SEA CHANGE: NEW EVIDENCE FOR MESOLITHIC AND EARLY NEOLITHIC PRESENCE IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO GUERNSEY AND THE RISING HOLOCENE SEA

Abstract

Summary This paper summarizes the results of recent research on the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in the Channel Islands and focuses on the integration of new information into the long- running efforts to explain the processes by which the Neolithic became established in Guernsey and the other Channel Islands. This research builds on Kinnes's work on the complex monument at Les Fouaillages, Guernsey in the early 1980s and the review by Patton of Neolithic communities in the Channel Islands in 1995. Many rescue and research excavations in Guernsey have provided new evidence which informs the complex relationships between Guernsey, the other Channel Islands and the north-west of France at the time of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Analysis of the data takes into account recent French research (and in particular Cassen et al. 2000 and Guyodo and Hamon 2005). Also, at the time of writing, Kinnes's work on Les Fouaillages is being prepared for publication (Kinnes et al. forthcoming, see below). The developments are discussed against new and existing data for rising sea levels and the consequent isolation of Guernsey as an island.