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Doggerland

Map of Doggerland at its near maximum extent c. 10,000 years Before Present (~ 8000 BCE) (top left) and its subsequent disintegration by 7000 BP (~5000 BCE)

Doggerland was an area of land in Northern Europe, now submerged beneath the southern North Sea. This region was repeatedly exposed at various times during the Pleistocene epoch due to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods, though the term "Doggerland" is generally specifically used for this region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. During the early Holocene following the glacial retreat at the end of the Last Glacial Period, the exposed land area of Doggerland stretched across the region between what is now the east coast of Great Britain, the Netherlands, the western coast of Germany, and the Danish peninsula of Jutland. Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, Doggerland was inundated by rising sea levels, disintegrating initially into a series of low-lying islands before submerging completely.[1][2] The impact of the tsunami generated by the Storegga underwater landslide c. 8200 years ago on Doggerland is controversial.[1] The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral.[3]

Doggerland was named after the Dogger Bank (which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers),[4] which formed a highland region that became submerged later than the rest of Doggerland.[1][2]

The archaeological potential of the area was first identified in the early 20th century, and interest intensified in 1931 when a fishing trawler operating east of the Wash dragged up a barbed antler point that was subsequently dated to a time when the area was tundra. Vessels have since dragged up remains of mammoths, lions and other animals, and a few prehistoric tools and weapons.[5] Most archaeological evidence of human habitation dates to the Mesolithic period during the early Holocene.[6]

As of 2020, international teams are continuing a two-year investigation into the submerged landscape of Doggerland using new and traditional archaeo-geophysical techniques, computer simulation, and molecular biology. Evidence gathered allows study of past environments, ecological change, and human transition from hunter-gatherer to farming communities.[7]

  1. ^ a b c Walker, James; Gaffney, Vincent; Fitch, Simon; Muru, Merle; Fraser, Andrew; Bates, Martin; Bates, Richard (December 2020). "A great wave: the Storegga tsunami and the end of Doggerland?". Antiquity. 94 (378): 1409–1425. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.49. hdl:10454/18239. ISSN 0003-598X.
  2. ^ a b Hoebe, P.W.; Cohen, K.M.; Busschers, F.S.; van Heteren, S.; Peeters, J.H.M. (June 2024). "Early Holocene inundation of Doggerland and its impact on hunter-gatherers: An inundation model and dates-as-data approach". Quaternary International. 694: 26–50. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2024.05.006.
  3. ^ "The Doggerland Project", University of Exeter Department of Archaeology
  4. ^ "Dogger Bank" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 08 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 380 to 381.
  5. ^ White, Mark J. (24 November 2006). "Things to do in Doggerland when you're dead: Surviving OIS3 at the northwesternmost fringe of Middle Palaeolithic Europe" (PDF). World Archaeology. 38 (4): 547–575. doi:10.1080/00438240600963031. S2CID 51729868.
  6. ^ Patterson, W, "Coastal Catastrophe" (paleoclimate research document), University of Saskatchewan Archived 9 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "The first archaeological artefacts found during the search for lost prehistoric settlements in the North Sea". University of Bradford. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2021.

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