ENVIRONMENT, ARCHAEOLOGY AND ALLUVIUM ON THE RIVER GRAVELS OF THE SOUTH MIDLANDS
Author(s): M Robinson
Within less than 20 years, many of the preconceptions about the Holocene geomorphology and archaeology of the floodplains of the major river systems of the South Midlands/ Central Southern England have been overturned. Large scale gravel extraction combined with the rise of rescue archaeology have resulted in many quarry exposures being available for study and much detailed excavation in the Upper Thames, Nene and Ouse Valleys. Their channels have been shown to be of the Pleistocene gravels during the past 10,000 years. Overbank alluviation with fine sediments was not a feature of these rivers until comparatively recently, indeed little or no flooding was taking place during much of the Holocene. The broad expanses of alluvium which comprise the modern floodplains to these rivers are not blank areas but cover rich archaeological landscapes with a high potential for environmental studies.
- Report Number:
- 2/1992
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 33
- Keywords:
- Environmental Studies
