Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Village
Bouldnor Battery overlooking the Solent. Bouldnor Cliff lies under the water in front of the cliffs.
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 Shown within the United Kingdom
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| Location | Bouldnor, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom |
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| Region | Solent |
| Coordinates | 50°42′49″N 01°27′50″W / 50.71361°N 1.46389°WCoordinates: 50°42′49″N 01°27′50″W / 50.71361°N 1.46389°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Mesolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | Submerged |
Bouldnor Cliff is a submerged prehistoric settlement site in the Solent. The site dates from the Mesolithic era and is in approximately 11 metres (12 yd) of water just offshore of the village of Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. The preservation of organic materials from this era that do not normally survive on dry land has made Bouldnor important to the understanding of Mesolithic Britain, and the BBC Radio 4's Making History programme described it "probably Europe's most important Mesolithic site" albeit concealed under water.
The site was first discovered by divers from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (now the Maritime Archaeology Trust) in 1999, when a lobster was observed discarding worked flint tools from its burrow on the seabed. Since then, several years of fieldwork have revealed that Bouldnor was a settlement site about 8,000 years ago, at a time when lower sea levels meant that the Solent was just a river valley. The work done so far has already revealed that the technology of Mesolithic settlers was probably 2,000 years ahead of what had previously been believed.
Investigations suggest that during the Mesolithic era, between 8000 and 4000 BC, the western Solent was a sheltered river basin, rich in woodland and fed by a river at Lymington and drained by the Western Yar at Freshwater. As sea levels rose, the Solent eventually flooded and the settlement area was swamped. The rising waters deposited silt and mud onto the original land surface, covering and preserving it.
Fishermen had reported recovering stone tools from the seabed of the Solent since the 1960s, but it was not until 1987 that the submerged remains of an ancient forest were discovered at Bouldnor. Later radiocarbon dating of pollen revealed this to be approximately 8,000 years old. Subsequently, regular dives revealed a submerged cliff east of Yarmouth with large quantities of peat that dated to a similar period.
The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology began mapping the cliff face and selected four main sites of interest (named BC 1–4). It was while diving in 11 metres (12 yd) of water on BC 2 in 1999, that divers noticed a burrowing lobster discarding worked flints from its burrow. The lobster had burrowed through thick mud deposits that had formed since the Solent flooded, and into the original surface of the cliff when the Solent was dry.
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