The Humber, its sewn-plank boats, their context and the significance of it all.

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © Oxbow Books and the individual authors, 2004

North Sea Archaeologies

The monograph that forms the basis of this PhD by Publication was published by Oxford University Press, and is the copyright of the author, Robert Van de Noort.PhD by Publication in ArchaeologyNorth Sea Archaeologies traces the way people engaged with the North Sea from the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 BC, to the close of the Middle Ages, about AD 1500, drawing upon archaeological research from many countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and France. It addresses topics which include the first interactions of people with the emerging North Sea, the origin and development of fishing, the creation of coastal landscapes, the importance of islands and archipelagos, the development of seafaring ships and their use by early seafarers and pirates, and the treatment of boats and ships at the end of their useful lives. The study offers a ‘maritime turn’ in Archaeology through the investigation of aspects of human behaviour that have been, to various extents, disregarded, overlooked, or ignored in archaeological studies of the land. The study concludes that the relationship between humans and the sea challenges the frequently invoked dichotomy between pre-modernity and modernity, since many ancient beliefs, superstitions, and practices linked to seafaring and engagement with the sea are still widespread in the modern era

Argonauts of the North Sea - a Social Maritime Archaeology for the 2nd Millennium BC

Reproduced with the permission of the publisher. Journal home page http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/This paper aims to offer a new analysis of the social dimensions of seafaring in the second millennium BC and a consideration of the role of seafaring in (re )creating the social order at the time through its economic, socio-political and ritual significance. It revisits the sewn-plank boats from Ferriby, Kilnsea, Dover, Calidcot, Testwood Lakes, Goldcliff and Brigg, and aspects of the way in which seafarers signified themselves and their world through their imagined relationship with the environment are illuminated. The study argues that in the Early Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for directional, long-distance journeys, aimed at the ‘cosmological acquisition’ of exotic goods, and the contexts of these boats link the overseas journeys to the ancestors. In the Middle and Late Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for down-the-line exchange, and fragments of sewn-plank boats were included in structured deposits, within or near river crossings, reflecting the idioms of transformation and regeneration which are well established for this period. Through the reconstruction of the boats’ crews, it is suggested that the development of a retinue was a prerequisite for the successful completion of the long-distance journeys, and the social identities that were cultivated during these voyages are recognised as a potentially important element in the rise of elite groups in the Early Bronze Age

Digging the Dutch Mountains: Recent Work by Leendert Louwe Kooijmans.

Review article. Copyright © WARP and the individual authors.[FIRST PARAGRAPH] The 'mountains' in the western part of the Netherlands are no longer there. But at the end of the Pleistocene, the combined effects of river sedimentation and the aeolian reworking of these sediments created an undulating landscape with the highest riverdunes rising to some 10 m above the surrounding landscape. These dunes, or donken, protruded as islands within an increasingly flat landscape that developed during the early and middle Holocene as rising sea level led to the expansion of the North Sea and the retreat of the mouths of the rivers Meuse and Rhine, turning the former undulating landscape into a delta with extensive wetlands. Especially towards the end of the Mesolithic, and during the early phases of what was, on the higher and drier lands to the east, the Neolithic period, the donken became the refuges of hunter-gatherers

Conceptualising Climate Change Archaeology

Copyright © 2011 Antiquity Publication

Thorne Moors: a contested wetland in north-eastern England

© The individual authors 2001.This paper explores the past, present and future of Thorne Moors. First, the paper addresses the landscape context of the Moors within the Humberhead Levels, and the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental resource. It also explores the management and protection of the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental resource of the Moors. Finally, it looks at the future with reference to the opportunity provided by its possible designation as a Ramsar site

Sutton Common (South Yorkshire): a monument at risk in England’s wetlands

Copyright © the authors and named individuals 2004. Details of the original publication are available at: http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/english/Resources/publications/pubDetails.htm?pid=49The work on the Iron Age site at Sutton Common, South Yorkshire, UK, has provided both inspiration and a testing ground for the development of English Heritage's strategy for wetlands. This paper concentrates on the non-technical aspects of the developing conservation management of the site, which includes in situ preservation of selected waterlogged remains, and summarises the main results of the Monuments at Risk in England's Wetlands project, the new strategy for which it formed the basisEnglish Heritag

The lake-dwellings in Holderness, East Yorkshire, revisited: a journey into antiquarian and contemporary wetland archaeology.

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. Copyright © Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and individual auhtors, 2007. Details of the original publication are available at: http://www.socantscot.org/partnumber.asp?cid=14170&pnid=116854[FIRST PARAGRAPH] The story presented in this paper began in the 1880s with the discovery of five unusual wet sites in the low-lying region of Holderness, East Yorkshire, during drainage works: West Furze, Round Hill, Barmston Drain, Gransmoor and Kelk (fig 1). The changing interpretation of the significance of these wet sites, from contemporary local accounts to their 'expert' publication early in the twentieth century (Smith 791I), contributed to the tale of the Holderness lake-dwellings, echoing the then already famous lake-dwellings of the Alpine region and elsewhere in Europe (Keller 1878). The tale of the Holderness lake-dwellings survived more recent work intact, as excavators approached the sites without challenging the preconception of these being genuine lake settlements (eg Varley 1968)

Bronze Age Human Ecodynamics in the Humber Estuary

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © Oxbow Books and the individual authors, 2000.For much of lowland Britain during the Holocene one important factor in determining environmental change was sea level fluctuation. A net rise of circa 20 m, within an oscillating short term picture of transgression and regression, caused significant short to medium term challenges for people exploiting those resources. During transgression phases estuarine creek systems extended landwards, and during the final transgression phase, widespread sedimentation took place, allowing for the development of saltmarshes on tidal flats. In later prehistory the exploitation of lowlands and estuarine wetlands was predominantly for fishing, waterfowling and pastoral use, and this paper explores the human ecodynamics of the intertidal zone in the Humber estuary during the Bronze Age. Results of the Humber Wetlands Project's recent estuarine survey, will be used to argue that following a marine transgression circa 1500 cal BC, the foreshore was fully exploited in terms of food procurement. Furthermore the construction of hurdle trackways allowed access across expanding tidal creek systems to be maintained. This not only shows continued use of the most productive environments, and provides evidence for selective use of woodland, but also the continued exploitation of the intertidal zone may have played a role in the evolution of social and political structures in this area during the Bronze Age

Wetland habitats, their resource potential and exploitation. A case study from the Humber wetlands.

© the editors and individual authors 1999.The notion that wetlands are among the most productive environments in the world is widely quoted, but its relationship with the exploitation of wetland ecosystems during the prehistoric and early historic period has been the subject of few investigations. The current paper discusses the primary production of different wetland habitats and its relationship to the resource potential of these habitats and their actual exploitation, using recent results from the Humber Wetlands Survey. It is argued that during the early Holocene, wetland landscapes were central to the subsistence economy and that a clear association exists between the primary productivity of wetlands and the intensity of exploitation. With the introduction of agriculture, however, wetland habitats become increasingly peripheral to the economy