Stone Age Settlement Found Under English Channel

[Judi Lynn]

Stone Age Settlement Found Under English Channel
Heather Whipps
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
1 hour, 57 minutes ago

Erosion on the floor of the English Channel is revealing the remains of a busy Stone Age settlement, from a time when Europe and Britain were still linked by land, a team of archaeologists says.

The site, just off the Isle of Wight, 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."

End of Ice Age caused channel flood

Lobsters mucking around the seabed at the site about 10 years ago revealed a cache of Mesolithic flints, prompting further excavations that uncovered two hearths (ancient ovens) dangling precariously from the edge of an underwater cliff.

More:
http://www.livescience.com/history/070809_aqua_dig.html

[L. Coyote]

1. Big News, especially important because of preservation underwater.

[Jed Dilligan]

2. I bet there are some beautiful artifacts down there

Can't wait to see them.