Life on the Edge: Studying the Coastal Zone of the Late Palaeolithic

At the end of the Last Ice age, global warming led to the inundation of massive plains that were once occupied by human populations. These now submerged landscapes hold a unique and largely unexplored record of coastal settlement and colonisation during the period 20,000 to 10,000 years ago (The Late Palaeolithic to Early Mesolithic), which is almost entirely absent from the present day terrestrial archaeological record. Yet it is these, currently unexplored, areas record how humanity experienced the challenges of sea-level and climate change, and where the evidence for response, including societal innovation and adaptation, are most likely to be anticipated. The contemporary terrestrial landscape would have been marginal territories during this period, and less likely to contain a record of the true variety of human occupation in these regions. Whilst recent UK research has begun to reveal the inundated Mesolithic landscapes that lies beneath the North Sea, there has little research into the preceding Late Palaeolithic landscape. Consequently, we have no evidence for settlement or in situ activity from the offshore zone of the North Sea for the Late Palaeolithic, and our understanding of the communities who lived there is essentially non-existent.

To address this situation the "Life on the Edge" project seeks to provide information on the submerged late Palaeolithic archaeological resource by bringing together a team lead by a Future Leader Fellow to develop new methods and tools to record and locate this missing, submerged Late Palaeolithic archaeology. The project seeks to develop techniques and models, including the use of Parametric Echo Sounders and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV's) to provide ground-breaking mapping of Late Palaeolithic coastlines. This advanced 3D data would represent a major step change and would revolutionise information available to understand these enigmatic landscapes. The project will examine three different marine environments to ensure the reliability of the techniques. This will lead to the generation of models of Late Palaeolithic occupation that will identify archaeological areas of interest. This is significant since such data will assist government and developers in identifying areas of the seabed have most potential value for Late Palaeolithic preservation.

The Fellow is uniquely placed to resolve this issue given his extensive experience in mapping similar Mesolithic submerged landscapes as part of a pioneering team at Bradford University. His participation as an Early Career researcher in the European SPLASHCOS program and his international research has enabled him to form and lead a diverse international team which required to investigate this area. It is not hyperbole therefore to say that at the current time there is no other early career researcher who could successfully lead the mapping of such an extensive inundated archaeological landscape. Significantly, this Fellowship will provide a l springboard by which the Fellow can become a world leader in the field of Submerged Prehistory.

This 5-year Fellowship and its associated project therefore will be truly ground-breaking. It will achieve many significant "first", including the First exploration for Late Palaeolithic Marine Archaeology in both Wales, Belgium and Croatia. All these achievements will provide significant advances in scientific understanding. The results will be of global importance, and the project and the innovative methods it will develop, offer the potential to vastly improve the understanding of the vast inundated prehistoric landscapes that are found around the world.