The Quaternary history of the English Channel: an introduction

Gibbard, Philip L.; Lautridou, Jean‐Pierre

doi:10.1002/jqs.743

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The modern submarine relief of this basin is incised with a complex network of channels, which represent extensions of the river valleys of southern Britain, such as the Solent and Arun, and those of northern France, such as the Seine, Somme and Béthune (Gibbard and Lautridou 2003). During the low sea level of MIS3 these rivers drained into the Channel River, which in turn drained into the Atlantic Ocean around the -100m isobar located to the south of modern Penzance, Cornwall.…”

Section: The Landscape Of Western Doggerlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World

White

Pettitt

2011

J World Prehist

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Section: The Landscape Of Western Doggerlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World

White

Pettitt

2011

J World Prehist

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“…Today, this area has reduced wave action and a higher input of sediments from large rivers compared with the northern North Sea. The sedimentary regimes have been described by Kenyon et al, (1981) and Gibbard and Lautridou (2003). Pleistocene megafauna dating from the period 30-20 ka has been dredged from the seafloor by fishermen and sand-aggregate dredgers at the rate of c. 20 tonnes of bones per year (Post, personal communication, 2003).…”

Section: Southern North Sea and English Channelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology of the continental shelf: Marine resources, submerged landscapes and underwater archaeology

Bailey

Flemming

2008

Quaternary Science Reviews

313

120

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We provide a critical review of the evidence for the long-term use of marine resources and coastal environments in human evolution and later development. We emphasise the importance of the coastal archaeological record in understanding patterns of human settlement and dispersal and draw attention to the large potential biases introduced by the destructive or obscuring effects of Pleistocene sea-level change. We note that lowered sea levels have been the norm for most of the Pleistocene and that periods of high sea level have been too short-lived to provide other than a fragmentary coastal record and one that is beset with ambiguities and uncertainties. We examine the geological processes of coastal uplift and underwater preservation that may help to mitigate these biases. Coastlines elevated by isostatic and tectonic processes, or with very steep offshore drop-offs at plate boundaries, are important in providing a potential window into coastal landscapes and archaeology formed during periods of lowered sea level. However, we conclude that the opportunities afforded by these geological factors are too limited to obviate the need for underwater exploration. We review the evidence now available from submerged landscapes across the Africa-Eurasia interface from the Atlantic coastlines of Northwest Europe to the southern Red Sea. We show that geomorphological conditions for the preservation of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data are commonly present, that much material has already been discovered, and that new techniques, technologies and projects are providing the momentum for a rapidly expanding field of investigation. The results do not simply add to what we already know from sites on land, but are likely to produce qualitatively different evidence for coastal adaptations and landscapes that have no analogue on present-day coastlines. We note the strong probability that many coastal landscapes exposed at lowered sea level provided relatively fertile and productive refugia for plants, land mammals and humans at a time when increased aridity would have reduced or deterred hinterland occupation. We conclude that underwater investigation is essential if hypotheses of early human adaptation and dispersal are to be fully tested.

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“…In combination with recent work emphasising the fluvial palaeogeography of the Channel River and its tributaries (e.g. Antoine et al 2003;Bates et al 2003;Gibbard and Lautridou 2003;Lericolais et al 2003;Reynaud et al 2003) these studies have raised the possibility that there may be a significant Lower Palaeolithic maritime resource associated with, or derived from, fluvial deposits located under the sea-bed of the English Channel and the southern North Sea. To date however there have been no unequivocal finds of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts from these submerged areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Terrestrial implications for the maritime geoarchaeological resource: A view from the Lower Palaeolithic

Hosfield

2007

J Mari Arch

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Stone tools and faunal remains have been recovered from the English Channel and the North Sea through trawling, dredging for aggregates, channel clearance, and coring. These finds highlight the potential for a maritime Lower Palaeolithic archaeological resource. It is proposed here that any Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, faunal remains, and sediments deposited in the maritime zone during dry, low-stand phases were once (and may still be) contextually similar to their counterparts in the terrestrial Lower Palaeolithic records of north-western Europe. Given these similarities, can interpretive models and analytical frameworks developed for terrestrial archaeology be profitably applied to an assessment of the potential value of any maritime resource? The terrestrial geoarchaeological resource for the Lower Palaeolithic is dominated by artefacts and ecofacts that have been fluvially reworked. The spatio-temporal resolution of these data varies from entire river valleys and marine isotope stages to river channel gravel bar surfaces and decadal timescales, thus supporting a variety of questions and approaches. However, the structure of the terrestrial resource also highlights two fundamental limitations in current maritime knowledge that can restrict the application of terrestrial approaches to any potential maritime resource: (i) how have the repetitive transgressions and regressions of the Middle and Late Pleistocene modified the terrace landforms and sediments associated with the river systems of the English Channel and southern North Sea basins?; and (ii) do the surviving submerged terrace landforms and fluvial sedimentary deposits support robust geochronological models, as is the case with the classical terrestrial terrace sequences? This paper highlights potential approaches to these questions, and concludes that the fluvial palaeogeography, Pleistocene fossils, and potential Lower Palaeolithic artefacts of the maritime geoarchaeological resource can be profitably investigated in future as derived, low-resolution data sets, facilitating questions of colonisation, occupation, demography, and material culture.

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The Quaternary history of the English Channel: an introduction

Cited by 27 publications

References 27 publications

The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World

The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World

Archaeology of the continental shelf: Marine resources, submerged landscapes and underwater archaeology

Terrestrial implications for the maritime geoarchaeological resource: A view from the Lower Palaeolithic

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