C. The dominant process affecting the physical form of England in the postglacial period has been
rising in the altitude of sea level relative to the land, as the glaciers melted and the landmass readjusted. The
encroachment of the sea, the loss of huge areas of land now under the North Sea and the English Channel,
and especially the loss of the land bridge between England and France, which finally made Britain an island,
must have been immensely significant factors in the lives of our prehistoric ancestors. Yet the way in which
prehistoric communities adjusted to these environmental changes has seldom been a major theme in
discussions of the period. One factor contributing to this has been that, although the rise in relative sea level
is comparatively well documented, we know little about the constant reconfiguration of the coastline.
This was affected by many processes, mostly quite, which have not yet been adequately researched. The
detailed reconstruction of coastline histories and the changing environments available for human use will be
an important theme for future research.
D. So great has been the rise in sea level and the consequent regression of the coast that much of the
archaeological evidence now exposed in the coastal zone. Whether being eroded or exposed as a buried land
surface, is derived from what was originally terrestrial occupation. Its current location in the coastal zone is
the product of later unrelated processes, and it can tell us little about past adaptations to the sea. Estimates of
its significance will need to be made in the context of other related evidence from dry land sites.
Nevertheless, its physical environment means that preservation is often excellent, for example in the case of
the Neolithic structure excavated at the Stumble in Essex.
E. In some cases these buried land surfaces do contain evidence for human exploitation of what was a
coastal environment, and elsewhere along the modem coast there is similar evidence. Where the evidence
does relate to past human exploitation of the resources and the opportunities offered by the sea and the coast,
it is both diverse and as yet little understood. We are not yet in a position to make even preliminary
estimates of answers to such fundamental questions as the extent to which the sea and the coast affected
human life in the past, what percentage of the population at any time lived within reach of the sea, or
whether human settlements in coastal environments showed a distinct character from those inland.