Sea level changes destroyed societies 2000 years ago

[Jim Webster]

Interestingly I have just read a book 'The Lost Islands of Somerset, by Richard Brunning (2013, ISBN 978-0-9957251-1-9). Much of the Somerset levels were reclaimed by the Romans/Romano British in the centuries after the conquest reaching their largest extent somewhere around 250/280 CE only for all to be lost in the next hundred years or so until reclaimed again in the middle ages peaking only around the beginning of the 19th century. Despite more recent work to prevent flooding I suspect we will lose a lot  again over the next century.

When the person in charge of Flood Prevention wanted to dynamite the pumps and let the whole lot revert to bog it's hardly surprising. Currently with a change in management and local people watching very closely over their shoulders it looks as if they're taking the job a lot more seriously.
It might still flood in the future, but people with no connection to agriculture have discovered that drainage is vital. After all, a lot of these places aren't on mains drainage and having the water level above the level of your septic tank is not a recipe for happiness 

I know people reckon that the area going under water again is inevitable and you cannot stop these things forever. But I wonder if anybody has convinced the Dutch 

[Imperial Dave]

Or the Venetians

[DBS]

Well, the Second Dunkirk Marine Transgression was about eighteen hundred years ago and seriously affected the Rhine estuary, driving back Germanic settlement.  I believe the area is suspected to have remained largely desolate until Carolingian times.  That little bit of climate change was obviously brought on by excessive carbon emission from burning Wicker Men...

[Imperial Dave]

I hadnt thought of that 

[Mark G]

Was the third Dunkirk marine transgression facilitated by a Halt order?

[DBS]

Was the third Dunkirk marine transgression facilitated by a Halt order?

Well, I have always said that they do sound like the courts martial following an overly exuberant run ashore by Booties...

[Cantabrigian]

There are currently several vineyards in Yorkshire.  I toured one in Nun Monkton, north of York, in the spring.

There was an article in this week's Economist saying that Essex now gets more hours warm enough to ripen grapes in an average summer than Burgundy averaged in the 1980s.

[Erpingham]

There are currently several vineyards in Yorkshire.  I toured one in Nun Monkton, north of York, in the spring.

There was an article in this week's Economist saying that Essex now gets more hours warm enough to ripen grapes in an average summer than Burgundy averaged in the 1980s.

As part of our vineyard tour, the proprietor asked the assembled punters how many vineyards they thought there were in England.  The answer (which no-one got) was around 750. Most, however, are very small. His problem was not really ripening but late, hard frosts, which can cripple an entire vintage overnight.

[Imperial Dave]

Very interesting. Seed potatoes is another if somewhat less glamorous example

[Erpingham]

Seed potatoes is another if somewhat less glamorous example

Less of an issue in Roman times, perhaps? 

[nikgaukroger]

Seed potatoes is another if somewhat less glamorous example

Less of an issue in Roman times, perhaps? 

Less of an issue in Europe for sure 

[Imperial Dave]

True....but it is revealing about climate change

[DBS]

Whilst Raymond Selkirk's The Piercebridge Formula is primarily focused on his theory that the Romans canalised some of the seemingly minor waterways near Hadrian's Wall for military supply, with the remains of locks misidentified by archaeologists as bridge piers and fish traps, he does remark that the terracing at Houseteads is very reminiscent of the Yellow River paddy fields he saw during his Merchant Navy service in the Far East in the late 1940s, and wonders whether rice might have been a cultivar.

Also, I seem to recall that in the Boudiccan destruction layer in London, there was evidence of figs grown in the Cologne area, suggesting a somewhat warmer climate than today.

[Imperial Dave]

indeed. Warmer and drier

[Ian61]

Also, I seem to recall that in the Boudiccan destruction layer in London, there was evidence of figs grown in the Cologne area, suggesting a somewhat warmer climate than today.

There has been a small fig tree next to our apiary gate for decades. Usually there are one or two small and lonely looking figs to be seen late in the year, about a dozen last year and 20+ this so my wife has been looking up what to do with them (several have also involved honey which seems fitting given where the fig tree is sited). The Somerset fig crop is looking promising. but possibly a little worrying as well.