Very interesting article...thanks for posting. It had never occurred to me that the melting after the last glacial maximum would have inundated thousands of prehistoric coastal sites.
What puzzles me is the sea level rose over a period of 3,000 years. This isn’t Vesuvius-like cataclysm that froze people in their tracks. The inhabitants of these villages and cities had plenty of have time to move out of the way. Why wouldn’t they have taken their possessions with them? How hard would it be to move your boats and decorative paddles?
It’s refreshing, too, that this article doesn’t once mention the modern bogeyman of global warming and the threat of rising seas. If prehistoric man could adapt to sea level rises of up to 130 meters (!!), then I really think we can adapt to the faint possibility that modern sea levels might rise one meter.
Changes in sea level from 16,000 years ago to present in northwest Europe.
Probably has to do with the inability to employ hordes of local and student labor.
