This is early days for subsea archaeology of the continental shelf generally and the Dogger Bank in particular. What we truly do not understand yet is just how fast everything was inundated. The presently accepted line line for the relatively shallow Dogger Bank is around 8599BC through 6500 BC.
Fast matters because it allows limited erosion of local hills and stonework. It also allows rapid innundation to overwelm an uneroded area as well. This matters if you hope to have windows of original terrain. In short i do not prefer gradual but that is likely true for most phases. All this will matterv as the Bank is explored and sampled.
It may be possible to lock up a chronology of the rising sea level.
It is remarkable how the tradition of a rising ocean is particularly rich in the British isles..
Britain's Atlantis' found at bottom of North sea - a huge undersea world swallowed by the sea in 6500BC
- Divers have found traces of ancient land swallowed by waves 8500 years ago
- Doggerland once stretched from Scotland to Denmark
- Rivers seen underwater by seismic scans
- Britain was not an island - and area under North Sea was roamed by mammoths and other giant animals
- Described as the 'real heartland' of Europe
- Had population of tens of thousands - but devastated by sea level rises
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2167731/Britains-Atlantis-North-sea--huge-undersea-kingdom-swamped-tsunami-5-500-years-ago.html#ixzz46b72xfdR
'Britain's Atlantis' - a hidden
underwater world swallowed by the North Sea - has been discovered by
divers working with science teams from the University of St Andrews.
Doggerland,
a huge area of dry land that stretched from Scotland to Denmark was
slowly submerged by water between 18,000 BC and 5,500 BC.
Divers
from oil companies have found remains of a 'drowned world' with a
population of tens of thousands - which might once have been the 'real
heartland' of Europe.
A team of climatologists, archaeologists
and geophysicists has now mapped the area using new data from oil
companies - and revealed the full extent of a 'lost land' once roamed by
mammoths.
Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'
Dr Richard Bates of the earth sciences department at St Andrews University, searching for Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'
A Greater Britain: How the North Sea grew and the land-mass shrunk
Drowned world: Scans show a mound discovered under the water near Orkney, which has been explored by divers
St Andrews University's artists' impression of life in Doggerland
The research suggests that the
populations of these drowned lands could have been tens of thousands,
living in an area that stretched from Northern Scotland across to
Denmark and down the English Channel as far as the Channel Islands.
The area was once the ‘real heartland’ of Europe and was hit by ‘a devastating tsunami', the researchers claim.
The wave was part of a larger process that submerged the low-lying area over the course of thousands of years.
'The
name was coined for Dogger Bank, but it applies to any of several
periods when the North Sea was land,' says Richard Bates of the
University of St Andrews. 'Around 20,000 years ago, there was a
'maximum' - although part of this area would have been covered with ice.
When the ice melted, more land was revealed - but the sea level also
rose.
'Through a lot
of new data from oil and gas companies, we’re able to give form to the
landscape - and make sense of the mammoths found out there, and the
reindeer. We’re able to understand the types of people who were there.
'People seem to think rising sea levels are a new thing - but it’s a cycle of Earht history that has happened many many times.'
Organised
by Dr Richard Bates of the Department of Earth Sciences at St Andrews,
the Drowned Landscapes exhibit reveals the human story behind
Doggerland, a now submerged area of the North Sea that was once larger
than many modern European countries.
Dr Bates, a geophysicist, said:
‘Doggerland was the real heartland of Europe until sea levels rose to
give us the UK coastline of today.
World beneath the waves: Scientists examine a sediment core recovered from a mound near Orkney
Seismic scans reveal a submerged river at Dogger Bank
A visualisation of how life in the now-submerged areas of Dogger Bank might have looked
The research suggests that the populations of these drowned lands could have been tens of thousands, living in an area that stretched from Northern Scotland across to Denmark and down the English Channel as far as the Channel Islands
Life in 'Doggerland' - the ancient kingdom once stretched from Scotland to Denmark and has been described as the 'real heart of Europe'
‘We have speculated for years on the
lost land's existence from bones dredged by fishermen all over the North
Sea, but it's only since working with oil companies in the last few
years that we have been able to re-create what this lost land looked
like.
‘When the data was
first being processed, I thought it unlikely to give us any useful
information, however as more area was covered it revealed a vast and
complex landscape.
‘We have
now been able to model its flora and fauna, build up a picture of the
ancient people that lived there and begin to understand some of the
dramatic events that subsequently changed the land, including the sea
rising and a devastating tsunami.’
The research project is a
collaboration between St Andrews and the Universities of Aberdeen,
Birmingham, Dundee and Wales Trinity St David.
Rediscovering
the land through pioneering scientific research, the research reveals a
story of a dramatic past that featured massive climate change. The
public exhibit brings back to life the Mesolithic populations of
Doggerland through artefacts discovered deep within the sea bed.
The
research, a result of a painstaking 15 years of fieldwork around the
murky waters of the UK, is one of the highlights of the London event.
The
interactive display examines the lost landscape of Doggerland and
includes artefacts from various times represented by the exhibit - from
pieces of flint used by humans as tools to the animals that also
inhabited these lands.
Using
a combination of geophysical modelling of data obtained from oil and
gas companies and direct evidence from material recovered from the
seafloor, the research team was able to build up a reconstruction of the
lost land.
The excavation of Trench 2, unveiling more finds about this lost land-mass
Fossilised bones from a mammoth also show how this landscape was once one of hills and valleys, rather than sea
The findings suggest a picture
of a land with hills and valleys, large swamps and lakes with major
rivers dissecting a convoluted coastline.
As
the sea rose the hills would have become an isolated archipelago of low
islands. By examining the fossil record - such as pollen grains,
microfauna and macrofauna - the researchers can tell what kind of
vegetation grew in Doggerland and what animals roamed there.
Using
this information, they were able to build up a model of the 'carrying
capacity' of the land and work out roughly how many humans could have
lived there.
The research
team is currently investigating more evidence of human behaviour,
including possible human burial sites, intriguing standing stones and a
mass mammoth grave.
Dr Bates
added: ‘We haven't found an 'x marks the spot' or 'Joe created this',
but we have found many artefacts and submerged features that are very
difficult to explain by natural causes, such as mounds surrounded by
ditches and fossilised tree stumps on the seafloor.
‘There
is actually very little evidence left because much of it has eroded
underwater; it's like trying to find just part of a needle within a
haystack. What we have found though is a remarkable amount of evidence
and we are now able to pinpoint the best places to find preserved signs
of life.’
For further information on the exhibit, visit: http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exhibits/drowned-landscapes/
Drowned
Landscapes is on display at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition
2012 from July 3-8 at the Royal Society in London.
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