Late-Glacial/Early Holocene Palaeoenvironments and Evidence for the 8.2 ka Event in the Southern North Sea Basin: New Data from the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm

It is well known that the North Sea conceals an extensive Late Pleistocene and early Holocene palaeolandscape. Archaeological finds from the seabed show this former landscape was occupied by humans during periods when sea-levels were significantly lower than today and the British Isles formed the north-western promontory of the European continental shelf. Renewed interest in submerged palaeolandscapes has occurred chiefly in response to increasing pressure from commercial aggregate dredging, oil and gas exploration and offshore windfarm developments. This paper presents the results of an integrated palaeoenvironmental study (pollen, foraminifera, ostracods, plant macrofossils, molluscs) of organic sediments taken as part of geoarchaeological investigations on the site of the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm. The sediments cover a period of as much as 4,400 years (12,700-8300 cal yr BP), including a substantial peat covering the late Devensian/early Holocene transition (12,700-9260 cal yr BP). During the late Glacial the local environment is characterised by sub-alpine plant communities with open birch woodland, followed by development of birch and hazel woodland during the early Mesolithic. A phase of marine inundation occurred around 9500-9000 cal yr BP, with a final marine inundation of the area around 8400 cal yr BP, possibly linked to a meltwater pulse following the collapse of the Laurentide icesheet, precipitating major palaeogeographic and climatic changes within and beyond the North Sea. The results begin to address the deficiency in detailed palaeoenvironmental studies from the area, providing new data on patterns of physical, vegetation and environmental change in the context of rising post-glacial sea-levels

Alex Brown 1,2, Jack Russell 1, Rob Scaife 3, John Whittaker 4, Sarah Wyles 5

1 Wessex Archaeology, Salisbury, UK

2 Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, UK

3 Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton, UK

4 Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London, UK

5 Cotswold Archaeology, Hampshire, UK

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