ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the environmental interpretation of archaeological records in alluvial stratigraphic contexts. It reviews some of the more important research themes and problems which have emerged from geoarchaeological-based investigations of river valley archaeology in Britain over the last decade. The chapter highlights the strong tradition in Britain of collaboration between Quaternary scientists and archaeologists who work in riverine depositional environments, especially those who study the Palaeolithic. The smaller magnitude of change of hydrological regime in British river valleys during the Holocene, compared to the Pleistocene period, has led many archaeologists to believe that rivers have been relatively unchanging features of the postglacial landscape. Successful archaeological management strategies in river environments will only be formulated, however, if collaboration between geomorphologists, geologists, palaeoecologists and archaeologists continues and grows. The difficulty of accurately reproducing past environments under experimental conditions, however, inevitably limits the use of experiments in archaeological interpretation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
