Settlement and Economy in a Changing Prehistoric Lowland Landscape: An East Yorkshire (UK) Case Study

Abstract

English This article assesses the major changes in landscape and coastline, which took place in an area adjacent to the northern shore of the inner estuary of the river Humber, in East Yorkshire, UK, from the beginning of the Holocene to the Iron Age. It considers the effect of these changes on material culture as represented by artefact distributions, including flint assemblages and polished stone tools located during field survey. The conclusions presented here derive from a continuing programme of research in this study area and they are placed in the context of the wider Humber region and the North Sea Basin. This article advocates a restoration of balance with regard to geographical determinism - a new pragmatism - accepting that environmental factors have a great importance in determining the nature and location of certain activities in the past, though cannot be used to explain them all.

Full text

S
ETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY IN A CHANGING
PREHISTORIC LOWLAND LANDSCAPE: AN
EAST YORKSHIRE (UK) CASE STUDY
Peter Halkon
University of Hull, UK
Jim Innes
Durham University, UK
Abstract: This article assesses the major changes in landscape and coastline, which took place in an
area adjacent to the northern shore of the inner estuary of the river Humber, in East Yorkshire, UK,
from the beginning of the Holocene to the Iron Age. It considers the effect of these changes on
material culture as represented by artefact distributions, including flint assemblages and polished
stone tools located during field survey. The conclusions presented here derive from a continuing
programme of research in this study area and they are placed in the context of the wider Humber
region and the North Sea Basin. This article advocates a restoration of balance with regard to geo-
graphical determinism – a new pragmatism – accepting that environmental factors have a great
importance in determining the nature and location of certain activities in the past, though cannot
be used to explain them all.
Keywords: East Yorkshire, Humber, landscape history, palaeoenvironment, prehistoric artefact dis-
tribution, sea-level change
INTRODUCTION
There has been a recent increase in both academic and popular interest in the effects
of catastrophic geographical events in prehistory. These include volcanic eruptions
(Baillie 2001) the influence of debris from comets (Baillie 1999) or great earthquakes
(Shennan et al. 1996) and the impact of their attendant tidal waves or tsunamis. Such
factors apply even in the regional British context, with Icelandic volcanic eruptions
having impacts on north British marginal societies and ecosystems (Grattan 1998),
as did the tsunami wave that followed the Storegga submarine landslide off the
coast of Norway about 7000 radiocarbon years BP (Smith et al. 2004). This great
wave appears to have abruptly terminated occupation of some Mesolithic sites on
the Scottish east coast (Dawson et al. 1990; Wickham-Jones 2002). Similar abandon-
ment of villages, because of the effects of tsunamis, regularly occurred during the
European Journal of Archaeology Vol. 8(3): 225–259
Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (www.sagepublications.com) and
the European Association of Archaeologists (www.e-a-a.org) ISSN 1461–9571 DOI:10.1177/1461957105076062

last three millennia in the Vancouver Island area of North America (Hutchinson and
McMillan 1997).
More influential on human populations than such rare catastrophic events,
however, are the effects of macro-scale environmental forces that operate over a
longer period of time. One of the most significant of these has been the postglacial
rise of sea level in the early and mid-Holocene that caused evacuation of human
populations from the low-lying areas of continental shelves, with migrating people
and loss of land and resources with presumed effects on land-use and culture
change. The consequences of the postglacial inundation of the North Sea, including
the loss of ‘Doggerland’ (Coles 1998), is an example directly relevant to the earlier
prehistory of East Yorkshire, in eastern England.
A second long-term environmental influence has been the major fluctuations in
climate occurring at intervals during the Holocene that have been of sufficient scale
and intensity to compromise agricultural systems and perhaps drive cultural change.
In Britain as recently as the last millennium the contrast between the Medieval Warm
Period and the Little Ice Age was enough to determine the occupation or abandon-
ment of more marginal and upland agricultural areas (Bell and Walker 1992).
Some researchers, especially van Geel (van Geel et al. 1996), have identified a
single major climatic deterioration of c.2650 BP (c.850 cal BC), around the Bronze
Age/Iron Age transition, suggesting that this almost certainly triggered cultural
adaptations that are observable in the archaeological record (Magny 2004; van Geel
et al. 1998, 2004; van Geel and Berglund 2000). Although some doubt has been cast
on the validity of the single climatic event advocated by van Geel (Riehl and
Pustovoytov 2004), it has been suggested that prehistoric climate change may
sometimes have provided the conditions for major cultural transition (Bonsall et al.
2001, 2002). Increasing concerns regarding future global warming and climate
change are a current aspect of the realization that major environmental changes,
driven by macro-scale geographical events and processes, can have very severe
consequences for human populations and culture. Acceptance that the influence of
major changes in the geographical environment may often have been the determin-
ing, or at least triggering, factor is once more becoming a fashionable explanation
for the cause of past cultural change. Cultural responses to changing geographical
conditions may take many forms, depending upon the rate and scale of change. In
most cases past communities were capable of adapting to quite major environmen-
tal changes and managing their effects, but often such adaptations required signifi-
cant alterations in material culture and use of the landscape (Rippon 2001).
We are fortunate that high-precision information regarding prehistoric changes
in climate and sea level, itself largely a function of climate change, has recently
become available through detailed analyses of proxy data archives preserved in
coastal sediments and regional peat bogs. The history of sea-level fluctuation in the
Humber estuary, as well as the influx of fluvial sediment from its contributory
rivers and the changing extent of its alluvial wetlands, is now well understood for
most of the Holocene (Long et al. 1998; Metcalfe et al. 2000; Shennan et al. 2000a).
There were notably high sea-level stands in the Mesolithic period and the Iron Age.
Radiocarbon-dated shifts between dry and wet surface phases on raised peat bogs
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in northern England, beyond groundwater and fed only by rainfall, are so sensitive
to climate change that they provide data on temperature and rainfall of a time reso-
lution as good as, or better than, that of many dated archaeological sequences
(Blackford 2000; Blackford and Chambers 1991; Hughes et al. 2000; Langdon et al.
2003, 2004; Mauquoy and Barber 1999). Correlated data from several bogs show sig-
nificantly wetter conditions for periods during the late Mesolithic, the late Neolithic/
Bronze Age, and the end of the Iron Age, but it is the major climatic deterioration
around 2650 BP at the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition that is conspicuous in all cli-
mate records. Probably driven by changes in solar activity (Mauquoy et al. 2004),
with perhaps a contribution from the effects of volcanic activity (Van den Bogaard
and Schmincke 2002), this extremely cold, wet period in prehistory should have
caused environmental and geographical impacts that in turn should have triggered
distinct responses in cultural, and hence archaeological, patterns.
In writing about his recent book ‘Facing the Ocean’ Barry Cunliffe goes so far as to
say that ‘... geography does provide the essential framework which constrains and
empowers human action’ (Cunliffe 2006). It follows that detailed knowledge of the
palaeogeography of any landscape unit is critical to understanding its archaeological
resource and its interpretation in terms of culture change (Fokkens 1998). This will be
particularly so in areas with a palimpsest of strongly contrasting environmental
zones, such as occurs across wetland/dryland, upland/lowland and inland/coastal
gradients (N. Brown 2000) or where abrupt changes in soil or rock type occur.
Palaeoenvironmental processes may also provide alternative explanations for
the phenomenological and ritual interpretation for some past behaviour, such as
the votive deposition of objects in wet places (Bradley 1990:66–7; Bradley and
Edmonds 1993:49). For example, Haughey (2000) has noted that recent palaeoenvi-
ronmental analysis demonstrates that some Neolithic objects discovered within the
flood plain of the middle Thames, previously interpreted as ritual offerings in
watery locations, are more likely to be casual losses in areas that subsequently
became wet, but at the time of loss were dry.
If one feels moved to ‘engage with place’ in archaeological study (Thomas 1993),
then a sound knowledge of the characteristics of the place in question at different
times seems a prerequisite (Cummings and Whittle 2003). Without becoming
overly deterministic, it is clear that geographical and environmental context is a
fundamental requirement for any attempt to interpret patterns of past human settle-
ment and activity. Changes in the distributions and types of prehistoric sites and
activity areas may become more easily understood when viewed against an envi-
ronmental template, while formation processes affecting the distribution of sites
and finds in the landscape must also be considered (Fokkens 1998).
This article, using archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data, assesses the
major changes in landscape and coastline which took place in an area adjacent to
the northern shore of the inner estuary of the river Humber, from the beginning of
the Postglacial (Holocene) period to the Iron Age, and considers their effect on
material culture as represented by artefact distributions located during field sur-
vey. It also briefly considers the issue of the link between landscape and ritual
activity in the light of palaeoenvironmental change.
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The conclusions presented here derive from a continuing programme of
research in this study area (e.g. Halkon 1990, 2003; Halkon and Millett 1999; Long
et al. 1998). Other major recent research projects have provided important contex-
tual data for this and the wider Humber estuary region (Metcalfe et al. 2000; Van
de Noort and Ellis 1999), most recently reviewed by Van de Noort (2004).
LOCATION
The area under scrutiny is situated to the north of the river Humber, in the south-
eastern sector of the Vale of York, and includes part of the western escarpment of
the Yorkshire Wolds. Apart from the Wolds, and the inlier of Triassic Mercia
Mudstone now known as Church Hill, Holme-on-Spalding Moor (hereafter abbre-
viated as HOSM), much of the landscape is below 10 m OD (Fig.1). The major
drainage feature of the selected region of survey is the river Foulness and its associ-
ated streams, which is now referred to as the Foulness valley. Research by Peter
Halkon has also revealed the presence of a proto-Foulness river valley with inter-
glacial age sediments and associated faunal remains including straight-tusked ele-
phant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), running between Church Hill and the Lias bench to
the east (Halkon 1999). The discovery of a lower Palaeolithic hand-axe at Hotham
not far from this former river provides an intriguing possibility that this interglacial
riverine environment was exploited by early humans (Roe forthcoming).
Examination of maps prepared by the Soil Survey of England (Furness and King
1978; King and Bradley 1987), suggests that this area can be divided into three
zones (Fig. 2):
• Zone 1 – the upper Foulness valley where feeder streams flow through the
Yorkshire Wolds and foothills;
• Zone 2 – the central Foulness valley – largely the sandy ridges of the HOSM area;
• Zone 3 – the lower Foulness valley containing the Walling Fen and Humber
lowlands, consisting of glacio-lacustrine clays (the residue of glacial Lake
Humber) and postglacial silts and alluvial deposits.
With their contrasting surface geology and topography, these zones provide a con-
venient background against which differences in human–landscape interaction can
be examined and compared. The prehistoric archaeology of the Yorkshire Wolds,
the most important landscape feature of Zone 1, is well known through the work
of antiquaries such as Greenwell and Mortimer (1905) and more recently archaeol-
ogists such as Manby (1988; Manby et al. 2003). In prehistory this higher, drier
ground contained much less landscape dichotomy that the valley lowlands. The
main focus of this article will therefore be Zones 2 and 3 as defined earlier, as it is
in these low-lying zones that landscape change is likely to have had the greatest
impact and the archaeology is least well known.
Certain caveats are necessary when interpreting the distribution of finds within
this landscape study. The higher parts of the sandy ridges, such as those in Zone 2,
are more vulnerable to ploughing and are therefore more likely to yield surface
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South Cave
10m
10m
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Figure 1. Location map.

finds than low-lying alluviated areas, such as Zone 3, where sites and artefacts may
have been protected from the plough. The Holocene alluvial areas of Zone 3 may
have great archaeological potential (Davies and Van de Noort 1993; Needham and
Macklin 1992), although the archaeological resource may be less visible and it may
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clay
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environmental sampling as part of
Foulness Valley project
Zone 3
Zone 2
Zone 1
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
Figure 2. The Foulness valley study area and the landscape zones. The generalized soil types are
indicated, taken from Soil Survey of England mapping (after King and Bradley 1987). The environ-
mental sampling sites are shown and the inset rectangle marks the area of the coring carried out as
part of the Land Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS) survey (Shennan et al. 2000a), the detailed
results of which are presented in Figure 3.

require specialized research techniques for it to be realized (Brown 1997). The
investigation of such deposits formed the basis of the recent English Heritage
sponsored Alluvial Archaeology of the Vale of York project (Howard et al. submit-
ted; Whyman et al. submitted). Although it is clear that the archaeological evidence
for some periods may lie buried beneath alluvial deposits, at other times raised sea
level or water table may have rendered these areas uninhabitable, the better-
drained sand ridges being more favoured for settlement and farming. The combi-
nation of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological approaches used in the
following chronological review of the Foulness valley in prehistory aims in part to
address this issue.
THE EARLY MESOLITHIC
Environmental evidence from peat preserved beneath the ridges of aeolian sand,
which are predominant in Zone 2, indicates that the sand bodies were deposited
during the late Glacial cold phase after c.11,000 radiocarbon years BP, in common
with most of the blown coversands of the southern Vale of York (Innes 2002). These
better-drained, slightly elevated sand ridges were to prove highly influential in
determining the location of human activity within the Foulness valley up to the
present as it is noticeable that the vast majority of the farmhouses standing today,
and many of the villages in Zones 2 and 3, are sited on them.
From the early Postglacial, a series of reedswamp-dominated wetlands (Zone 2)
developed between these sand ridges, running along the current course of the river
Foulness. At various locations, especially Bursea and Everingham Carrs (Fig. 2), the
stratigraphic evidence is characterized by limnic and detrital organic sediments,
indicating that these riverine wetlands developed into shallow but substantial
freshwater meres (mere being the regional name for a small lake). These extensive
freshwater systems appear to have persisted throughout the Early Mesolithic (Fig. 4),
with the areas of open water fringed by economically productive reedswamp and
fen environments. Kirby and Gearey (2001) have described the complexity of the
riverine wetland vegetation units that came into being in this region under the influ-
ences of sea-level elevation, alluviation, and water-table fluctuations. Reedswamp
forms the early stage in the terrestrialization of shallow waters, followed by the
development of fen in which a greater variety of vegetation colonizes the site, water
depths become progressively shallower due to sediment deposition and the plant
succession advances towards dense swamp woodland dominated by willow or
alder. These earlier stages of the aquatic succession have a high nutrient status,
replenished by winter drainage waters from adjacent dry land (Coles 1978). As well
as the fish and wildfowl resources of such aquatic environments (Coney 1992),
including fur-bearing animals such as beaver (Coles 2001), they are rich in plant
foods that can be exploited directly by humans (Zvelebil 1994) but which also
attract wild animals, notably elk, and thus make hunting easier. The water supply
itself and the diversity of plant and animal resources mean that the attractiveness of
the river valley wetland edge for prehistoric economic and settlement activity
throughout prehistory is very clear (Brayshay and Dinnin 1999).
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Foulness Valley Transect
Height
(mOD)
1273 4 155
M
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Bronze Age
Meso/Neolithic
Mesolithic
(ii)
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sand
peat Hasholme boat
marine silt & clay
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1
2
7
3
4
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0 47'W
0 46' 0 45' 0 44' 0 43'
Bursea
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Figure 3. A map and section showing the coring carried out along the lower Foulness valley. Note
the Later Mesolithic/Neolithic and Late Bronze Age/Iron Age marine transgressions.

While it is likely that in the earlier Mesolithic period people would have utilized
all parts of the landscape, the development of mixed forest in the early Holocene
(Beckett 1981; Lillie and Gearey 1999; Tweddle 2001) may well have restricted the
resource potential of most of the dryland parts of the area. Exploitation of the diver-
sity of resources and landscape found by lakes and other wetlands may well have
been central to the Early Mesolithic economy. Despite the possibility of lighter vege-
tation on the Wold crests and areas of sandy soil, and occasional forest disturbance
there through the human use of fire (Bush 1988; Bush and Flenley 1987), it seems
probable that the wetland environments of the Foulness valley would have pro-
vided a centre of resource availability and a focus for human activity (Hutchings
and Campbell 2005). Comparable sites in this region that cluster around lowland
meres and associated wetlands, such as Star Carr and Flixton in the Vale of
Pickering, Brandesburton and Skipsea in Holderness, and sites in the Hull valley,
illustrate the attractiveness of such environments for Early Mesolithic foragers
(Gilbertson 1990; Lillie 2001; Mellars and Dark 1998; Van de Noort and Ellis 1995).
As in the Vale of Pickering and Holderness (Mellars and Dark 1998; Tweddle 2001),
where some disturbance of the woodland around these lowland wetlands occurred,
human activity may have been designed to increase local vegetation diversity.
Although it must be stressed that any conclusions drawn from surface material
must be tentative as very little excavation has taken place, nevertheless the distribu-
tion of Early Mesolithic finds in the Foulness valley does seem analogous to the Lake
Flixton sites at Star Carr and Seamer Carr (Conneller and Schadla-Hall 2003), referred
to earlier, as it is clear from Figure 4 that the sand ridges on the former lake margins
show the densest activity. The main Early Mesolithic sites located so far are at Howe
Hill, HOSM, and Howe Hill, Everingham. These were natural sandy hills, one of
which is now levelled and the other has been almost totally destroyed (Halkon 1999,
forthcoming). Howe Hill, HOSM, lay on the edges of the former wetland of
Everingham Carrs, whilst Howe Hill, Everingham, must once have formed an island.
Before their destruction, salvage work was carried out at Howe Hill, Everingham, in
the 1960s by Barlett, Cutts and Cutts (Wymer 1977) and at Howe Hill, HOSM, in the
1980s and 1990s by Peter Halkon. At Howe Hill, Everingham, Healey (forthcoming)
noted the presence of broad blade microliths of type B (Mellars 1976) amongst the
assemblage, along with evidence for burin manufacture. Tranchet axeheads, regarded
as typical Early Mesolithic flint artefacts in the north of England (Jacobi 1978) and
probably used for a variety of purposes including chopping, scraping, or planing
(Dumont 1989, 237), have also been found at this site. A tranchet axehead (Healey
forthcoming) and flint blades were also discovered at Bursea on the sand ridges by
the river Foulness, at the edge of what would have been a lake. Further to the west at
Hasholme Grange, a core of the same period was found at a similar location. The
character of the flint assemblages has led Healey to believe that they belong to the
lowland facies similar to sites at Deepcar (Radley and Mellars 1964) and Brigham
(Manby 1966). It is possible that as at Star Carr, elk (Alces alces), a prey animal that
prefers lake and lake-edge habitats (Legge and Rowley-Conwy 1988), was being
exploited as elk bones have been found in the peat along the river Foulness at Bursea
House and Holme House during modern drainage operations (Fig. 4).
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In the Early Mesolithic then, there does seem to be a very close link between the
productive aquatic landscapes and human activity in the Foulness valley, resem-
bling that in other parts of Yorkshire and beyond. After the transition to the Later
Mesolithic, dated in this region to about 8500 BP at Filpoke Beacon on the edge of
the Tees valley and at Broomhead Moor V in the Yorkshire Pennines (Switsur and
Jacobi 1979), that link is much less in evidence.
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clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
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peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
so
il
s:
Bu
r
sea
Hasholme
Ha
olme
o
o
as
e
e
sh
s
Grange
Grange
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YORKSHIRE WOLDS
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S
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IVER H
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WALLING FEN
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flints
elk bones
tranchet axes
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inds:
01
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 4. The Early Mesolithic Foulness valley showing the distribution of finds against the soils
(after King and Bradley 1987). The clustering of activity around the former lakes at Everingham
Carrs, Bursea and Hasholme, is particularly noticeable.

THE LATER MESOLITHIC
Activity continued into the Later Mesolithic at Howe Hill, Everingham, and Howe
Hill, HOSM, as assemblages typical of this period have been recorded there, consist-
ing of geometric microliths, blades and scrapers. Elsewhere in the Foulness valley,
blades, microliths and scrapers have been found by earlier workers such as Williams
(whose collection is in the Yorkshire Museum) and by Peter Halkon. There appears
to be a subtle difference between Early and Later Mesolithic distributions; whereas
earlier Mesolithic sites (Fig. 4) seem to be located right on the edge of the wetland
margins at the widest areas of peat and alluvium, Later Mesolithic findspots (Fig. 5)
are more widespread, suggesting activity on higher land away from the wetlands.
The explanation for this change is likely to be environmental, for as the Later
Mesolithic progressed, the resource-rich mosaics of meres and fens were gradually
replaced by more homogenous and less productive carr and bog conditions (Fig. 3)
in a similar way to South Holderness (Dinnin and Lillie 1995). Both carr (in which
the hydroseral succession has advanced to a dense marsh woodland normally
dominated by willow or alder), and bog (in which wetland plants tolerant of acidic
conditions, such as heather, cotton-grass or sphagnum moss, have become domi-
nant as the mire surface has grown high enough to minimize or end groundwater
influence), are late successional wetland stages supporting few edible plants and
animals. Nutrients are either locked up in woody growth or are almost absent. Van
der Woude (1985) has noted that Neolithic exploitation of Dutch lower river val-
leys occurred only when lakes were present in the wetland, with the areas aban-
doned when those environments were replaced by homogenous swamp forest.
Verhart (1995) has also noted that the Neolithic inhabitants in these Dutch lower
valley wetlands were exploiting only the same lake, reedswamp, and fen habitats
as their Mesolithic predecessors had, also by hunting and foraging, and avoiding
the areas that had converted to carr and bog.
By the mid eighth millennium BP, rising sea levels, a major contributory factor
behind these changes, led to the inundation of Doggerland, and it could be that
Later Mesolithic human populations in adjacent coastal lowlands, such as the area
around the Humber estuary, were increased by those who were displaced, as sug-
gested by Coles (1999). Recent modelling of North Sea palaeogeography based on
sea-level research around the western North Sea, including the Humber region
(Shennan et al. 2000b), has shown that any such environmentally induced migra-
tion must have been completed by c.7000 BP, as by this time the Dogger Bank was
exposed only at low tide. A withdrawal of people from the diminishing Dogger-
land probably occurred from at least the start of the Later Mesolithic, around 8500
BP in the Yorkshire area, and by 7500 BP, the small island that remained could not
have sustained a Mesolithic home territory. Although migrating groups may have
been small in number, they would have added to the mainland population at the
same time as the Humber lowland resource base was starting to fail because of
the same rising water levels.
Although some meres and fen-reedswamp persisted, in general the carr and bog
environments which filled the Foulness valley provided a less attractive economic
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focus for Later Mesolithic foragers, which may be a further explanation for their
increased utilization of higher ground. Again environmental changes appear to be
affecting human behaviour. Pollen analysis (Tweddle 2001) shows that by this time
deciduous forest had fully developed, with pine on the sandier islands and
uplands and domination by alder in valley bottoms. This woodland was to con-
tinue to be of great importance throughout the Later Mesolithic, and into the
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clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
soils
:
Bursea
sea
a
a
a
a
Burs
B
Bu
Hasholme
hol
Ha
e
o
o
H
H
lme
e
ho
h
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
Market
Weighton
flints
oak tree
red deer & dog bones
fin
ds:
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
O
O
S
O
S
Y
O
RK
KS
H
R
E
W
OL
D
S
VALE OF YORK
YORK
O
YO
VALE
L
L
O
O
E
E
O
O
YO
Y
Y
Y
V
V
A
A
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
E
E
E
E
E
E
O
O
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
R
R
K
K
R
IVER HUMBE
R
WALLING FE
N
Church Hill
Everingham
ngham
E
m
m
E
E
i
ng
g
Everin
E
am
m
ha
ha
E
E
E
v
v
e
e
r
r
n
n
n
n
g
g
h
h
a
a
a
a
m
m
Carrs
Ca
a
a
arrs
C
a
a
a
r
r
s
s
H
otham
C
arrs
Howe Hill (Ev.)
H
H
H
ll (Ev.)
E
E
l(E
l
E
E
E
E
v
v
)
)
Howe Hill (HoSM)
Ho
H
H
H
H
H
Hill
l
i
i
0
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 5. The Later Mesolithic Foulness valley showing the distribution of finds against the soils
(after King and Bradley 1987). Flint distributions show a northwards expansion of activity, espe-
cially close to watercourses.

Neolithic, with the dryland landscape covered with mixed deciduous forest of oak,
elm and hazel. Where riparian fen-reedswamp environments persisted in river val-
leys Later Mesolithic sites continued to be located there, as at places in the Hull
valley (Lillie 2001). Overall, however, the decline of resource opportunities in the
river valleys may well have led to Later Mesolithic communities switching to a
more active management of the wooded higher ground, perhaps using fire as an
ecological force in a much more systematic way than in the earlier Postglacial. The
wealth of such evidence of woodland disturbance from the North York Moors
(Innes and Simmons 1988) suggests that the upland of the Wolds around the
Foulness valley may well have witnessed similar activity. Evidence for Later
Mesolithic forest disturbance in the form of charcoal layers is present in the Vale of
Pickering at Seamer Carr and Flixton Carr (Cloutman 1988), and Tweddle (2001)
has reported pollen analytical evidence of woodland disturbance in this period
from Holderness. Such disturbance of the mature lowland mid-Holocene forest in
the Humber region would be analogous to several other examples from lowland
northern England which may have had a human cause (Simmons and Innes 1987),
and were designed to increase resource yield and availability.
In considering human response to environmental change, it is most interesting
that Mithen (1999:38) suggests that the switch in microlithic styles between the
Early and Later Mesolithic ‘may be the archaeological manifestation of a sequence
of changes: the establishment of dense deciduous woodland led to alterations in
the behaviour and distribution of game, requiring new hunting strategies that in
turn demanded new designs for hunting weapons’, essentially prompted by a
change in environmental conditions. Evidence of the woodland, the hunters that
exploited it, and the quarry they hunted was discovered at Hawling Road, Market
Weighton (Fig. 5), during the construction of the Market Weighton bypass and the
culverting of Market Weighton Beck. Here a naturally felled oak was discovered,
dated to 4834–4576 cal BC (GU-5001) in a layer of peat underlying alluvial clay. The
same peat contained the bones of dog and a rather elderly deer (Halkon 2003;
Halkon et al. forthcoming). The oak and an alder which lay close to it may have
been victims of a rapid environmental change that created threats and eventually
opportunities for human populations in the region. For, in the lower Foulness val-
ley (Fig. 3), the peat-forming freshwater wetlands were inundated by a marine
transgression that established estuarine conditions and deposited intertidal clays
from around 4789–4352 cal BC (SRR-4894; Long et al. 1998). The similarity of this
date with the tree from Market Weighton is striking and it could be that the hydro-
logical effects of the marine transgression were felt upstream, with higher water
tables and peat formation (Kirby 2001).
The lower Foulness valley became an estuarine inlet opening into the inner
Humber system (Figs 2 and 3), conditions which persisted for well over a thousand
radiocarbon years (Kirby and Gearey 2001; Long et al. 1998; Metcalfe et al. 2000).
The presence of coastal environments and resources in the lower Foulness valley in
this period may well have been attractive to human occupation and exploitation in
the Later Mesolithic and into the period of Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. The pres-
ence of estuarine resources has been postulated as a key factor in the distribution of
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Later Mesolithic sites in other areas of northern England, such as Cumbria (Bonsall
et al. 1989; Clare et al. 2001). The lower Foulness valley may have assumed renewed
importance in human economic systems at the end of the Mesolithic, as it became
part of the developed Humber estuary system rather than a small tributary of the
fluvial Humber. Elements of coastal/inland economic migration may be postulated,
of the type in the western Baltic described by Fischer (2003), as part of a trading net-
work by boat through the Humber estuary system and the western North Sea.
Although the time of any Doggerland refugees was long past, this end-Mesolithic
culmination of the Holocene sea-level rise after 6000 BP provided increased oppor-
tunities for maritime contact with peoples of continental Europe and southern
Britain, perhaps including the exchange of ideas and populations as well as com-
modities. It may not be coincidence that the initial indications of the transition to a
Neolithic style economy in Britain, if the cereal-type pollen grains that occur on
some pollen diagrams at this time really do record early forest farming (Innes et al.
2003), appear during this phase of high sea level, which is dated as starting at
Sandholme Lodge at 5615±45 BP (Long et al. 1998).
THE NEOLITHIC
The full effects of this changed coastline on human populations are yet to be
resolved, but it may help in some way to explain the distribution of another pre-
sumed proxy indicator of landscape change, the Neolithic polished stone and flint
axeheads in the Foulness valley (Fig. 6). So far 17 stone and flint axeheads and
adze-blades have been found in a 6 × 9 km area, with a total of 30 in the wider area
of the Foulness valley. Where their provenance is known, the majority of the
HOSM area axeheads were found on light, better-drained soils, especially close to
the alluvium of the river Foulness, though there is a second clustering to the east of
the Foulness valley away from the main watercourses and wetlands. Cummins
(1979) has noted a correlation between axehead distribution and lighter soils.
Radley (1974:11, fig. 1) has also noted the effect of higher ground and proximity of
rivers on axehead location in the Vale of York.
Many of the Foulness valley axeheads (Fig. 6) were from distant sources –
Group VI from Great Langdale in the Lake District, Group VII from Graig Lwyd in
North Wales, and Group XVIII from Northumberland (Manby 1979) – and it is
tempting to see at least some of them as being brought into the area by boat.
Further to the north, the use of water transport may also provide an explanation
for the distribution of the so-called ‘Bridlington type’ and Group I axeheads of
Cornish origin, recorded by Manby (1979:76, fig. 8) as being concentrated in the
coastal areas. Manby (pers. comm.) postulates that axeheads of Group VI came into
the area as part of a complex cycle of activity involving seasonal movement and
exchange, primarily exchange for grain; the concentration of henges between the
Ure and the Swale, with their strategic position between the western uplands and
Vale of York (Harding 2000), acting as focal points for such activities. It is unlikely
that Langdale-type axeheads in the Foulness valley lowlands were exchanged for
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cereals as, certainly in the earlier Neolithic, pollen analysis shows that this area
was heavily wooded and what small-scale clearance there was can be best
explained by woodland management (Gilbertson 1984a), rather than clearance for
agriculture. Analysis of beetle remains at Hasholme (Heath and Wagner forthcom-
ing) suggests that this was not intensive as many species were present associated
H
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: SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE 239
clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
s
o
il
s
:
10m
10m
10m
10m
25m
5m
5m
5m
5m
5m
50m
50m
50m
75m
75m
100m
100m
125m
et
t
Market
ark
k
k
t
Ma
Market
ghton
ht
h
h
Weight
Weigh
We
We
W
W
W
W
e
e
e
e
h
h
ht
h
ton
ton
on
n
ght
ton
t
South Cliffe
o
th
S
o
th C
S
Hasholme
Hasho
me
sh
h
Ha
e
e
ayton
ayton
t
a
a
t
t
t
o
o
Ha
Ha
H
H
H
H
Ha
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
O
O
S
O
S
Y
O
RK
KS
H
R
E
W
OL
D
S
VALE OF YORK
R
Y
OR
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
R
R
R
Y
Y
Y
R
R
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
ORK
O
RIVER
HUMBER
WALLIN
G
FEN
Church Hill
Howe Hill
Hill
i
i
(HoSM)
)
Group VI axes & adzes
Group VII axes & adzes
Group XVIII axes & adzes
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
long barrows
flint axes & adzes
finds:
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 6. The distribution of Neolithic polished stone and flint axeheads and adze-blades against
the soils (after King and Bradley 1987) of the Foulness valley. Note the Walling Fen tidal inlet.

with dead wood. Managed woodland from the Foulness valley lowlands (Zones 1
and 2) may have supplied the timber for the construction of a long barrow at
Market Weighton Wold (Greenwell and Rolleston 1877; Kinnes and Longworth
1985), which is situated at the head of a dry valley, on what is likely to have been a
major route between upland and lowland (Zone 1; Fig. 6).
Evidence from the Foulness valley seems to suggest a similar transition between
the Later Mesolithic and Neolithic periods as that described by Whittle (1999), with
much greater continuity between the two periods than hitherto presumed. The dis-
tribution of Neolithic finds is shown in Figure 7. At Hawling Road, Market
Weighton, earlier Neolithic leaf-shaped flint arrowheads were found during excava-
tion close to Market Weighton Beck (Schofield forthcoming), not far from the find-
spot of red deer and dog bones described earlier. These are perhaps best explained
as losses by groups engaged in hunting and fishing on a seasonal basis along the
river system, which would indicate a further continuity with the Later Mesolithic.
Two sites within the Foulness valley – Howe Hill, Everingham, and South Cliffe
Common – have yielded early Neolithic material on sites where Mesolithic finds
have also been made: Grimston style pottery (the only such find in the eastern Vale
of York so far), flint scrapers and leaf arrowheads at Howe Hill, Everingham, and
scrapers and leaf arrowheads at South Cliffe. Although such ‘mixed’ sites have been
recognized elsewhere in northern England (Young 1990), their relative rarity (Whittle
1999) makes them worthy of further investigation.
THE LATER NEOLITHIC
The continuation of woodland management, especially within Zone 2 of the
Foulness valley, is confirmed by further axehead finds (Fig. 6), some of which show
signs of heavy use and reworking. However, the condition of some of the tools
suggests that they were never used, especially a fine Seamer-Duggleby type flint
adze-blade from Hasholme Carr Farm, found close to the wetland, with a Group
XVIII stone axehead in equally pristine condition (Manby forthcoming). Perhaps
they may belong to the series of stone axeheads of non-local, even continental ori-
gin, found in unexpectedly high proportions in springs, bogs and rivers in Britain
referred to by Bradley (1990:66–7), although in the case of the Foulness valley, as
has been pointed out earlier, more work needs to be done on the deposits from
which these were derived before this idea of ritual deposition can be fully
accepted. The fact that several axeheads are of types more common in Lincolnshire
implies that they arrived along the river system.
It is certain that some of the later Neolithic axeheads were used for woodland
clearance, as the distribution of later flint artefacts (Fig. 7) shows an opening out of
the landscape away from the river Foulness, especially on the sand ridges of Zone 2.
At South Cliffe Common concentrations of scrapers, a single-piece flint sickle, and a
complete saddle quern (almost certainly of Neolithic origin as its top stone bears a
groove from sharpening polished stone axeheads), may attest to settlement and asso-
ciated agricultural activity. Here the sandy soils, although limited in fertility, were
easy to work; however, as in East Anglia (Lawson 1981), they became heathlands
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with the destruction of vegetation accelerating podzolization. So far the only exca-
vated evidence for later Neolithic deposits in the Foulness valley lowlands was dis-
covered further north at Hayton, where, close to the chalk stream of Hayton Beck,
three pits were found containing animal bone and Grooved Ware pottery, which
H
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: SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE 241
clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
so
il
s
:
10m
10m
10m
10m
25m
5m
5m
5m
5m
5m
50m
50m
50m
75m
75m
100m
100m
125m
et
t
Market
ark
k
k
t
Ma
Market
ghton
ht
h
h
Weight
Weigh
We
We
e
We
W
W
W
W
W
e
e
e
e
e
e
h
h
ht
h
ton
ton
on
n
ght
ght
ton
t
South Cliffe
th C
S
o
th C
S
Hasholme
Ha
asholm
me
me
lm
lm
H
l
h
h
ayton
ayton
t
a
a
t
t
t
o
o
Ha
Ha
H
H
H
H
Ha
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
O
O
S
O
S
Y
O
RK
KS
H
R
E
W
OL
D
S
VALE OF YORK
R
Y
OR
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
R
R
Y
Y
Y
R
R
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
ORK
O
RIVER
HUMBER
WALLIN
G
FE
N
Church Hill
Howe Hills
H
H
H
Ho
H
H
H
H
o
o
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
quern
q
q
later Neolithic finds
early Neolithic flint finds
Grooved Ware
Grimston Ware
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
long barrows
*
H?
H
H
H
henges & hengi-forms
finds:
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 7. The distribution of Neolithic finds (excluding axeheads and adze-blades) against the soils
(after King and Bradley 1987) of the Foulness valley.

included some elaborately decorated Woodlands style ‘tubs’ (Halkon et al. 2000). The
presence of hazelnuts in the pits demonstrates continued woodland based activity
and the Grooved Ware again raises the issue of ritual deposition (Cleal and McSween
1999). Manby (Manby et al. 2003) notes that similar pits have been found in a variety
of landscapes within the wider Yorkshire region. A reason for the paucity of
Neolithic pottery in field-walking assemblages may be its fragility, as it is unlikely to
survive the rigours of the plough in the same way as later fabrics. So far it has only
been found where some excavation has taken place, such as Hayton, and the earlier
Neolithic sites of Howe Hill, Everingham, and the Market Weighton Wold long bar-
row referred to earlier, where Grimston Ware was found.
By the later Neolithic, there was a contrast in landscapes between Foulness valley
zones, the lighter land towards the Yorkshire Wolds in the north of Zone 2 and in
Zone 1 being more open (Fig. 2). Lillie and Gearey (1999:107) have shown that in
Zone 3 in the central area of Walling Fen (Fig. 2), there were ‘wooded environments
comprising birch, alder, pine fen with hazel, oak and probably lime on the drier areas
of the fen’. The extent and density of woodland in this area is a matter of some
debate, as analysis of peats at Faxfleet ‘demonstrate a clear shift to more open grass-
lands with some suggestion of agricultural activities during the Neolithic and Bronze
Age Periods’ (Lillie and Gearey 1999:107). Tweddle (2001) and Lillie (2001), review-
ing the vegetational history and human–landscape relations in the Humber low-
lands, suggest that while exploitation of river valleys continued in the Neolithic, in
most cases dense alder-dominated vegetation was characteristic of floodplain envi-
ronments (Brown 1988). Evidence of forest clearance and some arable agriculture
does occur in lowland situations away from the wetter lowlands on better-drained
soils. The uplands of the Wolds, for example, appear to have been almost cleared of
woodland during the Neolithic (Bush and Flenley 1987), and Gilbertson (1984b) sug-
gests that heavy clearance may have occurred in the lowlands at favourable loca-
tions, such as Skipsea Withow Mere in Holderness. Pollen analysis of a peat unit that
spanned the Neolithic period at Hasholme (Turner 1987), however, showed that
there were no indications of forest clearance in that part of the Foulness valley.
Neolithic agriculture may well have been very localized and confined to lighter soils
away from the valley floodplain. Some woodland management through coppicing,
such as suggested by Gilbertson (1990) may have been the only, low-intensity, impact
upon the floodplain forests. At Hasholme transgression clays were overlain by detri-
tal peats derived from dense carr woodland. What had once been a tidal inlet
became increasingly terrestrial woodland (Fig. 3) and the artefactual and environ-
mental data provide evidence for human adaptation to these changed circumstances.
THE BRONZE AGE (FIG. 8)
During the Early Bronze Age, marine conditions seem to have retreated from the
Foulness valley itself with a replacement of salt-marsh environments at Sandholme
Lodge by freshwater habitats a little before 4000 radiocarbon years BP (4835–4534 cal
BP, 2885–2584 cal BC; Long et al. 1998). A significant reduction in the rate of sea-level
rise in Early Bronze Age times meant that vertical accumulation of sediment in lower
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valley wetlands raised the land surface beyond the reach of intertidal waters (Long
et al. 1998; Metcalfe et al. 2000). Dense alder-dominated carr vegetation dominated
most of these perimarine riverine areas like the Foulness valley with more fen vegeta-
tion nearer to the marine limit (Kirby and Gearey 2001). Recent environmental analysis
suggests salt-marsh grazing on the Humber foreshore (Van de Noort and Ellis 1999).
H
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: SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE 243
clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
soils:
10m
10m
10m
10m
25m
5m
5m
5m
5m
5m
50m
50m
50m
75m
75m
100m
100m
125m
Everingham
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
rthorpe
orpe
rp
p
e
e
Everthorp
rp
e
e
rtho
orpe
rthorp
00m
0
100
Shiptonthorpe
beaker burials
single findspots
Hasholme
axe hammers & battle axes
tumuli
f
in
ds
:
H?
H
H
H
henges & hengi-forms
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
YO
OR
K
SH
IR
RE
W
WO
LD
DS
Y
O
RK
KS
H
R
EW
WO
OL
D
S
OF YORK
ORK
YO
O
O
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
O
R
R
K
K
VALE O
O
VALE
L
L
O
O
E
E
V
V
A
A
L
L
L
L
L
L
E
E
E
E
O
O
F YO
YO
Y
O
O
YO
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
OF YO
R
IVER H
U
MBE
R
WALLING FEN
W
WA
LLI
NG
FE
N
W
W
AL
L
LI
N
G
G
F
E
EN
Church Hill
Hotham
a
th
Carrs
C
s
0
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Market Weighton
Wold
Market Weighton
Wold
Market Weighton
Wold
Market Weighton
Wold
Figure 8. Evidence for activity in the Foulness valley of the earlier Bronze Age. Note the regres-
sion of the Walling Fen tidal inlet, which was replaced by extensive woodland.

Sedimentation rates were increased locally by more intensive clearance of valley-
side woodlands in the Bronze Age (Tweddle 2001), although pastoral rather than
arable activities may have predominated in the valley. Heath and Wagner (forth-
coming) suggest a mosaic of wetland habitats along the Foulness valley, with a
general trend of less woodland upstream. At Skelfrey Beck, Shiptonthorpe (Heath
and Wagner forthcoming; Wagner 1999), for example, beetle analysis shows evi-
dence for large animals, probably cattle, grazing close to the watercourse, although
the discovery of a barbed-and-tanged arrowhead nearby, its tip broken by use, may
indicate that as in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, hunting continued to be an
important economic activity along the margins of rivers and creeks. Further down-
stream at Hasholme, red deer antlers and bones, including a mandible bearing
butchery marks, were found in peat deposits by the river Foulness, below the
marine clays in which the Hasholme boat sank (Millett and McGrail 1987). Barbed-
and-tanged arrowheads have been found at Hasholme Hall on the sand hill close
to the findspot of the deer bones. The Hasholme example may, however, derive
from a ploughed-out round barrow as Bronze Age pottery is recorded from this
location (Hicks and Wilson 1975). Such a situation for barrows is analogous with
the fenland of East Anglia, where they are often to be found on the crests of local-
ized sand rises (Martin 1981).
The majority of round barrows are, however, to be found in Zone 1 (Figs 2 and 8),
running in two broad bands. One of these follows the Wolds foothills, many bar-
rows being positioned at the entrances to the valleys running into the Wolds (Fig.
8), with a further band on the western edge of the escarpment. Between the bands
is the spring-line formed at the junction of the Lias Bench and Cretaceous Chalk
(Kent 1980). The largest barrow group is at Market Weighton Wold, consisting of at
least 19 round barrows with a spectacular viewpoint overlooking the Vale of York.
The southernmost of these lies only 100 m from the Market Weighton Wold long
barrow. Although caution in the overuse of ritual explanations has already been
advocated, within the Foulness valley study area, the positioning of these monu-
ments appears to be closely tied with the landscape and may have indicated some
form of territorial control. The linearity of the round barrows at Market Weighton
Wold (Fig. 8) is particularly striking and contrasts with the more clustered distribu-
tions elsewhere.
Down on the lowlands there is a tendency for Early Bronze Age finds to be
located on the dry ridges and riverbanks (Fig. 8), particularly the so-called axe-
hammers and battle-axes. The distribution of these artefacts complements the find-
ings of Radley (1974) elsewhere in the Vale of York. For the Middle and Late Bronze
Age, Manby et al. (2003) have pointed out the lack of finds of bronze axeheads on
the Wolds compared with the more numerous Neolithic stone and flint axeheads.
A possible explanation for this may be that much of the Wolds (Fig. 2, Zone 1) was
cleared by the end of the Neolithic period, so such tools were no longer necessary.
On the other hand he argues that the relatively large numbers of bronze axeheads
on the lowlands of the Foulness valley (see Fig. 9) may suggest that this area
remained wooded, the distribution of bronze tools relating to woodland manage-
ment. The same landscape that produced a concentration of polished stone and
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flint axeheads has also yielded 10 single finds of bronze palstaves, winged and
socketed axeheads and three large hoards, the earliest of these discovered at
Hotham Carrs (Burgess 1968; Sheppard 1941:15).
The thick peat deposits at Hasholme (Fig. 3) preserved substantial oak trees of
Bronze Age date (Millett and McGrail 1987). Dendrochronology reveals that the
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clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
so
il
s:
10m
10m
10m
10m
25m
5m
5m
5m
5m
5m
50m
50m
50m
75m
75m
100m
100m
125m
Everingham
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
Everthorpe
h
Everth
axe hoard
single axe
boats
f
in
ds:
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
O
O
S
O
S
Y
O
RK
KS
H
R
E
W
OL
D
S
OF YORK
ORK
YO
O
O
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
O
R
R
K
K
VALE O
O
VALE
L
L
EO
O
E
V
V
A
A
L
L
L
L
L
L
E
E
E
E
O
O
F YO
YO
Y
YO
O
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
OF YO
RIVER
HUMBER
WALLING FEN
WA
LL
NG
FE
N
W
W
A
L
LI
N
G
G
E
EN
Church Hill
Hotham
m
m
a
Carrs
C
0
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 9. Middle and Late Bronze Age metalwork hoards and single finds plotted against the soils
of the Foulness valley. The location of the North Ferriby boats is also indicated.

parent tree of the Hasholme logboat, a product of close-canopy woodland, was 800
years old when it was felled between 321–277 BC (Millett and McGrail 1987).
Several trackways such as the example from Melton (Crowther 1987; Van De Noort
and Ellis 1999) and the remarkable boats from North Ferriby (Wright 1990) may
also be the products of the Foulness valley forests. The boats have been re-dated to
the range of 1940–1720 cal BC for Boat 2 and 2030–1780 cal BC for Boat 3 (Wright
et al. 2001). The number of prehistoric boats from the Humber basin (McGrail 1990)
provides ample evidence for a complex network of trade and exchange, and the
substantial numbers of bronze implements around the Humber zone may have
been part of this.
It can be argued that bronzes from Zone 2 and, to a lesser extent, Zone 3 (Fig. 9),
follow a strongly defined pattern of finds of Bronze Age metalwork from wet places
and, as Barber (2003) has discussed, may represent ritual deposition. It is important
however, that this explanation is not overplayed and that the original practical pur-
pose of most of these tools is not forgotten.
Beetle evidence from Hasholme shows that there was deterioration of climate in
the Late Bronze Age that culminated in a short-lived but very severe cold and wet
episode about 2650 BP (Heath and Wagner forthcoming), in accordance with the
evidence for this period across north-west Europe (Van Geel et al.1996) and exem-
plified by the relevant radiocarbon date of 2630 ± 60 BP from the North York Moors
(Blackford and Chambers 1991). Pollen, beetle and plant macrofossil analyses from
throughout the Humber region show increasing wetness (Smith 2002; Tweddle
2001; Whitehouse 2004), with continued peat growth, reed swamp and fen-carr
along the upper Foulness valley.
THE IRON AGE
There was a more dramatic change to the landscape around 800–500 BC as a
marine incursion transformed the coastline of the northern shore of the Humber,
creating a tidal inlet of the lower Foulness valley (Fig. 10). At this time, marine con-
ditions attained their maximum Holocene extent in the Humber estuary (Kirby
2001; Long et al. 1998; Metcalfe et al. 2000). Intertidal conditions associated with
this Late Bronze Age to early Iron Age transgression event penetrated much fur-
ther up the Humber’s tributary valleys than in Mesolithic/Neolithic times. Late
Bronze Age cultural material has been found within or beneath the marine clays of
this high sea-level at many places in the Humber system, for example at the Melton
trackways referred to earlier (Crowther 1987; Long et al. 1998). At Hasholme over a
metre of estuarine clay was deposited over the earlier Bronze Age peats (Fig. 3).
Waterlogging and peat formation became widespread in the upper reaches of the
Foulness valley as a consequence of this sea-level rise. A forested freshwater
landscape was thus transformed and the Foulness system became once again an
integral part of the Humber estuary and the sea transport routes beyond. The
Hasholme boat (Millett and McGrail 1987) and the now destroyed South Carr Farm
logboat (Halkon 1997) provide evidence for the use of this system for transport.
These vessels may be associated with one of the largest prehistoric iron industries
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yet discovered in Britain, which developed along the Foulness valley (Fig. 10). This
industry benefited from the combined resources of the large amount of remaining
woodland and proximity to the river and associated creeks, which provided access
H
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clay
estuarine clay
peat
alluvium
loess
sands
peat, alluvium
& sand patches
Mercia mudstone
so
il
s:
10m
10m
10m
10m
25m
5m
5m
5m
5m
5m
50m
50m
50m
75m
75m
100m
100m
125m
B
Bursea
u
u
me
e
e
ho
as
H
H
H
o
h
h
h
m
m
m
H
H
H
a
H
H
H
H
H
a
as
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
o
o
o
o
l
l
l
l
m
m
m
m
me
e
ayton
ay
ayton
a
a
y
y
o
o
n
n
Ha
Ha
Ha
H
H
H
H
H
a
a
a
ay
Welham Bridge
m
Welh
W
W
W
W
W
We
We
Holme-on-
Spalding-Moor
iron-working sites
iron smelting
square barrows
as
Arras
A
A
rra
s
s
as
B
B
B
log boats
fin
ds:
YORKSHIRE WOLDS
Y
OR
RK
S
HI
RE
W
WO
L
DS
Y
YO
R
KS
H
R
E
W
O
LD
S
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
OF YORK
ORK
YO
O
O
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
O
R
R
K
K
VALE O
O
VALE
L
L
O
O
E
E
V
V
A
A
L
L
L
L
L
L
E
E
E
E
O
O
F YO
YO
Y
O
O
YO
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
O
O
O
OF YO
RIVER
HUMBER
W
ALLIN
G
FEN
Church Hill
0
1
2
3
4
5
Km
N
Figure 10. The Iron Age Foulness valley. Note the reappearance of the Walling Fen tidal inlet re-
created as sea level reaches its Holocene peak. The clustering of iron smelting sites around Welham
Bridge (including the Moore’s Farm site) indicates the presence of a major industrial zone. Many of
the square barrows appear to be situated at key points within the landscape, including what would
have been a sandy island in the wetland north of Hasholme. The ‘type-site’ Arras cemetery lies at
the head of Sancton Dale, which forms a routeway between lowland and upland.

to markets for iron. Analysis and experiment have shown that the Foulness valley
iron industry exploited bog ores from the river margins (Halkon and Millett 1999).
There may well be a relationship between iron production, control of watercourses
and the distinctive Arras culture burials with their square barrows and chariot
burials containing iron objects such as iron tyres and mirrors. Detailed accounts of
the Iron Age archaeology of the Foulness valley have appeared elsewhere (Halkon
and Millett 1999, 2000).
Palaeoenvironmental evidence (Lillie 2001; Tweddle 2001) strongly suggests
that after the very cold and wet climate of the early Iron Age when little farming
activity is recorded, the later Iron Age was a time of high-intensity regional defor-
estation for mixed agriculture, with cereal cultivation an important component. In
order to sustain the iron industry large tracts of managed woodland must have
remained along the Foulness valley, though dense Iron Age agricultural and settle-
ment activity is revealed through crop-mark evidence (Halkon and Millett 1999),
especially on the sandy hills of the Foulness catchment. Regional deforestation for
arable agriculture is also a feature of the south Yorkshire lowlands, creating a very
open landscape indeed. Deforestation occurred around Thorne and Hatfield Moors
after dated levels of 2085 ± 70, 2225 ± 70 and 2145 ± 65 BP (Smith 2002). On the
Yorkshire Wolds at Willow Garth, Bush (1993) also recorded a major switch after
2120 ± 50 BP to arable cultivation with high cereal values, while at Askham Bog,
near York, there was a sharp decline in oak and hazel and a rise in grass and cereal
pollen after 2010 ± 90 BP (Kenward 1978; Lillie and Gearey 1999) as woodland was
converted to arable land. This is in stark contrast to the very sparse evidence for
human activity in the cold and wet early Iron Age, when rising water tables and a
high incidence of flooding (Dark 2006; Macklin et al. 2005; Whitehouse 2004)
caused agricultural withdrawal from lowland areas and probably a change in land-
use strategy in the uplands. It may be simplistic to explain this late Iron Age expan-
sion of economic and cultural activity into previously marginal land in the
Humber area as a positive response to environmental change – the major climatic
amelioration that occurred at about 2400 BP (Hughes et al. 2000; Langdon et al.
2004) – but it is almost certainly correct to do so.
CONCLUSIONS
This account has demonstrated that study of the lowlands of east Yorkshire, which
have featured little in accounts of British prehistory, especially when compared to the
Yorkshire Wolds further to the north of the area of study, has been most revealing
and is certainly worthy of more attention. Survey of Holderness and the Hull valley
(Van de Noort and Ellis 1995, 2000), for example, has demonstrated the archaeologi-
cal potential of environmentally diverse lowland landscapes. Within the relatively
small area of the Foulness valley it has been possible to examine the interaction of
humans and landscape for a very long time-span. Certain trends of continuity of
land use, especially woodland exploitation and management, can be discerned.
What seems very clear is the very close link between the landscape and human activ-
ity within it throughout prehistory. Although, as discussed earlier, geographical
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determinism has been unfashionable as an explanation for past human behaviour,
the evidence in the Foulness valley, both archaeological and palaeoenvironmental,
shows that it cannot be ignored. Watercourses remained vital as providers of human
and animal refreshment and a means of transport. The location of the Foulness val-
ley is ideal for exploitation of local wetland and hinterland forest resources, and for
trading links through the Humber system and beyond. Such locations may well have
been entry points for culture change in prehistory, from Neolithization (Fischer 2003)
to the adoption of Iron Age technology (Halkon and Millett 2000; Halkon forth-
coming). Human cultural choices in prehistory will have been constrained and
conditioned by environmental parameters, perhaps particularly so during times of
environmental change. Detailed palaeoenvironmental knowledge should therefore
always be acquired before attempting archaeological explanations.
More problematic, however, is the interpretation of the distributions of Neolithic
polished stone axeheads and Bronze Age implements around Foulness valley
watercourses. One explanation, stemming largely from the work of Bradley (1990),
views the distribution of some artefacts as illustrating a pattern of ritual deposition
in watery places. Although some unworn and exotic examples may well have been
some form of offering, their original function as tools must not be forgotten as, in
the case of the Foulness valley Zones 2 and 3, the environmental evidence shows
that these areas were wooded and the stone and bronze tools were probably used
for the management and exploitation of this resource. In the context of a broadly
similar landscape to the Foulness valley, Pendleton (1993, 2001) has argued against
a ritual explanation for the deposition of bronzes in the Fens of East Anglia, a view
which conflicts with that of Pryor (2005), who continues to see the deposition of
objects in watery places as a major element in the interpretation of the now familiar
site of Flag Fen near Peterborough.
It could be argued that even if it was ceremony rather than carpentry that dic-
tated artefact distributions, this ritual behaviour was itself heavily influenced by
the environment in which people lived. In any case, it is likely that the religious
and everyday lives of these prehistoric inhabitants of the Foulness valley were
closely interwoven. The location of burial monuments in the Neolithic, Bronze Age
and Iron Age within the area of study all seem to relate to movement between the
contrasting environments of lowland and Wold, a familiar element of prehistoric
land-use patterns (Olsson et al. 1999).
This study appears to demonstrate an apparent coincidence between periods
of environmental and cultural change: the transition between Mesolithic and
Neolithic was heralded by marine transgression; the Neolithic to Bronze Age by
terrestrialization; and Bronze Age to Iron Age by major climate deterioration and a
further major marine transgression. It is acknowledged that advancing wetland
environments through the Holocene may have led to dryland sites of all periods
being buried beneath alluvial, mire and coastal sediments so that they do not fea-
ture on site distribution maps. Nevertheless, distributions of artefacts within the
study area do show that the sand ridges were favoured from the Mesolithic to Iron
Age and beyond and artefact distribution does seem to change to suit more
favourable environments. In this respect, similar situations may be found in other
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lowland wetland areas, where the archaeological record is configured as much or
more by environmental factors than by social or ritual dynamics (Bell and Neumann
1997; Peeters 2004; Perdaen et al. 2004). The landscape dynamics of the three envi-
ronmental zones described for the Foulness valley are such that activity areas, with
sites as their nuclei, would move in harmony with the changing mosaic of environ-
ments from tidal coast to forested high ground. Even with complicating factors
such as seasonal movements or changing site use, it is possible to perceive the
changing relative importance of particular landscape units through time.
The beginning of this account cautioned against the overuse of ritual explana-
tions for past human behaviour exemplified by structured deposition of tools in
the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Within the Foulness valley, the evidence suggests
that there are likely to be practical explanations for their distribution related to the
harvesting of woodland resources. Although some items may indeed have been
deposited as offerings, this may perhaps be best understood as a reaction to chang-
ing environmental conditions over which past populations had no control. Thus
the inexorable rise of water tables and the annexation of territory by wetland at the
end of the Bronze Age evident in the Foulness valley may have promoted the
adoption of water cults and associated ritual and votive activities, as it may have
done elsewhere (Barber 2003; Brown 2003). If this is the case, it shows the multifac-
eted impact of environmental change on past populations. There is, therefore a
need for the restoration of balance with regard to geographical determinism – a
new pragmatism – accepting that environmental factors have a great importance in
determining the nature and location of certain activities in the past, but which can-
not be used as the simple driving mechanism to explain them all.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are most grateful to John Negus, Mark Faulkner and John Garner for preparing
the figures for publication, and to all those who contributed to the fieldwork, and
enabled it to take place. The article has benefited from the comments of anony-
mous referees.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Peter Halkon is Lecturer in Archaeology and Programme Leader for Archaeology in the
History Department at Hull University. His research interests include landscape archaeol-
ogy in East Yorkshire’s Foulness valley with a focus on the Iron Age and Roman periods.
Heritage Lottery funding has enabled the construction of a web-based virtual landscape
‘Valley of the First Iron Masters’ (www.ironmasters.hull.ac.uk) based on this research.
Address: Department of History, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX. [email: a.p.halkon@
hull.ac.uk]
Jim Innes is Lecturer in Physical Geography at Durham and has research interests in
palynology, environmental archaeology and human palaeoecology, with particular
interest in the Mesolithic and the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition. His other interests in
palaeoenvironmental change include vegetation history and sea-level changes.
Address: Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE.
[email: j.b.innes@durham.ac.uk]
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ABSTRACTS
Habitat et économie dans les plaines préhistoriques changeant au fil des temps – une étude de
cas dans le Yorkshire oriental (GB)
Peter Halkon et Jim Innes
Cet article est une évaluation des majeurs changements survenus du début de l’Holocène jusqu’à
l’âge du Fer dans le paysage et le littoral d’une région adjacente au rivage nord de l’estuaire
intérieur du fleuve Humber dans le Yorkshire oriental, Grande-Bretagne. On considère les effets de
ces changements sur la culture matérielle telle que représentée par la répartition d’artefacts, y
compris les séries de silex et d’outils en pierre polie récupérées lors de relèvements sur le terrain.
Les conclusions ici présentées proviennent d’un projet de recherche permanent dans ce domaine et
se placent dans le contexte plus large de la région du Humber et du Bassin de la mer du Nord. Cet
article préconise un rétablissement de l’équilibre par rapport à un déterminisme géographique –
un nouvel pragmatisme – qui admet que les facteurs environnementaux ont une grande influence
dans la détermination de la nature et de la localisation de certaines activités du passé, bien que ces
facteurs ne sauront pas les expliquer toutes.
Mots clés: Yorkshire oriental, Humber, histoire du paysage, paléoenvironnement, répartition
préhistorique des artefacts, changement du niveau de la mer
Siedlung und Ökonomie in einer sich verändernden prähistorischen Landschaft des Tieflands –
eine Fallstudie aus Ost-Yorkshire (UK)
Peter Halkon und Jim Innes
Dieser Aufsatz bewertet die wesentlichen Veränderungen der Landschaft und der Küstenlinie, die
vom Beginn des Holozäns an bis zur Eisenzeit in einem Gebiet stattfanden, das dem Nordufer des
Ästuariums des Flusses Humber in Ost-Yorkshire, UK, benachbart ist. Er untersucht den Effekt
dieser Veränderungen auf die materielle Kultur, wie er durch Artefaktverteilungen, z. B. von
Flintinventaren und polierten Steingeräten, die bei Feldbegehungen entdeckt wurden, widergespiegelt
wird. Die Zusammenfassungen, die hier präsentiert werden, stammen aus einem kontinuierlichen
Programm von Studien in diesem Forschungsgebiet, und sie werden in den Kontext des weiteren
Humber-Gebietes und des Nordsee-Beckens gesetzt. Dieser Beitrag unterstützt eine Wiederherstellung
der Balance unter Berücksichtigung geographischer Determinismen, ein neuer Pragmatismus, der
akzeptiert, dass Umweltfaktoren eine große Bedeutung für die Beeinflussung der Natur und der
Orte bestimmter Aktivitäten in der Vergangenheit hatten – auch wenn diese nicht zur Erklärung aller
Phänomene herangezogen werden können.
Schlüsselbegriffe: Ost-Yorkshire, Humber, Landschaftsgeschichte, Paläo-Landschaft, prähistorische
Artefaktverteilung, Meeresspiegelschwankung
H
ALKON
& I
NNES
: SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE 259