Remains of 8000 year old Stone Age settlement found under English Channel

Archaeologists have found the remains of a busy Stone Age settlement dating back 8000 years on the floor of the English Channel.

Washington, Aug 10 : Archaeologists have found the remains of a busy Stone Age settlement dating back 8000 years on the floor of the English Channel.

The site, just off the Isle of Wight, dates back to the time when Europe and Britain were still linked by land.

Garry Momber, director of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology, which led the recent excavations, said melting glaciers probably filled in the Channel, driving the settlement's last occupants north to higher ground.

"This is the only site of its kind in the United Kingdom," said Momber.

"It is important because this is the period when modern people were blossoming, just coming out of the end of the Ice Age, living more like we do today in the valleys and lowlands," he said.

Scientists discovered the site accidentally 10 years ago, when lobsters mucking around the seabed revealed a cache of Mesolithic flints. This prompted further excavations that uncovered two hearths dangling precariously from the edge of an underwater cliff.

Burnt wood fragments gouged with cut marks and a layer of wood chippings was found lying under 35 feet of water during the latest dig.

Divers brought the material to the surface still embedded in slabs of the sea floor that were carried up in specially-designed boxes, which were then pieced back together and examined and dated in the lab.

"We now have unequivocal evidence of human activity at the site," said Momber.

"There were people here actively making stuff and being quite industrious," Livescience quoted him as saying.

Momber said at 8,000-years-old, the settlement was the only underwater Mesolithic site in Britain, though it was probably part of a much larger area of occupation yet to be uncovered.

"As the climate began to warm up near the end of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, people were moving into Northern Europe and settling down in the many river valleys left behind by melting glaciers. Many of the valleys, such as the ones now beneath the English Channel, were eventually inundated completely when temperatures returned to normal," said Momber.

"A good chunk of the material left behind from this cultural period is eventually going to be found underwater," he said.

ANI