Keywords

1 Introduction

Climate change and fluctuations in sea level during the Pleistocene enabled people to move repeatedly into north-west Europe exploiting extensive landscapes that are now underwater (Lambeck and Chappell 2001; Bailey 2004, 2011). The last recorded low stand was during the glacial maximum of the Devensian Ice Age. As this period drew to a close, large areas of the continent were accessible but frozen until the warming climate thawed the permafrost allowing vegetation to grow, animals to graze, and people to move north. As conditions became increasingly favourable, however, the melting ice caps led to a progressive rise in sea level, which, albeit with a time lag of several millennia, covered thousands of square kilometres of land to form the modern coastline.

This chapter will examine human dispersal into north-west Europe following the last glacial maximum. We will address the responses of cultural groups to the changing environments, look at evidence of mobility, the potential for occupation on the now-submerged North Sea basin and in particular the challenges faced by Mesolithic populations as their world became increasingly maritime. We will assess archaeological evidence from submerged landscapes and consider its significance when compared with terrestrial data with particular reference to human dispersal prior to the separation of Britain from mainland Europe. We will show how well-preserved material evidence from the submerged landscape has provided new insights into the technical ability, cultural links and dispersal patterns of the Mesolithic, and highlight the potential to provide a great deal more.

2 Human Movement Across the North Sea

Pioneering groups of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers moved towards northern France and into the southern North Sea (or ‘Doggerland’, see Gaffney et al., Chap. 20)Footnote 1 as climatic conditions allowed around 15–16,000 years ago (Miller 2012, p. 211). This was the first of numerous waves of migration to follow.

The Bølling/Alleröd interstadial or British Windermere climatic upturn from 12,700 cal BC showed an improvement in temperature and with it an expansion of human activity including the earliest evidence for re-occupation of southern Britain (Tolan-Smith 2008; Miller 2012). This warm spell was interrupted for a few hundred years between c.12,200 and 11,900 cal BC by the colder ‘Older Dryas’, during which northern latitudes were de-populated, but warmer conditions returned with the succeeding Windermere interstadial, and Magdalenian groups expanded into a region south of the European loess belt, extending into Belgium, north-eastern France and Britain (Jacobi and Higham 2011). The relatively rapid response to climatic amelioration indicates that populations had not retreated far, and were able to adapt easily to changing conditions. The warmer climate also saw the appearance of the Hamburgian, a tradition which is generally regarded as a subgroup of the Late Magdalenian, in the northern half of the Netherlands, northern Germany, Poland and extending as far west as Roberthill and Howburn in Scotland (Audouze and Enloe 1991; Rensink 1995; Street 1998; Ballin et al. 2010). By the end of the Windermere interstadial around 10,950 cal BC, additional groups included the Creswellian (Stapert 1985; Jacobi 1991; Barton et al. 2003), the Azilian (Bodu and Mevel 2008) and the Federmesser Gruppen (Fig. 21.1). All these groups would have had access to the North Sea Basin, which was dry land at the time.

Fig. 21.1
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Map showing the approximate configuration of the coastline – areas shaded light grey would have been still exposed as land at lowered sea level – and a stylised pattern of different cultures across north-west Europe towards the end of the Windermere or Bølling/Alleröd interstadial. This indicates that large areas of the southern North Sea would have been accessible for human occupation

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The Creswellian forms a techno-complex that appears to be geographically centred in the drowned lands of the North Sea (Peeters and Momber 2014). The technology has been identified in the English Midlands and southern counties, in the Netherlands and possibly Belgium (Jacobi 1991; Barton et al. 2003). The Azilian, like the Creswellian, is believed to be a derivation of the Late Magdalenian. It originated in the Basque region but is also found in the foothills of the Alps, and in the Paris Basin where it persisted until the end of the Pleistocene.

The Federmesser Gruppen spanned the North European Plain, ranging from the Ukraine to Britain. They consumed a varied spectrum of foodstuffs and have been recorded at short-lived dwelling places located adjacent to rivers and lakes. The archaeological evidence indicates high mobility and seasonal resource exploitation (Deeben 1988; Street 1998; De Bie and Caspar 2000; Crombé et al. 2003, 2013; Baales 2004). At a regional level, the Federmesser sites of the Paris Basin and western Belgium hosted common technologies demonstrating cultural links despite distances of several hundred kilometres (De Bie and Caspar 2000; De Bie and Van Gils 2009; Miller 2012, p. 220). Furthermore, the recovery of marine shells from Bois Laiterie in Belgium provides evidence for interaction with the coastal zone that once lay to the west but is now lost beneath the southern North Sea. At the time, sea levels were around 50–60 m lower than today, putting the coastline hundreds of kilometres away and exposing large tracts of land that would have presented ideal lowland fluvial conditions for hunting and gathering. The archaeological assemblages with artefacts made of non-local raw materials show either large territories or extensive social networks.

The Windermere interval was terminated by the particularly cold Younger Dryas stadial. Forested areas in the north were replaced with tundra and human resource exploitation had to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. As the forests retreated and the land opened up, large herds of reindeer were able to move across the North European Plain, and with them people of the Ahrensburgian, showing common characteristics that ranged from north-east France, to northern Germany and across the North Sea into Britain, where it is known as the ‘long-blade’ tradition (Jöris and Thissen 1997; Barton 1998; Deeben et al. 2000). During more temperate phases of the stadial, the hunter-gatherers were able to exploit ranges further north in the warmer months, generally preferring the river valleys and lakes of mature river systems. These are patterns of subsistence that are comparable to the Early Mesolithic (Arts 1988).

Evidence of marine exploitation by hunter-gatherer groups at the termination of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene is negligible, which is not surprising as shorelines of that date are now drowned along with any contemporaneous coastal archaeological sites. However, recent discoveries in north-west Scotland indicate that the sea was probably used as a means of movement. Excavations at Rubha Port an t-Seilich on the Isle of Islay, western Scotland have uncovered a lithic collection of worked tools associated with volcanic ash dating to the mid Younger Dryas at 10,300–10,000 cal BC. The finds are similar to Ahrensburgian assemblages (Mithen et al. 2015 pp. 404–405) and are particularly important as they provide stratified evidence of human activity on the west coast of Scotland during the Younger Dryas. They have an added significance because access to this area from the east would only have been possible around the north of the Scottish landmass at a time when the hinterland was covered by an ice sheet. This fact, along with the distribution of comparable sites in the north of Britain (Ballin and Saville 2003; Ballin et al. 2010), and the dearth of sites in the south, has prompted Mithen et al. (2015) to argue that the movement of ‘Ahrensburgian’ groups into the UK was not from south to north, but rather from east to west along the coastal fringes of the land that is now drowned by the North Sea.

3 The Diminishing Landscape of the Mesolithic

The Holocene began with a sharp rise in temperature around 9450 cal BC (Alley 2000). For a final time, the temperate ecosystems moved back north, enriching the landscape and altering the resource base. This enabled Early Mesolithic Maglemosian groups to spread through north-west Europe. Their presence has been recorded on both sides of the North Sea basin, from Scotland to Poland (Clark 1936, 1954; Leakey 1951; Rankine 1952; Reynier 2000; Bang-Anderson 2003; Conneller 2009; David 2009). The well-watered, low lying plains with nutrient rich alluvial soils would have provided a rich environment attractive to herding megafauna and hunter-gatherer groups. However these conditions were not to last as forests spread across the landscape, sea level rise turned fluvial systems into marine estuaries and low-lying pastures were drowned. These structural changes in palaeogeography and vegetation interrupted long-established migration routes, steadily leading to the replacement of reindeer by red deer, aurochs, wild boar and other woodland mammals. The Early Mesolithic toolkit shows similarities to the Ahrensburgian, but with an increased use of broad blade microliths that reflect the modified subsistence strategies. This change is evident in Early Mesolithic assemblages from Thatcham in southern England to Star Carr in the north-east (Wymer 1958; Conneller et al. 2012).

Around 8400 cal BC a new technology arrived on the margins of mainland Britain. The prevalent Early Mesolithic broad blade technologies were now being supplemented by the narrow blade tradition of the Late Mesolithic. The earliest sites are found on the fringes of the North Sea, along the north east coast of Britain. Many were accompanied by substantial structures. These have been found at Echline on the Firth of Forth, 8450–8240 cal BC (Waddington 2015), East Barnes, around 8000 cal BC (Suddaby 2007), Howick around 7800 cal BC (Waddington 2007a), Mount Sandel in Northern Ireland at 7700 cal BC (particularly complex construction measuring Woodman 2003) and Cass–ny–Hawin on the Isle of Man c. 8200–7950 cal BC (Oxford Archaeology 2016).

The Mesolithic settlement at Howick includes a round hut structure 6 m in diameter and was repeatedly occupied for over a century on the top of a low cliff near the Mesolithic coastline. The Cass ny Hawin structure is approximately 7 m in diameter with a ring of post holes around a sub-circular hollow and an internal redeposited gravel platform. Waddington (2007b) has suggested that substantial structures such as these may have been associated with sedentary or semi-sedentary settlements focused on a mixed economy of marine and terrestrial resources in a coastal ecotone, and that this in its turn may have been a response to loss of former extensive hunting territories resulting from sea-level rise. But, equally, similar structures and adaptations could have existed on the now submerged coastlines of the North Sea lowlands; if so, they still await discovery.

The large huts found on the British mainland during the early stages of the Mesolithic are not dissimilar to contemporaneous sites in continental Europe, particularly in Denmark in association with the Kongemose and the Ertebølle periods (Pedersen et al. 1997; Grøn 2003; Skaarup and Grøn 2004; Jenson 2009). The comparable structures, along with analogous lithic technologies, express a cultural link that extended across the North Sea basin. These links are clear in the archaeological record until soon after c.7000 cal BC when stone tool technologies in Britain and mainland Europe diverged. It should be noted that the archaeological record to date in Britain is skewed towards inland sites as coastal and estuarine sites that may have existed before the sea level stabilised around 3500 cal BC are now mostly drowned. Discovering such sites is problematic as they are not easy to locate, and assumptions that most would have been lost to erosion has stifled the motivation to look. However, a brief evaluation of known underwater archaeological evidence and coastal palaeo-landforms provides an insight into the potential of sites that could remain below water.

4 Insights from a Drowned Palaeolandcsape

South of Howick, at the mouth of the River Tees and on the beaches around Hartlepool, reamins of submerged forests are intermittently revealed in the intertidal zone. At Withensea, an exposed prehistoric landscape of tree stumps became known as Noah’s Woods following its discovery in 1839, and an intertidal forest running for about 20 km between Grimsby and Skegness was recorded even earlier in the eighteenth century (Tann 2004; Hazell 2008). These prehistoric land surfaces remained hidden, protected and unknown until natural erosion exposed them. Traces of Mesolithic human activity can be found in such contexts and comprise not only worked flint, but also footprints (Jacobi 1976; Waughman et al. 2005; Bell 2007; Sheppard 1912). Other artefacts include a Late Palaeolithic barbed bone point and a Mesolithic barbed antler harpoon from below the low water mark at Hornsea, in the Tees estuary, and another found close to the low tide mark at Barmston (Brigham et al. 2008). In addition, there are midden deposits and a worked red deer antler from the Tees Estuary dated to 6750 ± 180 cal BC (BM-80) (Waughman et al. 2005, p. 8), and a wealth of Mesolithic artefacts in and adjacent to the low-lying east coast ria estuaries from the Humber to the Thames (Wymer and Robins 1994; Wilkinson and Murphy 1995, pp. 90–98, Bridges 1998, pp. 6–8; Brennand et al. 2003; Robertson et al. 2005). Indeed, wherever investigations are carried out beneath coastal peat deposits, either well preserved environmental or prehistoric archaeological material is found.

The sites dating back thousands of years demonstrate the length of time material can survive in stable environments. Preservation can be excellent in sheltered tidal inlets where rising sea levels force up the water table, protecting palaeoenvironmental deposits by forming anaerobic peat bogs, mires and sedimentary sinks. The process is incremental resulting in the deposition of a continually thickening blanket of sediment within the networks of channels. Many finds have come from flooded fluvial systems that followed courses into the North Sea basin. These buried palaeo-features are difficult to detect unless they become exposed on stretches of coastline where the balance has shifted from sedimentation to net erosion. Underwater, these sites are obviously even more difficult to find but the recovery of prehistoric artefacts and ecofacts from the North Sea during the last 100 years has demonstrated that comparable geomorphological conditions exist (Clark 1936; Coles 1998; Flemming 2004; Gaffney et al. 2009; Chap. 20, Sturt et al., Chap. 28). However, it has not been until recent geophysical surveys in the North Sea and the English Channel, that geo-archaeologists have been able to identify a complex of channels, plains, wetlands and estuaries associated with the rivers including the proto Thames, Solent and now obsolete Bytham River (Gaffney et al. 2007; Gupta et al. 2008) and in some cases associated archaeological material, such as the Lower/Middle Palaeolithic finds from the A240 site (Tizzard et al. 2014).

Similar palaeo-landscapes occur on the east side of the North Sea, notably within the Rhine/Meuse estuarine complex. Palaeolandscape modelling of in-filled channels in the adjacent Flevoland area has aided interpretation of the Mesolithic-Neolithic landscape (Peeters 2007). Evidence from the back-barrier, intertidal and coastal peats show how archaeological material can survive beneath land that is now covered by subsequent deposits, and in some cases, by the sea. A submerged example was found at the mouth of an estuary at the Maasvlakte-Europoort, the Netherlands, where geoarchaeological interpretation of the buried landscape led to the discovery of the Yangzte Harbour Mesolithic site in Rotterdam Harbour (Vos et al. 2010). Over 500 bone and antler implements, mainly harpoon points with parallels to Star Carr, Britain, and Hohen Viecheln, Germany, were collected from this area in the 1970–1980s (Glimmerveen et al. 2004; Verhart 2004). The recent investigations in the harbour during the development of the Yangtze extension zone between 2005 and 2014 demonstrated the presence of a Mesolithic occupation site on a sand dune with an intact Late Glacial to Mid Holocene sequence in 22–17 m of water dated to 7500–5800 BC (Vos et al. 2010; Moree and Sier 2015). In 2011, excavation recovered 46,067 plant remains and artefacts, indicating the exploitation of tubers, nuts, fish, birds and mammals (Peeters et al. 2015). The presence of Wommersom quartzite and amber indicate movement or trade links that reached at least 147 km to the east (Moree and Sier 2015 pp. 198–194). Water transport would have facilitated mobility and movement of goods through this estuarine and coastal seascape, and by the early fifth millennium BC widespread distribution of antler mattocks around the fringes of the North Sea indicates the development of extensive maritime networks (Elliot 2015).

Bouldnor Cliff is another key site that casts a unique light on questions of human dispersal in the Late Mesolithic (Momber et al. 2011; Momber 2014). The archaeological material lies 11 m below Ordnance Datum off the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight in the Solent (Figs. 21.2 and 21.3). Excavations here have been limited, yet the discoveries give tantalising glimpses of material culture and a lithic assemblage showing similarities and links with the continent. One retouched tool is an obliquely blunted blade similar to the Azilian category of ‘une piece tronquée’ recorded from sites in the Paris basin (Tomalin 2011, p. 152). The same type of blade is also found at the Powell site at Hengistbury Head (Barton 1992, p. 229). By contrast, a detached cutting tip of a bifacially prepared flint axe blade has been carefully formed with shallow skimming flakes. The regular blade edge has a weak S-shaped profile and the cross-section of the axe is a shallow ellipse. ‘The care and symmetry displayed in this work is usually associated with Neolithic craftsmanship. The occurrence in a Mesolithic context is certainly unusual but perhaps not without Continental analogy (Tomalin 2011, p. 152). Axes and picks were used extensively in the region and many have been dragged up from the Solent during oyster fishing. Detached tranchet axe flakes were also found at Bouldnor Cliff. The abundance of finds in the Solent compares favourably with sites from northern France with similar tools, for example at the Mesolithic site of Acquiny (Eure) on the Lower Seine dated at 6510 + 170 cal BC and with the Middle Sauveterrian ‘pics à crosse’ at Grotte de Larchant south of the Seine (Hinout 1989a). After the beginning of the Atlantic Period around 5500 cal BC, picks are also present at the Final Tardenoisian site of Ferme de Chinchy at Villeneuve-sur-Fère (Hinout 1989b), at the Montmorencien site of Ile de la France, la Forêt de Montmorency (Guyot 1998), and at St Reine de Bretagne (Kayser 1989).

Fig. 21.2
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Garry Momber, Maritime Archaeology Trust, with flints recovered from the sea floor after eroding from the submerged 8000 year-old Bouldnor Cliff site

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Fig. 21.3
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A selection of flakes and bladelets recovered from the seabed at the Bouldnor Cliff site

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The organic material at Bouldnor Cliff includes some 80 pieces of worked wood. Some timbers have been fashioned by tangential splitting (Fig. 21.4) while others contain enigmatic workings and cuts for which there are no comparisons in the UK. Recent investigations have uncovered the edge of a platform or collapsed structure, made mainly from tangentially split timbers together with some radially split round-wood (Figs. 21.5 and 21.6). There is no other comparable structure in the Late Mesolithic record in the UK. Another piece measuring 0.94 m long and 0.41 m wide dated to 6240–6000 cal BC (Beta 249,735) represents a fragment of a much larger timber that was converted from the trunk of a tall slow-grown oak that would have been a couple of metres wide and several tens of metres high (Taylor 2011). Collectively, the artefacts from the site and their relationships indicate wood working, most probably for constructing a log boat. The wood working technology used to split the oak tangentially is of particular interest because this is something that is not seen again in the UK until the Neolithic, when it is used in the construction of the Haddenham long barrow at c. 3600 cal BC (Evans and Hodder 2006, pp. 185–87).

Fig. 21.4
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Tangentially split round wood from the Bouldnor Cliff timber assemblage. Scale in cm

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Fig. 21.5
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Edge of a platform or collapsed structure consisting of tangentially split timbers alongside radially split round-wood

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Fig. 21.6
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Split and trimmed timber from the platform or collapsed structure at Bouldnor Cliff

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Pioneering extraction of sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has revealed further information about activities on the site at Bouldnor Cliff (Smith et al. 2015). Samples were recovered from an archaeological horizon within a relict fluvial sand-dune context that was capped by peat deposits (see Gaffney et al., Chap. 20). The find demonstrates the presence of cultivated einkorn wheat at a UK site over 2000 years before agriculture is conventionally supposed to have reached Britain (Malone 2001). The distance of many hundreds of kilometres from any contemporaneous sites where einkorn was grown makes the discovery controversial and further evidence from sites that would help bridge the gap is needed. However, the presence of an outlier extending beyond the known frontier of Neolithic expansion is not impossible, given the pattern and rate of dispersal of einkorn in continental Europe, and the acknowledged mobility of Mesolithic groups as discussed above.

5 Discussion

The common cultural signatures seen on both sides of the present-day North Sea from the Magdalenian to the Late Mesolithic indicate extensive interconnections across the now-submerged landscape of the North Sea Basin. The range of Late Palaeolithic sites shows how the area was traversed by the Hamburgian culture while a Creswellian technocomplex was centred at its heart. The recolonisation was interrupted by climatic downturns but human populations were quick to reoccupy land once conditions improved. It would therefore appear that populations did not retreat far, and it is possible that the lowland areas of the North Sea Basin afforded a population refuge during periods when higher ground was climatically inaccessible, notably for the Federmesser and Ahrensburgian groups. The fluvial and alluvial systems made the plains mineral-rich and attractive for a range of resources including herds of reindeer or other large mammals. The extent to which these areas were exploited remains largely unknown as the landscape and coastlines have since become inundated. However, the presence of marine shells at the Federmesser site of Bois Laiterie in Belgium demonstrates interaction with the coastal zone through long distance movements or inter-group exchange (see also Larsson, Chap. 11 for similar indications in southern Scandinavia).

At the beginning of the Holocene, when the broad-blade Maglemosian extended to the north and west, it is probable that these groups also had the capability to move along coastlines and exploit marine resources. The isotope evidence from canine bones at Star Carr shows a diet containing seafood indicating connection with the coastline (Clutton-Brock and Noe-Nygaard 1990; Chatterton 2003; Fischer et al. 2007).

As the transgression advanced and the water rose, people evolved new strategies to make use of the changing conditions. The arrival of Late Mesolithic groups in northwest Britain in the middle of the ninth millennium BC was possibly a response to a loss of territory in the lowlands to the east. Watercraft are likely to have been used to facilitate the movement of people and resources although direct evidence is largely lacking at present. The archaeological evidence shows how networks expanded along coastal routes and boats would have allowed people to travel long distances to new territories relatively rapidly through an expanding system of coastlines and river estuaries. Waddington (2015) cites supporting evidence for a maritime dispersal in the pattern of dates and distribution of early narrow-blade technologies at the beginning of the eighth millennium BC along the north-east coast of England and lowland Scotland, around the north coast of Scotland, then south to Ireland, the Isle of Man and Caldey Island in the Bristol Channel off the coastline of south Wales.

A later southerly dispersal appears to have taken place in the south and east of the British mainland, showing connections with northern France and Belgium. These relatively late arrivals to the British mainland followed a more southerly route from the northern French region. It is uncertain whether the pathway into southern England was purely terrestrial or involved maritime travel along coastlines and rivers but most Late Mesolithic sites are associated with rivers or estuaries and recent discoveries on the Isles of Scilly show how developed maritime abilities appropriate to Atlantic waters were present by the beginning of the 6th millennium BC. The discovery of microlithic trapezes typologically linked to the Belgian region provides direct evidence for movement between the Islands and mainland Europe by boat around 6000 BC (Garrow and Sturt 2015), most likely via the south coast of England in the vicinity of the Solent and Bouldnor Cliff.

It is against this backdrop that the Bouldnor Cliff finds gain added significance, providing insights into human dispersal and links with mainland Europe at a time when the most likely pathways of movement were dominated by the progressive encroachment of estuarine and coastal conditions. Bouldnor Cliff contains a material culture that shows similarities with mainland Europe, wheat that must have been derived from Europe, a wood-working technology that is more akin to the Neolithic than the Mesolithic and microlithic trapezes similar to those in France and Belgium. It is therefore plausible to suggest that goods and cultural influences reached the Isle of Wight from western France or the lower Rhine Basin with the aid of watercraft via estuaries and coastlines at the western end of the ‘proto-English channel’ before Britain was finally separated from the European mainland.

6 Conclusion

The body of evidence in the archaeological record serves to demonstrate the value of the submerged landscapes to resolve questions about human occupation and dispersal across north-west Europe following the LGM. First, the high level of mobility, subsistence patterns and cultural links across the North Sea basin demonstrate the very strong likelihood that it was occupied and was the focal point of at least one techno-complex. As such, archaeological investigation within it could give information that would make our understanding of these cultures less fragmentary and indeed necessary if we wish for a coherent appreciation of post-LGM human occupation patterns.

Secondly, the evidence has a great deal to tell us about the use of coastal resources, adaptation to an increasingly marine environment and development of maritime skills as the sea level rose. Sea level rise was persistent throughout the Early Holocene and as such, most Mesolithic coastlines where this evidence is to be found now lie underwater.

Thirdly, it is the drowned landscapes that hold the data needed to provide insights into the cultural changes that followed the separation of Britain from mainland Europe. Bouldnor Cliff is an example of a site with high levels of technical skill that shows evidence of cultural links to the south-east and the west. It was occupied just before the network of rivers between Britain and the continental landmass was disrupted by the creation of the North Sea. This was a mature landscape rich in resources before it was drowned and the ensuing coastal squeeze forced its inhabitants to retreat upslope or migrate elsewhere.

Finally, the preservation potential for fine organic material and organic artefacts is invariably greater than in terrestrial deposits. It is a very rich archive that can provide high concentrations of archaeological material of a type that has rarely survived on sites in present-day terrestrial locations.

Despite the limited number of sites, the evidence for early human activity on the drowned lands of the continental shelf is significant and tangible. It remains an understudied archive of data that can contribute to our understanding of human dispersal, colonisation and behavioural variability. The sites have demonstrated that organic material and DNA- rich sediments can survive and remain well preserved for many millennia. These results are causing us to rethink the technical abilities of our Stone Age ancestors. The remains at Bouldnor Cliff and the targeted discovery in Yangtze Harbour indicate that there could be many more well preserved sites entombed within the submerged palaeo-landscape. The next question is where to find them. An understanding of geomorphological changes in response to rising sea levels can help target areas where the circumstances for preservation were greatest and where the environments remained stable (see in particular Hepp et al., Chap 14, Karle and Goldhammer, Chap 15, and Gaffney et al., Chap 20 for relevant work in the North Sea Basin. Many such examples are present along and offshore of the modern coastline and many of these landscapes survive underwater. Once we have sufficient data about these offshore landforms and we can use the evidence from currently known sites to relate human activity to the landscape, the resulting models should help us pinpoint sites with the highest potential.