Independent by David Keys 6/11/2019
Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient human activity on Britain’s very own “Atlantisâ€.
Scientists investigating a drowned Stone Age landscape at the bottom of the North Sea have discovered two potential prehistoric settlement sites on the banks of a long-vanished ancient river.
It is the first time that an archaeological expedition has ever found such evidence far offshore under the huge body of water.
In the past, prehistoric artefacts have on occasions been trawled up by fishermen and found by oil exploration teams – but the seabed contexts they came from were never archaeologically assessed.
This time, the discoveries are part of a systematic archaeological survey.
The archaeologists – from Britain and Belgium – have found two highly significant stone artefacts in specific locations which were being deliberately investigated for ancient human activity.
Scientists, who have studied the distribution of ancient human activity and settlement sites on land, applied their knowledge to the drowned Stone Age landscape of Britain’s North Sea Atlantis – and rapidly struck archaeological “goldâ€.
The two stone artefacts – recovered in two seabed sediment samples (each of just over a cubic foot) from target seabed sites (25 miles north of Blakeney, Norfolk) – don’t look visually impressive. But they are, for the very first time, enabling archaeologists to home in on what is likely to be Stone Age settlement sites that were swallowed up by the sea in around 6000 BC.
The potential settlements themselves – on opposite sides of an ancient river estuary – are even older – probably dating from between 8200 and 7700 BC.
The archaeologists - from the universities of Bradford and Ghent – have also discovered evidence explaining precisely why the Stone Age humans were so attracted to these two particular locations.
The pollen and other environmental evidence being recovered from around the two sites show that the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, who were active there, had easy access to more than half a dozen different landscape zones, each with different resources to exploit.
Marshland with rich reed beds provided opportunities to hunt large waterfowl, collect eggs and gather reeds for making baskets and fish traps.
More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/atlantis-britain-stone-age-north-sea-archaeology-artefacts-discovery-a8952721.html