Fraser Sturt
Biographic Data
| ID | 252434 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fraser Sturt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fraser |
| FAMILY NAME | Sturt |
| SIGNATURE | STURT F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3010-990X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 136 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
At the Water’s Edge: Photogrammetry in Extreme Shallow-Water Environments
Coastal, riverine, and lacustrine environments have played a central role in the development of human societies, yet locating and documenting this record of activity in littoral environments have proven difficult. Terrestrial survey methods reach their limit at the water’s edge, whereas marine geophysical equipment often struggles in depths of less than 1 m. This “white ribbon” of missing data represents a persistent methodological gap but one th…
Adriatic Explorations: Debating Mobility and Agriculture in the Prehistoric Central Mediterranean
Neolithization is one of a handful of major social and economic processes that affected the entire Mediterranean, even if in quite different ways across different periods and regions. Everywhere, however, its impact was substantial, affecting also other parts of Europe and West Asia. It is therefore with good reason that the study of Neolithization has a long and distinguished track-record going back, at least, to the work of Childe, who first ch…
The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Northern Adriatic: Radiocarbon Chronologies and Models of Neolithization
This paper investigates the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the northern Adriatic by testing theoretical models of Neolithization through a review of the available radiocarbon evidence. While our understanding of the spread of farming in Europe has improved significantly in recent years, especially due to an increasing body of ancient DNA evidence, this does not seem to be the case for the northern Adriatic. Here, not only is there a lack of a…
Pathways to a blue economy
Charting a path to a blue economy is imperative to avoid major climate change and irreversible damage to marine ecosystems, the wider environment and society. The blue-ness of the future ocean economy and the associated health of the oceans and our planet will be determined by the pathways chosen, the strategies developed and decisions made now. Here, through bibliometric analysis, multidisciplinary literature review and data synthesis, we presen…
Scottish archaeological islands: A Historiographical Analysis and the Legacy of Antiquarian Research
Crannogs, enigmatic artificial islands dotting the landscapes of Scotland and Ireland, have been subjects of intrigue and debate for centuries. These complex sites exhibit a remarkable time-depth of use, often revealing multiple phases or periods, coupled with a great diversity in their structural forms and settings. Moreover, the extensive yet fragmented early historiography of crannog research has left a lasting legacy on our modern understandi…
Shipwreck detection in bathymetry data using semi-automated methods: Combining machine learning and topographic inference approaches
This research presents a workflow that integrates emerging machine learning methods with geospatial mapping techniques to improve the identification of shipwrecks in bathymetry data. By first refining the study area into high-potential units, machine learning algorithms can be applied more efficiently. This approach accelerates the process, reduces computational demands, and offers an adaptive method that can eventually be tailored to survey need…
Neolithic Crannogs in the Outer Hebrides (and Beyond?): Synthesis, Survey, and Dating
In this paper we present a three-stranded investigation of all ‘archaeological islands’ (including crannogs) across Scotland, with a particular focus on the Outer Hebrides. The first strand is a synthesis and critical review of the archaeological record relating to 582 ‘archaeological island’ sites. This research enabled us to characterise the nature of any previous work (including dating evidence) undertaken on each, and thus to establish the fi…
Submerged Palaeolandscapes of the Southern Hemisphere (SPLOSH) - What is emerging from the Southern Hemisphere
The potential of submerged palaeolandscapes to address questions about global migrations, broad-scale climate and landscape change and human response to this has, to date, been concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere has less land, more water and water barriers, higher floral and faunal endemicity and lower population but with indigenous populations that have maintained a connection with coastal and offshore landscapes fo…
Observations of postglacial sea‐level rise in northwest European traditions
In preliterate contexts, diverse knowledge was accumulated, processed and communicated orally. Recent research demonstrates that observations of memorable events were transferred in this way for thousands of years sometimes. Much of this information was eventually written down to reach literate audiences, which commonly judge such ‘myths and legends’ to be cultural inventions rather than ancient memories. This study examines 15 ‘submergence stori…
Exploring Maritime Engagement in the Early Bronze Age Levant: A Space/Time Approach
This article brings to light small-scale and everyday maritime activities through the consolidation of Early Bronze Age maritime-related material culture from the coastal Levant. By doing so, the research provides an alternative perspective on Early Bronze Age maritime activities, away from broad accounts of connectivity that neglect small-scale rhythms of coastal life. The application of temporally imbued spatial analyses serves to contextualize…
Landscape change in the Nile Delta during the fourth millennium BC: A new perspective on the Egyptian Predynastic and Protodynastic periods
The role environmental change may have played at the dawn of Egyptian history has been overlooked in comparison with other periods. Natural landscape changes taking place in the Nile Delta are argued here to have been a facilitating factor allowing, and possibly stimulating, socioeconomic changes leading to the ‘Lower Egyptian – Naqada Transition’ (LE-NT, c. 3350 BC). In this context, the LE-NT may be understood in terms of regional elites using …
Opening the Woods: Towards a Quantification of Neolithic Clearance Around the Somerset Levels and Moors
Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer…
The warped sea of sailing: Maritime topographies of space and time for the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean
Time has consistently been regarded as the missing dimension from our renderings of space, having a significant impact on how we interpret and represent past interaction. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in discussion of maritime mobility. This paper outlines an innovative approach to mapping maritime spaces by taking into account the performance of Bronze Age sailing ships in different weather conditions and the subsequent time of sailing j…
Neolithic crannogs: Rethinking settlement, monumentality and deposition in the Outer Hebrides and beyond
Doubts about How the Middle Horizon Collapsed (ca. A.D. 1000) and Other Insights from the Looted Cemeteries of the Lower Ica Valley, South Coast of Peru
This paper presents new information from funerary contexts in the lower Ica Valley, on the south coast of Peru, spanning two millennia from the end of the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period. Although severely looted, these sites can still yield valuable information. We discuss their architecture and material culture in the context of radiocarbon dates. Among other findings, these cast new light on the poorly understood transition from …
Geo-statistical methods to analyse changes in pre-Hispanic settlement patterns in the Río Ica catchment, Peru
The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in the Channel Islands: Maritime and Terrestrial Perspectives
This paper investigates the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Channel Islands. It presents a new synthesis of all known evidence from the islands c.5000–4300 bc , including several new excavations as well as find‐spot sites that have not previously been collated. It also summarizes – in English – a large body of contemporary material from north‐west France. The paper presents a new high‐resolution sea‐level model for the region, shedding lig…
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
Maritime Havens in Earlier Prehistoric Britain
It is widely accepted that between the beginning of the Early Neolithic period and the end of the Early Bronze Age different regions of Britain were connected to one another by sea, but little is known about the nature of maritime contacts before plank-built boats developed during the 2nd millennium bc . This paper considers a series of coastal sites, some of which were first settled from Mesolithic times. From the early 4th millennium they were …
Dispersal and the Movius Line: Testing the effect of dispersal on population density through simulation
Of mammoths and other monsters: Historic approaches to the submerged Palaeolithic
Continental Connections
From sea to land and back again: Understanding the shifting character of Europe’s landscapes and seascapes over the last million years
The tip of the iceberg? Reply to responses
We would like to thank all four authors for their thoughtful responses to our paper and the assemblage it describes. In some cases those comments confirmed things we had thought already, but in others they surprised us, confronting us with ideas that we had never previously considered. Collectively this has made us think hard about future research possibilities
Microliths and maritime mobility: A continental European-style Late Mesolithic flint assemblage from the Isles of Scilly
New models of North West European Holocene palaeogeography and inundation
This paper presents new 500 year interval palaeogeographic models for Britain, Ireland and the North West French coast from 11000 cal. BP to present. These models are used to calculate the varying rates of inundation for different geographical zones over the study period. This allows for consideration of the differential impact that Holocene sea-level rise had across space and time, and on past societies. In turn, consideration of the limitations…
Grey waters bright with Neolithic argonauts? Maritime connections and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain, c . 5000–3500 BC
Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incom…
Dispersal and the Movius Line: Testing the effect of dispersal on population density through simulation
The warped sea of sailing: Maritime topographies of space and time for the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean
Time has consistently been regarded as the missing dimension from our renderings of space, having a significant impact on how we interpret and represent past interaction. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in discussion of maritime mobility. This paper outlines an innovative approach to mapping maritime spaces by taking into account the performance of Bronze Age sailing ships in different weather conditions and the subsequent time of sailing j…
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
Local knowledge is required: A rhythmanalytical approach to the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of the East Anglian Fenland, UK
Submerged Palaeolandscapes of the Southern Hemisphere (SPLOSH) - What is emerging from the Southern Hemisphere
The potential of submerged palaeolandscapes to address questions about global migrations, broad-scale climate and landscape change and human response to this has, to date, been concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere has less land, more water and water barriers, higher floral and faunal endemicity and lower population but with indigenous populations that have maintained a connection with coastal and offshore landscapes fo…
Landscape change in the Nile Delta during the fourth millennium BC: A new perspective on the Egyptian Predynastic and Protodynastic periods
The role environmental change may have played at the dawn of Egyptian history has been overlooked in comparison with other periods. Natural landscape changes taking place in the Nile Delta are argued here to have been a facilitating factor allowing, and possibly stimulating, socioeconomic changes leading to the ‘Lower Egyptian – Naqada Transition’ (LE-NT, c. 3350 BC). In this context, the LE-NT may be understood in terms of regional elites using …
The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in the Channel Islands: Maritime and Terrestrial Perspectives
This paper investigates the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Channel Islands. It presents a new synthesis of all known evidence from the islands c.5000–4300 bc , including several new excavations as well as find‐spot sites that have not previously been collated. It also summarizes – in English – a large body of contemporary material from north‐west France. The paper presents a new high‐resolution sea‐level model for the region, shedding lig…
Maritime Havens in Earlier Prehistoric Britain
It is widely accepted that between the beginning of the Early Neolithic period and the end of the Early Bronze Age different regions of Britain were connected to one another by sea, but little is known about the nature of maritime contacts before plank-built boats developed during the 2nd millennium bc . This paper considers a series of coastal sites, some of which were first settled from Mesolithic times. From the early 4th millennium they were …
Neolithic crannogs: Rethinking settlement, monumentality and deposition in the Outer Hebrides and beyond
Microliths and maritime mobility: A continental European-style Late Mesolithic flint assemblage from the Isles of Scilly
Observations of postglacial sea‐level rise in northwest European traditions
In preliterate contexts, diverse knowledge was accumulated, processed and communicated orally. Recent research demonstrates that observations of memorable events were transferred in this way for thousands of years sometimes. Much of this information was eventually written down to reach literate audiences, which commonly judge such ‘myths and legends’ to be cultural inventions rather than ancient memories. This study examines 15 ‘submergence stori…
Opening the Woods: Towards a Quantification of Neolithic Clearance Around the Somerset Levels and Moors
Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer…
Chronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the sub-tidal zone: A case study from Hinkley Point
Ocupación y subsistencia del Horizonte Temprano en el contexto de cambios ecológicos de largo plazo en las cuencas de Samaca y Ullujaya, valle bajo de Ica
Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis arqueobotánicos y malacológicos realizados en los materiales de un basural fechado hacia las fases Ocucaje 3 a 4 (c. 750 a.C.), con asociación estratigráfica segura debajo de los contextos de una sección de canal del Periodo Nasca Temprano en la cuenca de Ullujaya, en el valle bajo de Ica, costa sur del Perú. Semejante conservación de contextos de ocupación tempranos es poco común al interior del …
Exploring Maritime Engagement in the Early Bronze Age Levant: A Space/Time Approach
This article brings to light small-scale and everyday maritime activities through the consolidation of Early Bronze Age maritime-related material culture from the coastal Levant. By doing so, the research provides an alternative perspective on Early Bronze Age maritime activities, away from broad accounts of connectivity that neglect small-scale rhythms of coastal life. The application of temporally imbued spatial analyses serves to contextualize…
Of mammoths and other monsters: Historic approaches to the submerged Palaeolithic
Local knowledge is required: A rhythmanalytical approach to the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of the East Anglian Fenland, UK
Communities of Knowledge: Teaching and Learning in Maritime Archaeology
Ocupación y subsistencia del Horizonte Temprano en el contexto de cambios ecológicos de largo plazo en las cuencas de Samaca y Ullujaya, valle bajo de Ica
Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis arqueobotánicos y malacológicos realizados en los materiales de un basural fechado hacia las fases Ocucaje 3 a 4 (c. 750 a.C.), con asociación estratigráfica segura debajo de los contextos de una sección de canal del Periodo Nasca Temprano en la cuenca de Ullujaya, en el valle bajo de Ica, costa sur del Perú. Semejante conservación de contextos de ocupación tempranos es poco común al interior del …
Grey waters bright with Neolithic argonauts? Maritime connections and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain, c . 5000–3500 BC
Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incom…
New models of North West European Holocene palaeogeography and inundation
This paper presents new 500 year interval palaeogeographic models for Britain, Ireland and the North West French coast from 11000 cal. BP to present. These models are used to calculate the varying rates of inundation for different geographical zones over the study period. This allows for consideration of the differential impact that Holocene sea-level rise had across space and time, and on past societies. In turn, consideration of the limitations…
Chronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the sub-tidal zone: A case study from Hinkley Point
Continental Connections
From sea to land and back again: Understanding the shifting character of Europe’s landscapes and seascapes over the last million years
The tip of the iceberg? Reply to responses
We would like to thank all four authors for their thoughtful responses to our paper and the assemblage it describes. In some cases those comments confirmed things we had thought already, but in others they surprised us, confronting us with ideas that we had never previously considered. Collectively this has made us think hard about future research possibilities
Microliths and maritime mobility: A continental European-style Late Mesolithic flint assemblage from the Isles of Scilly
Maritime Havens in Earlier Prehistoric Britain
It is widely accepted that between the beginning of the Early Neolithic period and the end of the Early Bronze Age different regions of Britain were connected to one another by sea, but little is known about the nature of maritime contacts before plank-built boats developed during the 2nd millennium bc . This paper considers a series of coastal sites, some of which were first settled from Mesolithic times. From the early 4th millennium they were …
Dispersal and the Movius Line: Testing the effect of dispersal on population density through simulation
Of mammoths and other monsters: Historic approaches to the submerged Palaeolithic
Geo-statistical methods to analyse changes in pre-Hispanic settlement patterns in the Río Ica catchment, Peru
The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in the Channel Islands: Maritime and Terrestrial Perspectives
This paper investigates the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Channel Islands. It presents a new synthesis of all known evidence from the islands c.5000–4300 bc , including several new excavations as well as find‐spot sites that have not previously been collated. It also summarizes – in English – a large body of contemporary material from north‐west France. The paper presents a new high‐resolution sea‐level model for the region, shedding lig…
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
Doubts about How the Middle Horizon Collapsed (ca. A.D. 1000) and Other Insights from the Looted Cemeteries of the Lower Ica Valley, South Coast of Peru
This paper presents new information from funerary contexts in the lower Ica Valley, on the south coast of Peru, spanning two millennia from the end of the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period. Although severely looted, these sites can still yield valuable information. We discuss their architecture and material culture in the context of radiocarbon dates. Among other findings, these cast new light on the poorly understood transition from …
Opening the Woods: Towards a Quantification of Neolithic Clearance Around the Somerset Levels and Moors
Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer…
The warped sea of sailing: Maritime topographies of space and time for the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean
Time has consistently been regarded as the missing dimension from our renderings of space, having a significant impact on how we interpret and represent past interaction. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in discussion of maritime mobility. This paper outlines an innovative approach to mapping maritime spaces by taking into account the performance of Bronze Age sailing ships in different weather conditions and the subsequent time of sailing j…
Neolithic crannogs: Rethinking settlement, monumentality and deposition in the Outer Hebrides and beyond
Exploring Maritime Engagement in the Early Bronze Age Levant: A Space/Time Approach
This article brings to light small-scale and everyday maritime activities through the consolidation of Early Bronze Age maritime-related material culture from the coastal Levant. By doing so, the research provides an alternative perspective on Early Bronze Age maritime activities, away from broad accounts of connectivity that neglect small-scale rhythms of coastal life. The application of temporally imbued spatial analyses serves to contextualize…
Landscape change in the Nile Delta during the fourth millennium BC: A new perspective on the Egyptian Predynastic and Protodynastic periods
The role environmental change may have played at the dawn of Egyptian history has been overlooked in comparison with other periods. Natural landscape changes taking place in the Nile Delta are argued here to have been a facilitating factor allowing, and possibly stimulating, socioeconomic changes leading to the ‘Lower Egyptian – Naqada Transition’ (LE-NT, c. 3350 BC). In this context, the LE-NT may be understood in terms of regional elites using …
Observations of postglacial sea‐level rise in northwest European traditions
In preliterate contexts, diverse knowledge was accumulated, processed and communicated orally. Recent research demonstrates that observations of memorable events were transferred in this way for thousands of years sometimes. Much of this information was eventually written down to reach literate audiences, which commonly judge such ‘myths and legends’ to be cultural inventions rather than ancient memories. This study examines 15 ‘submergence stori…
Submerged Palaeolandscapes of the Southern Hemisphere (SPLOSH) - What is emerging from the Southern Hemisphere
The potential of submerged palaeolandscapes to address questions about global migrations, broad-scale climate and landscape change and human response to this has, to date, been concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere has less land, more water and water barriers, higher floral and faunal endemicity and lower population but with indigenous populations that have maintained a connection with coastal and offshore landscapes fo…
Neolithic Crannogs in the Outer Hebrides (and Beyond?): Synthesis, Survey, and Dating
In this paper we present a three-stranded investigation of all ‘archaeological islands’ (including crannogs) across Scotland, with a particular focus on the Outer Hebrides. The first strand is a synthesis and critical review of the archaeological record relating to 582 ‘archaeological island’ sites. This research enabled us to characterise the nature of any previous work (including dating evidence) undertaken on each, and thus to establish the fi…
Geography (26 works) · Archaeology (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (21 works) · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology (16 works) · Geology (13 works) · History (13 works) · Geology (9 works) · History (9 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 works) · Mesolithic (8 works)