Archaeology claims a long tradition, going back to the middle of the nineteenth century, of undertaking both palaeoclimate research and studies on the impact of past climate change on human communities (Trigger 1996: 130–38). Such research ought to be making a significant contribution to modern climate change debates, such as those led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); but in practice this rarely happens (e.g. McIntosh et al. 2000). This paper will attempt to conceptualise a ‘climate change archaeology’, which is defined here as the contribution of archaeological research to modern climate change debates (cf. Mitchell 2008). Irrespective of whether climate change poses the greatest challenge in the twenty-first century or whether it is just one of many challenges facing humanity (cf. Rowland 2010), the absence of an archaeological voice diminishes the relevance and impact of the debate as a whole.

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A new series of radiocarbon measurements on three sewn-plank boats from North Ferriby, Yorkshire, has provided consistent new dating for these craft, which suggests that the appearance of such boats may fall in the early Bronze Age.

A single plank with integral cleats, recently discovered on the East Riding of Yorkshire coast at Kilnsea, has been identified as a fragment of a Bronze Age plank boat, and dated to 1870–1670 BC. This makes the ‘Kilnsea-boat’ England's oldest dated plank built boat.

). The sewn-plank boats of the Bronze Age remain unique to Britain, and much has been published about their construction and performance (eg McGrail 1988;Wright 1990;Gifford & Gifford 2004). Since the discovery of the Dover boat, it has also become widely accepted that this type of craft was probably used for seafaring (eg Van de Noort et al. 1999;McGrail 2001; Clark 2004b). However, to date no genuine attempt has been made to explain why this important innovation in boat construction was made and why it appears to be limited to Britain, who the people were that used these boats, what tasks were served by seafaring and what the socio-political implications were of the construction and operation of the sewn-plank boats. Aims and objectives, structure and sourcesThe aim of this paper is to offer a new analysis of the social dimensions of seafaring in the 2nd millennium BC and a consideration of how this might have had significance to (re-)creating the social order at the time through its economic, socio-political and ritual significance. This social maritime archaeology aims to fully integrate maritime archaeology for this period with its parent discipline, archaeology (McGrail 2003, 1). It will achieve this aspiration through a set of linked objectives, which form the structure of this paper: first, the current understanding of the sociopolitical significance and logistics of long-distance exchange will be reviewed; second, the role of the sewn-plank boats and other craft in seafaring will be