British “Atlantis” discovered in the North Sea

British “Atlantis” discovered in the North Sea

By
Strange Sounds
-
Jun 13, 2019

Archaeologists believe they have discovered an ancient Stone Age settlement once home to thousands of people 8,000 years ago.

Today, it rests at the bottom of the North Sea having been drowned in rising sea levels after the last Ice Age.

British Atlantis discovered in the North Sea. Picture by Anton Balazh / Shutterstock
For decades, fishers and oil exploration outfitters have reporting finding worked bone, stone, and human remains in Brown Bank, a marine ecosystem located 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the Dutch coast.
The amount of cultural material found in the area – the submerged land, now named Doggerland – has long indicated a prehistoric settlement may have once resided here.

For the first time, researchers have confirmed two potential prehistoric settlements located on what archaeologists believe was once the banks of an ancient river.

Discovery of the ancient stone age settlement

To determine the best locations for exploration, researchers recreated the submarine landscape using data provided by oil and gas companies, wind farm developers, and coal extractors who operate in this busy waterway. Collectively, they were able to determine areas that were more likely to have been home to past human activity. Using acoustic techniques and extracting physical samples of the seabed, researchers found three sites that have the potential for archaeological and geological significance.

Route of the research vessel showing areas of detailed survey around Doggerland. Map data 2019 Google and VLIZ/Europe’s Lost Frontiers
“This is a very exciting project to be involved in,” said geoarchaeologist Martin Bates of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. “[O]ur job is to examine all the cores that have been drilled into the seabed and reconstruct the geology of the changing environment over the last 100,000 years. From this information, we can pinpoint likely places on, or beneath, the seabed which might have evidence for activity by our ancestors living in this now lost landscape.”

The tree possible sites

A first area likely once made up the main confluence of an ancient river system that provided central drainage to the area when ice caps melted and sea level rose some 10,000 years ago.

Probable reconstruction of the lost, prehistoric landscape around the Southern River ( Europe’s Lost Frontiers)
A second area is believed to have been a prehistoric river valley.
The Southern River showing an image of the valley (A), and seismic survey lines over the valley (B) ( Europe’s Lost Frontiers/VLIZ)
The last region, known as Brown Bank, is formed by a 30-kilometer (19-mile) sand ridge. Here, the archeologists found two stone artifacts that are believed to have made tools, one of which was a small piece of flint and another a larger piece broken from the edge of a stone hammer.
Stone artefacts from the area of the Southern River estuary. Bottom left is a small fragment of flint debitage. The remining photographs and 3D scan images are of a larger fragment of flint, probably used as a hammerstone (photographs and 3D scan data by Tom Sparrow, Visualising Heritage. University of Bradford)
Further samples that show peat and ancient wood indicate that the area was once home to an ancient woodland that, when analyzed in the context of the ancient tools, suggests the area was home to an ancient civilization before being submerged.
Wow! Soon will be able to paint a real picture of ancient life in prehistoric Britain. Awesome, no?
[UWTSD, VLIZ.be, IFL Science]

Thanks to: http://strangesounds.org