Earlier this month the Annual Discussion Meeting of the Quaternary Research Association was held in Edinburgh, at the wonderful venue Our Dynamic Earth. The theme of the meeting was the North Sea and adjacent areas and covered a range of discussions including the Quaternary evolution of the North Sea basin on a variety of time scales, its glacial and interglacial successions, its archaeological record of human occupation, and the recent advances in the mapping of marine habitats and their conservation. Much of the recent submerged prehistory work undertaken by Wessex Archaeology was showcased in a number of sessions.
The archaeology session included Dr Louise Tizzard of the Geoservices team discussing the history of research into the Early Middle Palaeolithic archaeology and geology from the lower reaches of the Palaeo-Yare valley in the southern North Sea.
Dr Andrew Bicket of Coastal & Marine was presenting the preliminary results from recent assessments of submerged palaeolandscapes off the Northumberland coast, a collaborative project with the Dr Claire Mellett of the BGS. Models of possible former coastlines in the vicinity of key coastal sites at Howick and Low Hauxley indicated some exciting possibilities for understanding how early prehistoric people may have interacted with their coastlines which are now underwater.
By Louise Tizzard