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Reading Test 10
SECTION 1
Coastal Archaeology of Britain
A
The recognition of the wealth and diversity of England's coastal archaeology has been
one of the most important developments of recent years.
Some elements of this
enormous resource have long been known. The so-called 'submerged forests' off the
coasts of England, sometimes with clear evidence of human activity,
had attracted the
interest of antiquarians since at least the eighteenth century but serious and systematic
attention has been given to the archaeological potential of the coast only since the early
1980s.
B
It is possible to trace a variety of causes for this concentration of effort and interest In
the 1980s and 1990s scientific research into climate change and its environmental impact
spilled over into a much broader public debate as awareness of these issues grew; the
prospect of rising sea levels over the next century, and their impact on current coastal
environments, has been a particular focus for concern. At the same time archaeologists
were beginning to recognize that the destruction caused by natural processes of coastal
erosion and by human activity was having an increasing impact
on the archaeological
resource of the coast.
C
The dominant process affecting the physical form of England in the post- glacial period
has been the rise 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