This innovative study offers an up-to-date analysis of the archaeology of the North Sea. Robert Van de Noort traces the way people engaged with the North Sea from the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 BC, to the close of the Middle Ages, about AD 1500. Van de Noort draws upon archaeological research from many countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and France, and addresses topics which include the first interactions of people with the emerging North Sea, the origin and development of fishing, the creation of coastal landscapes, the importance of islands and archipelagos, the development of seafaring ships and their use by early seafarers and pirates, and the treatments of boats and ships at the end of their useful lives.
1. Introduction: the sea is 'good to think' ; 2. An archaeological theory of the sea ; 3. The sea as a dynamic and hybrid landscape ; 4. Fish: exploring the sea as a taskscape ; 5. Socializing coastal landscapes ; 6. Archipelagos and islands ; 7. Moving across the North Sea ; 8. The daily practice of seafaring: the ship as heterotopia par excellence ; 9. The cultural biographies of boats ; 10. Conclusions: a maritime biography
