Discoveries of hunter-gather Mesolithic sites made at low tide on the foreshore of the Severn Estuary at Goldcliff, South Wales over the last 34 years will be introduced.
The sites are exposed by erosion on the edges of a former island. Two Submerged forests provide evidence of Mesolithic woodland. Five settlement sites have been excavated and these are associated with hundreds of footprints in silts adjacent to the settlement areas. Many are human and often those of children. There are also many bird footprints especially cranes and also deer and extinct cattle the aurochs. In the bed of a former river channel two areas of pointed wood stakes have been discovered which represent the first finds of Mesolithic fish traps in Britain.
Intertidal sites preserve a wide range of organic and environmental evidence which provide a unique perspective on the esnvironment and ecology of hunter-gatherers in the first half of the postglacial period.
Our lecturer: Professor Martin Bell
Martin Bell FBA is a British archaeologist and academic, who is Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Reading. H is a specialist in prehistoric environmental archaeology with a particular emphasis on coastal wetland and intertidal environments especially in the Severn Estuary. Wider interests in archaeological science including geoarchaeology and experimental archaeology.