Dendro dating
Following the success of timber sampling in the 2000 fieldwork season, this strategy was continued in 2001 under the guidance (and saws) of Nigel Nayling (University of Wales, Lampeter). Further sections of trees exposed on the submerged land surfaces have been recovered for analysis both on the Mesolithic peat shelf at Bouldnor Cliff and the later, and far more extensive exposures around Pitts Deep and Tanners Hard.
The main objective of this work has been to provide material
for the construction of tree-ring chronologies from oak trees preserved
in the waterlogged sediments. Precise dating of tree-ring sequences could
provide the key to a clearer understanding of the timing of environmental
changes in the development of the Solent including sea-level change since
the last glaciation. Analysis of samples from the earlier trees, dating
to approximately 8000-8500 years ago, may help to extent existing British
tree-ring curves which presently run back no further than about 7000 years
ago. Work on samples taken in 2000 suggests possible links to Mesolithic
material from the Severn Estuary being studied as part of a NERC-funded
research project. Diving in the challenging environment of the Solent has
also allowed the development of sampling procedures suited to SCUBA diving
and improved underwater assessment techniques which can be applied elsewhere.
Nigel Nayling liberating a wood sample from a NW Solent tree
The abiding impression left from 2001 is the huge potential of the submerged
landscapes of the Solent. From a dendrochronological perspective, they offer
a rare opportunity to investigate a period of our deeper past when lowland
river valleys and coastal plains occupied by hunter-gatherer communities
were swathed in oak-rich forests before being lost to the sea.
This technique has been used successfully on a variety of recent HWTMA projects
including the 2003 Bouldnor Cliff Project, the Alum Bay I wreck site and
the Langstone Harbour Logboat
Section of Mesolithic tree from Bouldnor Cliff