Marine research at Bradford was on display when “Taken at the Flood” hosted a major meeting at the British academy. The meeting was introduced by Dr Simon Opher MP, and summarised by Lord Redesdale from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Archaeology, The meeting was aimed primarily at discussing the latest research from Bradford and the issues of locating prehistoric activity in the North Sea in advance of the major development of Britain’s coastal shelves, largely for windfarms associated with the UK’s net zero targets.

At the end of the last Ice Age, sea levels were c. 120 metres lower, and the southern North Sea was habitable land. To date most archaeological finds, beyond the near shore, have largely been the result of chance finds from dredging and trawling. Researchers at Bradford are starting to change this situation. Using predictive modelling and small-scale dredging at key points in the ancient landscape, Bradford’s archaeologists are now recovering archaeological material, whose distribution may be linked with hunter-gatherer land use.

This is the first time such material have been recovered from deep waters areas of these landscapes. Other presentations included research outputs from Bradford’s European Research Council project, Subnordica, and the United Kingdom Research and Innovation project, Life on the Edge. 100 participants attended the meeting, and included national curators, marine agencies, developers, archaeological consultancies and academics. The meeting supported wide ranging discussion on the implications of recent finds from, and how, archaeology could benefit from closer collaboration with developers and agencies. The provision of new data generated by new marine development was central to the discussion section of the meeting.

For a preliminary discussion of the issues of discovery of prehistoric activity in marine palaeolandscapes see -
Winds of Change: Urgent Challenges and Emerging Opportunities in Submerged Prehistory, a Perspective from the North Sea - https://share.google/rk1o8irz2Xb3VuqDL
/rk1o8irz2Xb3VuqDL

The full itinerary of the meeting was as follows -
Session 1: Introduction and Opening Papers
Dr Simon Opher MP (Chair of the APPG Archaeology and Vice Chair of the Net Zero Group) Opening Remarks
Vince Gaffney (University of Bradford) Introduction
Dr Chris Pater (Historic England) Palaeolandscapes: establishing expectations
Vic Boothby (Haskoning) Palaeolandscapes: managing expectations

Session 2: Context and Fieldwork
James Walker (University of Bradford) Taken at the Flood: The Archaeological Context
Rachel Harding (University of Bradford & MSDS Marine) Taken at the Flood: Fieldwork
James Walker (University of Bradford): Taken at the Flood: Fieldwork Results & Their Significance

Session 3: Results and Outputs
Martin Bates (University of Wales, Trinity St. David) From the Land to the Sea: a geoarchaeologist’s view
Rachel Harding, Richard Bates, James Killingbeck & Seismic Geoscience Ltd (University of Bradford, MSDS Marine, St Andrews University) Taken at the Flood Mapping
Micheál Butler (University of Bradford): Taken at the Flood: Towards an Archaeological Predictive Model

Session 4: Broader horizons
Simon Fitch (University of Bradford) Emerging Opportunities for the study of Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology, a global perspective from the LOTE project
Rachel Bynoe (University of Southampton) Neandertals at the edge: Middle Palaeolithic archaeology from Area 447
Roger Birchall (SSE Renewables) The Developer’s Perspective
Claire Mellett and Beccy Scott (Haskoning and Wessex) Submerged Landscapes – navigating appropriate levels of assessment in the Crown Estate

Session 5: Open Discussion
Geoff Bailey (University of York)

Summary
Lord Redesdale (Vice Chair of the APPG Archaeology)

For a gallery of images see - https://submergedlandscapes.teamapp.com/clubs/764920/photos/2035309?_detail=v1

Location

10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, UK