed at least partly because there had been relatively little sustained effort to collate, evaluate or enhance the Mesolithic record there (although see Patton ).…”

“…Jacobi ; Sheridan ). However, increasingly, evidence is found to suggest that this was not (at least straightforwardly) the case, and that maritime mobility across the Channel may have been much more prevalent that previously realized (Garrow and Sturt ; Anderson‐Whymark and Garrow ; Anderson‐Whymark et al . ).…”

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Researching the Intertidal and Marine Archaeology in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland

“…These combine a broad suite of geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental investigations of well-dated sedimentary deposits that can be used to investigate the evolution of coastal systems during the Holocene. Palaeogeographical reconstructions of past coastlines may then be developed and populated with the contemporary archaeology and palaeoecology of the chosen periods of interest (see Benjamin 2010; Garrow and Sturt 2011). Recent modeling (Bradley et al 2008(Bradley et al , 2011Milne et al 2006;Shennan et al 2006;Sturt et al 2013) suggests that the exposed continental shelf of the Outer Hebrides has been significantly inundated by eustatic sealevel rise since the last glacial maximum.…”

“…The Geirisclett site is presented here ( Figure 6) for its relevance to the discussion on changing landscape and rising sea levels, both of which have affected archaeological preservation and interpretation since the Neolithic. Just north of the Neolithic chambered cairn at Geirisclett, the Sound of Harris lay at the edge of the prehistoric world but was linked to the wider maritime landscape (Garrow and Sturt 2011) and increasingly inhabited and developed by later prehistoric people. High-resolution bathymetric LiDAR and multibeam bathymetry datasets were obtained for the Sound of Harris and northwest Lewis coast (including East Loch Roag) during the OHCCMAPP and a series of palaeogeographical models have been produced and will be published as a separate study (Bicket et al 2015).…”