Fraser Sturt

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

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.

Of mammoths and other monsters: historic approaches to the submerged Palaeolithic

Abstract Recent research on the submerged central and southern North Sea basin has focused on the end of the story: the last few millennia before the final inundation. Much older deposits do survive, however, and are documented by collections of Pleistocene fauna recovered by fishing fleets operating from Dutch and British ports during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Analysis of the British collections allows them to be assigned to specific areas of seabed and to broad stages of the Pleistocene climatic sequence. The results provide evidence of more complex and fragmentary undersea landscapes than can be detected using geophysical approaches alone, and indicate targeted areas for future work.

Microliths and maritime mobility: a continental European-style Late Mesolithic flint assemblage from the Isles of Scilly

Abstract Once Britain had become separated from the European mainland in the seventh millennium BC, Mesolithic stone tool traditions on opposite sides of the newly formed Channel embarked upon different directions of development. Patterns of cross-Channel contact have been difficult to decipher in this material, prior to the expansion of farming (and possibly farmers) from northern France at the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. Hence the discovery of Late Mesolithic microliths of apparently Belgian affinity at the western extremity of southern Britain—in the Isles of Scilly—comes as something of a surprise. The find is described here in detail, along with alternative scenarios that might explain it. The article is followed by a series of comments, with a closing reply from the authors.

Underwater reflectance transformation imaging: a technology for in situ underwater cultural heritage object -level recording

There is an increasing demand for high-resolution recording of in situ underwater cultural heritage. Reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) has a proven track record in terrestrial contexts for acquiring high-resolution diagnostic data at small scales. The research presented here documents the first adaptation of RTI protocols to the subaquatic environment, with a scuba-deployable method designed around affordable off-the-shelf technologies. Underwater RTI (URTI) was used to capture detail from historic shipwrecks in both the Solent and the western Mediterranean. Results show that URTI can capture submillimeter levels of qualitative diagnostic detail from in situ archaeological material. In addition, this paper presents the results of experiments to explore the impact of turbidity on URTI. For this purpose, a prototype fixed-lighting semisubmersible RTI photography dome was constructed to allow collection of data under controlled conditions. The signal-to-noise data generated reveals that the RGB channels of underwater digital images captured in progressive turbidity degraded faster than URTI object geometry calculated from them. URTI is shown to be capable of providing analytically useful object-level detail in conditions that would render ordinary underwater photography of limited use.

Archaeologies of seafaring and the seaRobert Van de Noort. North Sea archaeologies: a maritime biography 10 000 BC – AD 1500 . xiv+282 pages, 46 illustrations. 2011. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 978-0-19-956620-4 hardback £60.

The global origins and development of seafaring is, as the title suggests, an ambitious and wide-ranging volume. This ambition is reflected in the book’s sheer size: twenty-four chapters with forty-one contributing authors, spread over three hundred and eleven A4 pages. The editors suggest that the text offers ‘a fair cross-section of the current state of explanatory thinking in maritime prehistory’ (p. xiv). It is to their credit that this is largely the case, particularly as the volume

The History of Industry-Linked Research in English Waters: Lessons for the Future

This chapter charts the shifting relationship between industry and archaeology offshore. We argue that, just as on land, collaboration with developers has changed the scope and scale of our investigations, transforming our understanding of the submerged continental shelf. However, through considering the development of the subject we argue that there is a need to actively avoid complacency and to continually develop new approaches which better reflect our shifting interests and capabilities as archaeologists. In this light, the challenges of working offshore are shown to be one of its great strengths, in that it forces us to consider what we want to know, and how best to find it out.

Doubts about how the Middle Horizon collapsed (ca. A.D. 1000) and other insights from the looted cemeteries of the Lower Ica Valley, South Coast of Peru

ABSTRACT This paper presents new information from funerary contexts in the lower Ica Valley, on the south coast of Peru, spanning two millennia from the end of the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period. Although severely looted, these sites can still yield valuable information. We discuss their architecture and material culture in the context of radiocarbon dates. Among other findings, these cast new light on the poorly understood transition from the Middle Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period, for which a paucity of archaeological data from ca. a.d. 1000–1250 has long been taken as evidence of an environmentally- or socially-induced demographic collapse. Yet the data we present here suggest that the basins of the lower Ica Valley were likely occupied continuously over this period, and that the echoes of Wari influence here may have lasted longer than previously thought.

The tip of the iceberg? Reply to responses

We would like to thank all four authors for their thoughtful responses to our paper and the assemblage it describes. In some cases those comments confirmed things we had thought already, but in others they surprised us, confronting us with ideas that we had never previously considered. Collectively this has made us think hard about future research possibilities.

NHPP 2D2 (Project 6205): Development and delivery of a pilot marine geotechnical training course for archaeologists: Market Intelligence Gathering Report

In recent years there have been extensive geotechnical and environmental sampling survey programmes conducted by developers in support of numerous coastal and marine development projects, such as offshore wind farms, cable installations and port expansions. It is important that knowledge and understanding of the techniques and methodologies, that can reveal detail about the submerged heritage, are widely understood within the historic environment sector. It is therefore essential that national and local curators, and those working in the wider archaeological sector, are provided with an opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and practical experience in marine geoarchaeological analysis methodologies; this knowledge will enable staff to provide informed comment and advice based on a detailed understanding of the nature and archaeological potential of these offshore sites. English Heritage commissioned COARS, University of Southampton, to undertake project 6205, “Development and delivery of a pilot marine geotechnical training course for archaeologists”, under the National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP) stream 2D2. The anticipated project outcome will be the delivery of a greater understanding of the skills shortages in this area, through a research component, and then use this information, in tandem with the decades of experience of the project team, to provide a pilot training course in marine geoarchaeological analysis (with a supporting toolkit of learning materials) for heritage practitioners in curatorial, investigation and research roles. The University of Southampton has been teaching Marine Geoarchaeology to Masters Maritime Archaeology students for fifteen years, throughout this time through combining the staff and resources of the Ocean and Earth Science and Archaeology Departments and world-class facilities available at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). This report details the methodology and results of the research component into skills shortages that exist within the area of marine geotechnical training for archaeologists. The research exercise was undertaking using an online survey which attracted 224 separate views and a total of 67 respondents who completed the survey.