STATISTICAL RECONSTRUCTIONS OF FORMER SEA-LEVEL AROUND THE HUMBER ESTUARY, UK

The Humber Wetlands in the UK have been at the forefront of many substantial research projects aimed at understanding palaeoenvironment and archaeology changes of the area. However, existing research has failed to produce robust results fully consistent with archaeological evidence. Current reconstructions, for example, suggest that some archaeological sites were under water at times when they are known to have been occupied. These discrepancies are particularly evident in the late Holocene where palaeoenvironmental records are sparse but archaeological records are in abundance. This project describes the development of statistical techniques to combine the two sources of data to produce estimates of past sea level and to quantify their associated errors.