Professor Bryony Coles | |
---|---|
Born | Bryony Jean Orme 1946 (age 77–78) |
Spouse | |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Bristol University London Institute of Archaeology |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Prehistoric archaeology |
Institutions | University of Exeter |
Bryony Jean Coles, FBA , FSA (born 12 August 1946) is a prehistoric archaeologist and academic. She is best known for her work studying the large area of land submerged beneath the North Sea around 8000 years ago and naming it Doggerland.
Coles was born in 1946. [1] She studied at Bristol University before completing her postgraduate degree at the London Institute of Archaeology and completing an MPhil in Anthropology at University College London.
Coles became a lecturer in prehistoric archaeology at the University of Exeter in 1972. [2] She was promoted to Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in 1996 and when she retired in 2008 she was appointed professor emeritus. [3] [4] Her work studying Doggerland began in the 1990s. [5] Coles named Doggerland after Dogger Bank,a large sandbank in the southern North Sea. In 1998,Coles produced hypothetical maps of the area. [6] Her 1998 book,Doggerland:a Speculative Survey,is described by the archaeologist Luc Amkreutz as "essential" to making Doggerland a serious subject of study. [7]
As well as research into Doggerland,Coles has also done extensive research into wetland archaeology,particularly in the Somerset Levels alongside her husband,John Coles. Their work with the Somerset Levels Project resulted in the establishment of a new branch of archaeology focusing on wetlands and in 1998,they received the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Award for the best archaeological project offering a major contribution to knowledge. [8] Coles began also studying the European beaver after realising that a series of distinctive marks on preserved wood found in the Somerset Levels were made by beavers and not humans as first assumed. [9] She mapped out the activities of beavers in Brittany for around 5 years so that she could learn how to see signs of beavers in the environment and to help differentiate between beaver and human activity in any future archaeological sites. [10]
Coles was married to John Coles from 1985 until his death in 2020. [11] They established The John and Bryony Coles Bursary in 1998. The bursary was created to help students who are travelling outside of their own country to study or work in prehistoric archaeology. [12]
On 27 November 1975,Coles was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). [13] In 2007,she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA),the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. [2]
Sir Cyril Fred Fox was an English archaeologist and museum director.
Doggerland was an area of land in Northern Europe,now submerged beneath the southern North Sea. This region was repeatedly exposed at various times during the Pleistocene epoch due to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods,though the term "Doggerland" is generally specifically used for this region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. During the early Holocene,the exposed land area of Doggerland stretched across the region between what is now the east coast of Great Britain,the Netherlands,the western coast of Germany and the Danish peninsula of Jutland. Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago,Doggerland was inundated by rising sea levels,disintegrating initially into a series of low-lying islands before submerging completely. The impact of the tsunami generated by the Storegga underwater landslide c. 8200 years ago on Doggerland is controversial. The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral. Doggerland was named after the Dogger Bank,which formed a highland region that became submerged later than the rest of Doggerland.
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