England's Historic Seascapes: Southwold to Clacton
Oxford Archaeology (South), 2007. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000277. How to cite using this DOI
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 746
- ALSF Project Number: 4729
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000277
- How to cite using this DOI
England's Historic Seascapes:
Southwold to Clacton
ALSF Project Number 4729
Oxford Archaeology, 2007
Clacton Area
- Clacton Area
- 'Clactonian'
- Clacton
- Frinton-on-Sea
- Jaywick
- Martello Tower
- The Lyonesse Surface
- Walton-on-the-Naze
The Lyonesse Surface
The Lyonesse surface is a buried Mesolithic and Neolithic land surface lying above the London Clay which outcrops in places on the stretch of coast between Jaywick and Dovercourt. It was inundated by the sea some time after 3800-3700BP.
The surface was discovered and named by Samuel Hazzledean Warren in the early 20th century. He wrote that sites could be divided into campsites, pit dwellings, cooking holes, hearths and wooden structures.
Much of the Lyonesse surface and associated archaeology recorded by Warren has been lost as a result of sea wall construction, coastal erosion and resort development (Wilkinson and Murphy 1995, 1). Only select layers of the sequence recorded by Warren have survived and features recorded recently include pits containing flints, fired clay, animal bone, cereal and charcoal, ditches, flint scatters and loomweights (Wilkinson and Murphy 1995).
The remains may represent widespread specialised coastal settlements which ended abruptly after the Beaker period. These may have developed behind sand and gravel barriers, since eroded (ibid, 218).
