Wave? What wave? Testing for impact of the Garth tsunami (3500 BCE) on Neolithic coastal settlements in Western Norway

Abstract

This paper evaluates to what extent archaeological settlement sites from the Norwegian west coast exhibit traces of a paleotsunami impact in the mid-4th mill BCE. The timing of the Garth tsunami (~3500 cal BCE), as inferred from lake basins in Eastern Shetland and in Western Norway, coincides with the Early-Middle Neolithic transition in the Western Norwegian chronology. Before and after the Garth tsunami, the west coast of Norway was populated by hunter-fisher-gatherers highly adapted to a marine environment. If the Garth tsunami had a direct impact on coastal settlements, the event could become an important mediating factor for research on the Early-Middle Neolithic transition in this region. The paper investigates radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic evidence from 15 coastal settlement sites. It applies Bayesian sequence calculation to test for congruence between site activity phases and the tsunami event, and a Monte Carlo based frequency analysis to test for population fluctuations. Results from these analyses do not support the hypothesis of a catastrophic impact on the hunter-fisher-gatherer population in Western Norway.