8,000 year old Solent wood & string

They say you learn something new every day, well today I learnt two things.  First, I learnt that my wife goes apoplectic if I put my finger in the middle of her mouth as she is yawning.  Secondly, I discovered that The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (HWTMA) have been carrying out internationally important excavations and research of the submerged pre‐historic site of Bouldnor Cliff in the Solent.   Bouldnor Cliff is 11 metres below the surface and approximately 250 metres offshore of Bouldnor, near Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and lies within the Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation.

Excavations have been on‐going at Bouldnor Cliff since the Mesolithic settlement was first identified in 1999, when a lobster was seen throwing Stone Age worked flint tools from its burrow.  Since then the site has yielded numerous secrets, including the oldest piece of string and more than a quarter of all the worked Mesolithic timber that has ever been recovered in this country.  The material so far recovered has already demonstrated that the technology of the era was 2,000 years ahead of what archaeologists previously believed.  Trust director Garry Momber outlined that ‘Bouldnor is one of the most important Middle Stone Age sites in the world’.

The fast flowing tidal conditions of the Solent pose numerous problems for archaeologists working at Bouldnor, and several new techniques have been developed to make work easier.  These have included ‘Box Sampling’ which allowed sections of seabed to be lifted in a case and excavated on dry land. In addition, earlier this year, divers managed to lay a line between two parts of the site that lie 450 metres apart. This finally links numerous excavation areas along the underwater cliff face using what is probably the longest underwater archaeological base line in the world.

The site is constantly being eroded by the Solent’s tides and the HWTMA continue to monitor the site and to undertake rescue recoveries and excavation when significant material is under threat.  This year is no exception and further survey, sampling and recoveries will be undertaken by diving archaeologists between the 5 – 9 September.

I am still a bit bemused as to how Mesolithic man lived under the sea, and why a lobster decided to use flint tools.  However, this may be a piece of learning I will need to leave for another day.

Further information:

The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (HWTMA) is a charitable Trust that seeks to promote and preserve maritime archaeology around the country, but particularly in the South.  More information can be found on www.hwtma.org.uk