Palaeolothic and mesolithic - Before 5,000 BC
Palaeolithic hand axes,
Mesolithic footprints and stone tool scatters recovered from the foreshore
indicate the presence hunter-gatherer groups present before the introduction
of farming. Just outside the estuary, at Westward Ho! in the Bristol Channel
evidence of reed burning and tree burning close to settlements make it probable
that humans were using fire to influence their environment, perhaps to encourage
favourable grazing for their quarry.
Sea level rise has been 60 metres in the last 10,000 years, so the estuary
these people knew was very different to our own. Imagine Flat Holm island
as a hill, rising up above a vast area of marshy land, our hunter-gather
ancestors using it as a lookout to spot animals to hunt, or as high ground
to escape to in times of flood.
Campsites from these people are preserved in the alluvium and peat. Peat
is especially fruitful, as it preserves wood as well as a record of the
changing environment over thousands of years. The distribution of such sites
shows a marked bias towards the intertidal zone, since this is where the
alluvium that overlies the prehistoric landscape has been eroded away. Many
more archaeological sites are likely to lie inland in the peat, but lie
undiscovered.
Links-
-'Footprints
in the sand' a NERC Planet Earth Article Autumn 2004
-Glamorgan Archaeological Trust
-Severn Estaury Levels Research Commitee