Resilience or wipe out? Evaluating the convergent impacts of the 8.2 ka event and Storegga tsunami on the Mesolithic of northeast Britain. (August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Waddington, Clive; Wicks, Karen
• Is Part Of: Journal of archaeological science. Volume 14(2017)
• Page Start: 692
• Page End: 714
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Subjects: Archaeology -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Research -- Periodicals; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.04.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-409X

Abstract

Abstract: The potential impact of the abrupt 8.2 ka cold event and the Storegga Slide tsunami on human demography, settlement patterns and culture in the North Sea Basin and its hinterlands has emerged as a key question and research theme. Following on from a paper that evaluated the impact of the 8.2 ka event on the Mesolithic population of western Scotland that employed a Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon record to identify 'activity events' as a proxy for the human population size (Wicks and Mithen, 2014), we have employed a similar approach to assess the impact on the northeast British population. We find evidence for a significant population decline similar to the results from western Scotland, especially in coastal locations, although there is evidence for subtle differences in the data. We interpret this as reflecting significant and rapid population reductions amongst both low density inland populations and higher density coastal populations. The geographical location and topography of the northeast British littoral in relation to the Storegga tsunami meant that populations living along this coastline were likely to be some of the most vulnerable to, and heavily affected by, the impacts of this catastrophic environmental event. In combination with the western Scotland study this research supports the probability that there was significant population collapse resulting from abrupt and profound climatic and vegetation change augmented by the Storegga megaslide tsunami. Highlights: We test the impact of the 9.2 and 8.2 ka climate anomalies and Storegga tsunami on the population of northeast Britain We demonstrate the 8.2 ka event and Storegga tsunami had an impact on the terrestrial and coastal environments in this region We collate, screen and undertake a Bayesian analysis of the regional Mesolithic radiocarbon record We use 'activity events' as a population proxy Major fluctuations in Mesolithic population size are synchronous with the 9.2 ka event and convergent catastrophes at 8200 BP