Bouldnor Cliff

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Isle of Wight Map

Isle of Wight Map

Bouldnor Cliff (बौल्डनोर खड़ी चट्टान) is a submerged prehistoric settlement site in the Solent. The site dates from the Mesolithic era and is in approximately 11 metres (12 yd) of water just offshore of the village of Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom.

Variants

• Bouldnor

History

The preservation of organic materials from this era that do not normally survive on dry land has made Bouldnor important to the understanding of Mesolithic Britain, and the BBC Radio 4's Making History programme described it "probably Europe's most important Mesolithic site" albeit concealed under water.

The site was first discovered by divers from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (now the Maritime Archaeology Trust) in 1999, when a lobster was observed discarding worked flint tools from its burrow on the seabed. Since then, several years of fieldwork have revealed that Bouldnor was a settlement site about 8,000 years ago, at a time when lower sea levels meant that the Solent was just a river valley. The work done so far has already revealed that the technology of Mesolithic settlers was probably 2,000 years ahead of what had previously been believed.

Site formation

Investigations suggest that during the Mesolithic era, between 8000 and 4000 BC, the western Solent was a sheltered river basin, rich in woodland and fed by a river at Lymington and drained by the Western Yar at Freshwater. As sea levels rose, the Solent eventually flooded and the settlement area was swamped. The rising waters deposited silt and mud onto the original land surface, covering and preserving it.

International trade

Research published in 2015 has identified wheat DNA at the site. As this wheat is of a type not native to Britain, it suggests the possibility of trade with Europe much earlier than had previously been supposed by archaeologists.