Friday 21 August 2015

Tom Lane to Speak at the European Association of Archaeologists, Glasgow 2-5 Sept 2015

EAA Programme

This talk will take place on 5th Sept
ABSTRACT

LV4 - Maths Building 516
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: THE EFFECTS ON COASTAL SALTMAKING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, UK
Tom Lane ECOSAL UK

Following the results of English Heritage sponsored Surveys, chiefly in the 1980s, and subsequent investigative works, information is present about a series of past climate and environmental change events in the Fenland and coastal regions of Lincolnshire, Eastern England, covering some five millennia. These changes have resulted both in coastal erosion in places and elsewhere on the coast accretion. These altered landscapes affected not just coastal communities but those inland for up to 50km. Because of its specific natural resource requirements it is intended to view the issue through the coastal saltmaking industry, which flourished from the Bronze Age through to the end of the 16th century. The mapped west –east movement of the industry, and back again, reflects the displacement and movement of people, particularly the specialist saltmakers, and considers how such specialists may fare when the environment and resources necessary for their craft/industry is no longer available. The paper also considers human adaptability to such changes and asks what happened to people who were forced to move and become, in effect, refugees in their own country. Also touched on are issues of individual and group identity and cultural heritage of such groups.