Holocene river environments in prehistoric Britain: human interaction and impact

This paper presents a review of alluvial geoarchaeolgical research in Britain and considers some of the key conceptual and methodological issues that currently confront the subdiscipline. Three major themes are discussed. 1. The influence of Late Pleistocene inheritance on Holocene river development and river basin sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. 2. Establishing correlations between river alluviation and erosion episodes with climate and prehistoric landuse change. 3. The effects of Holocene river development on the preservation and visibility of the alluvial archaeological record. It is concluded that only when adequate temporal and spatial resolution is achieved in both the archaeological and geomorphological records of river valleys, will a true synergy develop and a full understanding of long term human-river environment interaction emerge.