2002 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA3 Technical report - Archaeology (North Sea)

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA3) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The report documents the known and likely occurrence of prehistoric archaeological remains across the whole floor of the North Sea including the SEA3 area, and makes suggestions on how to enhance the finding and reporting of such artefacts. Sea level change associated with the retreat of the last glaciation led to almost the whole floor of the North Sea being dry land at some time or another in the past 20,000 years. Similar exposure of the North Sea floor was also associated with earlier glacial cycles. Thus prehistoric submarine archaeological artefacts can occur over a wide area of the North Sea floor, as far north as the latitude of the Shetland Islands. While artefacts dating from the last 12,000 years are most likely, human or proto-human artefacts as old as half a million years may have survived in places. Submarine archaeological studies in the Danish Archipelago have established that coastal sites were an optimal place for prehistoric human occupation. Similar coastal sites existed over many parts of the North Sea floor in the past. The potential impact of oil and gas operations on submarine archaeological remains is discussed. Pipe entrenching is the most likely process to uncover prehistoric archaeological deposits.

本报告系对贸易与工业部（现能源与气候变化部）所进行的战略环境评估（SEA3）所作的贡献。报告详述了在北海全境，包括SEA3区域，已知及可能存在的史前考古遗存，并就如何提升此类遗物的发现与报告提出了建议。与最后一次冰期消退相关的海平面变化，导致在过去的两万年间，北海几乎全部海底曾一度变为陆地。北海海底的类似暴露也与早期的冰川周期相关联。因此，史前海底考古文物可能遍布北海海底，向北延伸至设得兰群岛的纬度。尽管距今1.2万年前的文物最为可能，但在某些地方，可能仍存有距今五十万年的古人类或原人类遗物。丹麦群岛的潜水考古研究证实，沿海地带是史前人类居住的理想场所。过去，类似的沿海地带遍布北海海底。本报告还讨论了石油和天然气开采活动对海底考古遗存的可能影响。管道埋设是最可能揭露史前考古沉积物的过程。