What if a Stone Age civilization slept under the North Sea? This is precisely what archaeologists have just brought to light. Thanks to research carried out at a depth of 20 meters, they exhumed nearly 100 flint objects, made by Stone Age humans around 15,000 years BC. This find comes from Doggerland, a vast expanse of land that once linked Britain to the European continent.
Doggerland was once home to hunter-gatherer communities living primarily from fishing, deer and wild boar hunting, and shell collecting. Flooded between 10,000 and 7,500 BC by a rapid rise in water levels, this region is today an archaeological gem. The work, led by the University of Bradford, offers a unique window into an era largely erased by time – and global warming. The Independent tells us more.
Among the objects found were a number of small flint cutting tools, as well as dozens of flint flakes from tool making. They were recovered from under the sea at three separate locations, all near now-submerged estuaries. These sites, just a few miles off the coast of Norfolk County, England, are expected to yield hundreds more objects that will begin to reveal how the people of this lost land lived.
Revealing the secrets of Britain’s lost Atlantis: Archaeologists discover Stone Age artefacts under North Sea #uknews – pic.twitter.com/tq3Yrs8EJK
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Parts of the North Sea floor are of considerable archaeological importance because they have been relatively untouched by humans since they were flooded. However, on earth, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, medieval and modern settlements, as well as roads, forestry and agriculture, destroyed enormous quantities of land. objects from the earliest times of humanity.
Tragic warning
In fact, this prehistoric treasure chest hides a tragic story and a warning. In the space of 1,500 years (from -8,000 to -6,500), an area almost as large as Great Britain disappeared underwater following a rise in ocean levels caused by a period of global warming intense. As the hunting grounds were swallowed up by the sea, successive generations of the region’s inhabitants were forced to leave their traditional lands.
“Our research at the bottom of the North Sea has the potential to transform our understanding of Stone Age culture in and around what is now Britain and the nearby continent”says the head of the North Sea archaeological survey, Professor Vince Gaffney of the Submerged Landscape Research at the University of Bradford.
Even more, future archaeological work should make it possible to understand how this drama unfolded. However, one thing is already certain: what happened to Britain’s lost prehistoric North Sea world is a clear warning to humans in the 21st century.e century regarding the consequences of modern global warming.
Source: www.slate.fr
