Tonight’s talk (18th October) was given by Gareth Owen from Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (www.hwtma.org.uk). Gareth started the talk by highlighting the fact that Maritime Archaeology is not just ship wrecks. To highlight this several slides and videos were shown, showing how the English Channel formed. This clearly identified the fact that 9,000 years ago there was no English Channel, it was all dry land. This then begs the questions, if it was dry land, were people living there?
That was the topic of the talk, looking at one specific site, Bouldnor Cliff, which has a Mesolithic finds from over 5 areas of interest. This is just one site which would have been flooded around 3,500 years ago.
Gareth noted that sites like this have not been looked at extensively for several reasons. Land based archaeology is typically called in when planning applications and building works are undertaken. At sea such things do not happen. The sea floor, until recently was not thought to have much evidence of people from the past. Then there is the cost of around £3,000 per diver per session.
Fishermen have been pulling up ancient finds, mammoth tusks for example, for a long time from all around our coast. It was not until the 1970’s though that archaeologist began to take notice and the two joined forces to work together. Today finds made by fishermen are all recorded with locations marked by GPS.
The site at Bouldnor Cliff was made aware by a local diver inviting the archaeologists to look at the finds they had made. The site is approximately 12m under water, and the finds made, flints for example, were still sharp enough to be able to cut through the dive suits. All of the finds date to the Mesolithic, although there may still be earlier finds to be made. The site shows layers built up and therefore actually shows the different periods remarkably well. This allows a picture to be built up, not only of who was living there and the activities that are going on but how they changed over time as well.
A vote of thanks was given by chairman Dr Nick Young, tea and biscuits along with a barrage of questions then followed on "Underwater Archaeology."