Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Stone Age Atlantis!

Or so says the headline of this BBC report on ongoing excavations at the underwater Mesolithic site of Bouldnor Cliff. Fascinating stuff about the logistics of running a Stone Age dig (or rather, the dig of a Stone Age site) under water and especially some fantastic pictures of the wealth of material preserved in water-logged hunter-gatherer sites (check out the pictures of hazelnuts and of a wooden pole with a lithic stuck in it!).


Hazelnuts!


Pole n' lithic!

The BBC piece includes a nice quote by Garry Momber, director of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (which funds the project):

"It's called the Stone Age because, on land, we find stones from this period but under water a whole lot more survives... I believe these people were far more sophisticated than we give them credit for."

Indeed!

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