Residents to learn more about ancient villages lost at sea
We have friends in a number of places on the East Coast challenged by coastal erosion. I have spent most of my adult life working around the north and south banks of the Humber and this story therefore has some great resonances about the whole nature of the issue for me. It tells us:
Evidence of communities on the Humber dating back 8,000 years will be discussed at a free community drop-in event at Welwick Village Hall on Monday 4 September.
Archaeologists will be on hand between 2-7pm to talk through the early findings from a geophysical study and small scale excavation between Outstrays and Skeffling last autumn.
The study found that the area contains a long and interesting history, with evidence of storm surge deposits, ancient river channels and areas of peat from as far back as the Middle and New Stone Age (approximately 3,000 to 8,000 years ago), which suggests that landscapes occupied and exploited by prehistoric people survive beneath the current farmland.
Across the higher parts of the site evidence was also found of Roman settlement activity which evolved into the medieval period as communities settled closer to the shore as the land was drained.
The initial archaeological assessment formed part of the design for the Outstays to Skeffling Managed Realignment Scheme, a new habitat creation project on the Humber Estuary working in partnership between the Environment Agency and Associated British Ports.