Our latest book Seabed Prehistory: Investigating the Palaeogeography and Early Middle Palaeolithic Archaeology in the Southern North Sea by Louise Tizzard, Andrew Bicket and Dimitri De Loecker is available now from Oxbow Books.
This volume explores the results from intensive investigation within Area 240, a marine aggregate licence area situated in the North Sea, 11 km off the coast of Norfolk, England, which had been instigated by the fortuitous discovery of bifacial hand axes, and Levallois flakes and cores in 2008.
Geophysical, geoarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological datasets have been integrated producing a comprehensive understanding of the seabed and wider Pleistocene palaeogeography. Our knowledge of the early prehistoric archaeological material has been enhanced significantly; confirming that the artefacts are not a ‘chance’ find, but indicate clear, although complex, relationships to submerged and buried landscapes.
The Early Middle Palaeolithic artefacts, particularly the Levallois elements, indicate Neanderthal activity around 200,000 to 250,000 years ago apparently constrained to cold, estuarine environment of the now-submerged lower reaches of the Palaeo-Yare Valley. The exploitation of this landscape has left an archaeological record of international significance.