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he north sea basin IS one of the most fertile marine environments in Europe. Its relatively shallow seabed, cool-temperate climate, and winter storms ensure rapid recycling of nutrients, while the presence of land masses on three sides and large rivers draining extensive catchments, such as the Thames, the Rhine, and the Elbe, bring additional inputs of nutrients from land. The geographical limits of the Basin are defined to the west by the coastline of Britain, to the east by the coastlines of southern Norway, western Sweden, and Denmark, and to the south by the coastlines of northern France, the Low Countries , and northwest Germany. To the north, there is a broad opening to the North Atlantic, and to the coastlines of northern Norway and Iceland. To the south there is a much narrower opening through the English Channel to the Bay of Biscay and the southern Atlantic, and to the east a narrow connection between Denmark and Sweden to the progressively more brackish waters of the Baltic (Figure 10.1). With populous countries on every side, the North Sea Basin is also vulnerable to the pressure of human demand on its marine resources. In the past century, and especially in recent decades, it has become a byword for overexploitation of its fish stocks. Historical records suggest that the productivity and abundance of cod (Gadus morhua) and herring (Clupea harengus) were much greater than today, but the accuracy or wider relevance of these records is unclear (Jackson et al. 2001). Certainly the present-day stocks of some major commercial fish are under serious threat, and a complete ban on fishing for cod has recently been advocated to avoid regional extinction. Given the acute impact of recent human activities on marine ecosystems, knowledge of the frequency and scale of past impacts on marine life is not only historically informative but is also crucial for assessing the current crisis facing ocean fisheries. The rim of the North Sea Basin has witnessed continuous occupation throughout the last 10,000 years with a succession of communities and cultures who have variously interacted around its perimeter or across an east-west axis through colonization, trade, 215 10 Historical Ecology of the North Sea Basin AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE AND SOME PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY Geoff Bailey, James Barrett, Oliver Craig, and Nicky Milner T GRBQ335-3427G-C10[215-242].qxd 01/16/2008 10:42am Page 215 Aptara Inc. conquest, and competition for resources. The “natural” baseline against which to judge present -day impacts is poorly known. Moreover, it was almost certainly an ever-changing baseline , due both to climatic and environmental changes, each amplified in its turn by relatively high latitude and proximity to the Scandinavian ice sheet of the last glacial, and to a changing history of human interest in and exploitation of marine resources over the past 10,000 years. Because of complex changes in palaeogeography associated with glacial isostasy, the archaeological record of long-term coastal settlement is fragmentary and subject to large uncertainties of differential preservation or visibility . Some of the best-preserved coastal sites, particularly for the Mesolithic period, are on the peripheries of the North Sea proper, in northern and western Scotland, and in the inner waters of Denmark. As far as marine subsistence is concerned, most of the emphasis has been on the Stone Age, and particularly the Mesolithic period (c. 9500–3800 cal BC [10,000–5000 radiocarbon years BP]) (Bailey and Spikins 2008). For the later prehistoric and protohistoric periods (Neolithic, Bronze, and pre-Roman Iron ages, and Roman, Viking, and Medieval periods), the emphasis on archaeological interpretation has been more on issues of trade and culture contact than on marine exploitation and subsistence (cf. Cunliffe 2001). This reflects both the relative rarity of coastal settlement, particularly around the southern rim of the basin, which has undergone longterm submergence and accumulation of marine sediments, and different research agendas in different periods of the archaeological sequence. For the later periods, in contrast to the Mesolithic period, the emphasis has generally been on social and cultural change rather than on palaeoeconomy, and on agriculturally based and urban societies rather than maritime ones. The questions asked and specific evidence assembled vary tremendously between communities of scholars working in different periods and regions. Seasonality of resource scheduling 216 H I S T O R I C A L E C O L O G Y O F T H E N O R T H S E A FIGURE 10.1...

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