The Project
The centrality of rivers in Britain comes to the fore in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages (c. 2500–400 BC) – a period of unprecedented human/object mobility. Fields, settlements, and burials accrued along river valleys, riverine human/object offerings burgeoned, and travel along rivers increased. However, our understandings of rivers are fragmented: archaeologists have focused on the largest and hence potentially atypical examples, and they have often treated rivers as passive backdrops for human action. Ebb & Flow will put rivers first – offering a novel, in-depth look at human activities along/near/in/on four diverse river systems and illuminating how rivers actively transform the world.
Ebb & Flow will challenge current understandings and address outstanding questions about human-river interaction in later prehistoric Britain by exploring rivers at multiple scales using a diverse suite of data, drawing on archaeology and biomolecular science, anthropology and earth science.
River Avon at Ibsley.
Ebb and Flow case study areas
The centrality of rivers in Britain comes to the fore in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages (c. 2500–400 BC) – a period of unprecedented human/object mobility. Fields, settlements, and burials accrued along river valleys, riverine human/object offerings burgeoned, and travel along rivers increased. However, our understandings of rivers are fragmented: archaeologists have focused on the largest and hence potentially atypical examples, and they have often treated rivers as passive backdrops for human action. Ebb & Flow will put rivers first – offering a novel, in-depth look at human activities along/near/in/on four diverse river systems and illuminating how rivers actively transform the world.
Ebb & Flow will challenge current understandings and address outstanding questions about human-river interaction in later prehistoric Britain by exploring rivers at multiple scales using a diverse suite of data, drawing on archaeology and biomolecular science, anthropology and earth science.
Ebb & Flow is currently funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant