Associated Press 29th November 2009 … the geography department of Northern Michigan University has spent three years on the shoreline of Lake Superior and have been able to define the boundaries as they existed around 2500BC. They found the water at that time was 30 to 40 feet higher than it is today and had features such as shallow water lagoons and enbayments rich in fish and plants.
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www.thelocal.se … 1st December 2009 … this online newspaper gives Swedish news in English and claims that people were living in northern Sweden (on the border with Finland) as early as 11,000 years ago. A settlement found at Pajalu in the Torne River Valley appears to upset glacial theories as far as how long it took the glacial ice to melt at the end of the Pleistocene. Theories about an extensive inland ice sheet persisting into the Early Holocene will now have to be abandoned – or should be. The region must have warmed up much quicker than previously allowed. Similarly, archaeologists will have to rethink theories from where these people may have migrated.
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European Science Foundation 29th November 2009 … around 12,800 years ago the northern hemisphere entered a mini-Ice Age known as the Younger Dryas event – and temperatures plummeted extremely quickly. A mud sediment core from a lough in Ireland shows it happened so quickly it would have been like hauling Ireland from its current geographical position to as far north as Svalbad (Spitzbergen). Temperature plunged dramatically (and this story was also covered in New Scientist, the Sunday Times and The Observer).
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University of Leicester Bulletin November 2009 … a Mesolithic site has been found near Melton Mowbray going back to around 9000BC, shortly after the end of the Younger Dryas event. The site consists of a charcoal rich area, probably a former communal hearth feature, and post holes with arcs of stones that may show the position of tent like structures. Further charcoal chips suggest cooking activities they say. The site is in an area rich with flint nodules and over 5000 worked flints have been excavated – including flint cores that were chipped to create tools, blade flakes, scrapers and arrowheads etc. Once again, what had recently been a cold environment appears to have been quickly colonised by roaming bands once the chill weather receded. The date is very near to the earlier Swedish evidence from the Torne River Valley.
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