Perceptions of and Responses to the Holocene Flooding of the North Sea Lowlands

Leary, Jim

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2009.00326.x

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…in the form of charcoal from burning of phases of woodland disturbance), the progressive inundation of former landscapes within the southern North Sea Basin is considered likely to have had a significant long‐term impact on Mesolithic communities living within and surrounding the North Sea plain (e.g. Coles, ; Leary, , ). However, the current paucity of in situ archaeological sites and palaeoenvironmental studies presents a limiting factor towards developing more detailed landscape‐scale models of human activity and environmental change within the southern North Sea basin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lateglacial/early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the southern North Sea Basin: new data from the Dudgeon offshore wind farm

Brown

Russell²,

Scaife

et al. 2018

J Quaternary Science

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It is well known that the North Sea conceals an extensive former landscape of Late Pleistocene and Holocene date that was progressively submerged as result of rising post-glacial sea levels. Although an increasingly detailed picture is emerging of these submerged palaeolandscapes, well-dated palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from the North Sea Basin remain few and far between. Pollen, foraminifera, ostracod, plant macrofossil and molluscan data are presented from a radiocarbon-dated core retrieved from the site of the Dudgeon offshore wind farm, located in the southern North Sea Basin. The palaeoenvironmental analysis provides new data on changing local physical and vegetation environments in the southern North Sea Basin, occurring against a background of global climate change and rising sea levels. Subalpine plant communities gradually gave way to hazel-dominated woodland during the early Holocene, with freshwater environments replaced by increasing signs of estuarine influence from ca. 9500 to 9000 cal a BP. The thin upper peat (8411-8331 cal a BP) raises the possibility that the final inundation of the Dudgeon site may be linked to meltwater pulses following the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the draining of the proglacial Lakes Agassiz and Ojibway.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lateglacial/early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the southern North Sea Basin: new data from the Dudgeon offshore wind farm

Brown

Russell²,

Scaife

et al. 2018

J Quaternary Science

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“…At the same time, transgression may pump iron and organic nutrients into the nearshore. Shrinking land may compress populations, and the relentless rise of the ocean may produce an environment which is, as Leary (2009) puts it for Doggerland, mournful, eerie, and infused with loss. Memories of drowned paths and places will persist, as people fish at their great-grandparents' natal villages.…”

Section: Quentin Mackiementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from Paleo-Landscapes: Defining the Land-Use Systems of the Ancient Malayo-Polynesian Homeland

Carson¹,

Hung²

2018

Current Anthropology

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“…Apart from the effects of environmental change on the presence and distribution of crucial resources to hunter-gatherer communities, the gradual loss of land will undoubtedly have affected people in a mental way (e.g. Leary, 2009), as did the occurrence of a tsunami, triggered by the Storrega land slide off the Norwegian coast at ∼8200/8300 cal BP (Weninger et al, 2008) or the sea-level jump resulting from the Lake Agassiz drainage (Hijma & Cohen, 2010). However, the impact of land loss and particular events such as a tsunami on people will have been very different, depending on the specific and variable conditions along the coasts.…”

Section: The North Sea In the Northwest European Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The southern North Sea and the human occupation of northwest Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum

Peeters

Momber

2014

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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This paper discusses the significance of the southern North Sea for research on the human occupation of northwest Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Recent insight into the survival of post-LGM land surfaces and palaeolandscape structures points to the potential preservation of Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites in this area. Finds of well-preserved materials (including artefacts of bone, antler and wood, as well as human remains) from various zones along the Dutch and British coasts corroborate this idea, whilst underwater excavations of eroding sites at Bouldnor Cliff (UK) and Maasvlakte-Rotterdam (NL) underpin the possibilities of gaining further insight into human behaviour in the context of submerging landscapes. Although the significance of the southern North Sea with regard to the Mesolithic is gradually exposed, there is still a lot to learn. The terrestrial archaeological records from both sides of the present-day North Sea yield indisputable evidence for hunter-gatherer presence from at least 13,000 BP. Successions of Magdalenian/Creswellian/ Hamburgian, Federmesser Gruppen and Ahrensburgian people (re)colonised the northwest European plain, interrupted by short-lived cold spells. Although it is expected that the southern North Sea must have been inhabited, and maybe even more intensively than the present-day dry land, archaeological evidence is still missing. Despite the presence of vast amounts of mammalian remains and the availability of many radiocarbon-dated bones, there is a striking lack of material post-dating the LGM and pre-dating the Holocene, whilst remains dated to the early Upper Palaeolithic show no evidence of human interference. At this stage, it is probable that taphonomic factors and research biases are responsible for this picture. This marks a sharp contrast with the early Holocene record, where numerous Mesolithic artefacts, as well as human remains, provide evidence for human occupation of the area. Materials are exposed on the sea floor, evidencing gradual erosion of early Holocene land surfaces. Although the number of sites is increasing, little is known yet about how the submerged record can be connected to the terrestrial record. Indeed, the central question here is how the submerged Mesolithic record compares to, or differs from, the terrestrial record. In order to answer this question, targeted archaeological research is needed, along with an understanding of taphonomic processes and increased insight into landscape dynamics. From a northwest European perspective, the present state of knowledge about the submerged post-LGM prehistoric archaeology of the southern North Sea demonstrates its huge research potential.

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Perceptions of and Responses to the Holocene Flooding of the North Sea Lowlands

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Lateglacial/early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the southern North Sea Basin: new data from the Dudgeon offshore wind farm

Lateglacial/early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the southern North Sea Basin: new data from the Dudgeon offshore wind farm

Learning from Paleo-Landscapes: Defining the Land-Use Systems of the Ancient Malayo-Polynesian Homeland

The southern North Sea and the human occupation of northwest Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum

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