Marine inundation: Effects on archaeological features, materials, sediments and soils

The taphonomic effects of freshwater and marine inundation on archaeological sites and their soils and sediments at approximately ten buried ‘soil’ locations, is briefly reviewed from prehistoric coastal sites in southern England and Wales, including Lower Palaeolithic Boxgrove, West Sussex. These data are discussed in the context of effects of saline groundwater and experimental marine flooding (2006–2008) at Wallasea Island, River Crouch, Essex. A preliminary attempt to model transformations caused by rising groundwater, freshwater inundation, rising saline groundwater and marine inundation, is made.