RV Celtic Voyager CV18003
Cruise plan
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RV Celtic Voyager (45CV) |
| Cruise identifier | CV18003 |
| Cruise period | 2018-02-20 — 2018-02-25 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Cobh, Ireland |
| Port of return | Cobh, Ireland |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Europe's Lost Frontiers Project successfully identified the earliest contact between mainland Europe and Great Britain based on a large-scale programme of sub-surface mapping and coring in the region known as Doggerland. Occupying much of the North Sea basin between continental Europe and Britain, Doggerland would have been a heartland of human occupation and central to the process of re-settlement and colonisation of north Western Europe during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Recent sub-surface mapping off the west coast of Britain now affords us the opportunity to determine the earliest contact between mainland Europe/Britain and Ireland.
The evidence for early Mesolithic and Neolithic contacts between Ireland and Britain along the Atlantic province is strong. Therefore any earlier contact is also strong in these areas based on the known palaeolandscape. The evidence has been determined to be probably better in the chosen study areas of Liverpool Bay and Cardigan Bay - potentially - than the North Sea and Doggerland (in terms of earliest contact). To provide a context for the earliest contacts in Ireland there is a need to explore the palaeo-coastlines, based on previous sub-surface mapping. The extent of the palaeo-coastlines off the present day Irish coast is limited, therefore we must look to the adjacent palaeo-coastlines that are appropriate for further study. The available land and supporting data are best off the west coast of Britain. Specifically, our sub-surface mapping and data from the palaeo-coastlines has identified a number of key locations which we intend to core. The project will reconstruct and simulate the palaeo-environments of the Irish Sea using ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores and explore the palaeolandscapes of Ireland and identify incipient signals indicating early contact and development within the region of the Irish Sea. The specific objectives of the Research Survey will be: To obtain 16 Cores from Liverpool Bay. To obtain 4 Cores from Cardigan Bay. To obtain high-precision geophysical data at each of the 21 Core locations. To preserve and ship to Cork the Cores obtained. |
| Chief scientist | James Bonsall (Institute of Technology, Sligo, Archaeology Department) |
| NPRC |  (0.47 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | Irish Sea and St. George's Channel |
| Specific | Liverpool Bay. Cardigan Bay. |
