Erosion on the seabed of the English Channel near the Isle of
Wight is uncovering the remains of a thriving Stone Age village
from the time when Britain and Europe were still connected by a
land bridge, a team of archaeologists reports.
The site dates back 8,000 years, not long before melting
glaciers filled in the Channel and likely drove the settlement's
last occupants north to higher ground.
"This is the only site of its kind in the United Kingdom," said
Garry Momber, director of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for
Maritime Archaeology, which led the recent excavations. "It is
important because this is the period when modern people were
blossoming, just coming out of the end of the Ice Age, living more
like we do today in the valleys and lowlands."
Burnt wood fragments gouged with cut marks and a layer of wood
chippings were found lying under 35 feet of water during the latest
dig. Divers brought the material to the surface still embedded in
slabs of the sea floor that were carried up in specially-designed
boxes, which were then pieced back together and examined and dated
in the lab.
"We now have unequivocal evidence of human activity at the
site," Momber told LiveScience. "There were people here actively
making stuff and being quite industrious."
Despite the logistical problems of underwater archaeology, the
Isle of Wight site and others like it are usually better preserved
than their counterparts on land, Momber said.
When the floodwater rose slowly in the English Channel, it
deposited layers of silt atop the settlement, encasing it in an
oxygen-free environment that preserves even organic materials such
as wood and food.
"With underwater sites, all the trappings of a society are going
to remain, not just the stone," Momber said. The trade-off is an
environment that can carry away the precious remains at any time —
a real concern at the Isle of Wight settlement.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2007)
