http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art536003-lost-ice-age-lands-beneath-north-sea-archaeology-projectA prehistoric country almost the size of Ireland, buried beneath the North Sea by climate change following the last Ice Age, could be on the brink of being uncovered by archaeologists and researchers using genetics and digital technology.
Doggerland will be “repopulated” in a €2.5 million project, using the vast remote sensing data sets generated by energy companies to reconstruct the lost underwater landscape, via a 3D-map of rivers, lakes, hills and coastlines first inhabited by humans more than 12,000 years ago.
Millions of fragments of ancient DNA from plants and animals will be extracted from core sediments retrieved by survey ships.
“The only populated lands on earth that have not yet been explored in any depth are those which have been lost underneath the sea," says Professor Vince Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, who will lead the investigation.
“Although archaeologists have known for a long time that ancient climatic change and sea level rise must mean that Doggerland holds unique and important information about early human life in Europe, until now we have lacked the tools to investigate this area properly.”
The coolness of the ocean environment means that DNA from the 5,000-year period is well-preserved.
“This project is exciting not only because of what it will reveal about Doggerland, but because it gives us a whole new way of approaching the massive areas of land that were populated by humans but which now lie beneath the sea,” says Professor Gaffney.
“We will develop technologies and methodologies that archaeologists around the world can use to explore similar landscapes including those around the Americas and in South East Asia.”
Professor Robin Allaby, of the University of Warwick, one of the partners on the quest, says the team will be able to pick sample locations within the submerged Mesolithic landscape.
“For the first time in the North Sea, we will be able to carry out a targeted and purposive investigation of a series of sites on the seabed,” he points out.
“Previously, archaeologists have had to rely on samples from locations selected because of impact on the sea bed.
“This should allow us an unprecedented look at how this landscape changed before and during transgression.”
