The Lost City of Doggerland
Doggerland was not truly a city, but an immense prehistoric landscape where people lived for thousands of years.
Once upon a time, there was a place called Doggerland. It stretched across what is now the North Sea, connecting Britain to continental Europe.
Had you visited during the colder days of the Ice Age, you might have encountered extraordinary creatures roaming its vast plains. Reindeer, woolly rhinoceroses and mammoths were just a few of the animals that inhabited this ancient landscape.
When the Ice Age ended, around 9600 BCE, Doggerland began to turn green. The warming climate made way for forests, wetlands, rivers and lakes. Mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses disappeared from the changing landscape, while red deer, roe deer, elk, aurochs and wild boar flourished.
The Mesolithic communities living upon this land quickly adapted to their surroundings. They hunted animals, caught fish, collected shellfish and gathered plants, berries and nuts.
They made bows and arrows, together with barbed points carved from bone and antler. They also created containers from animal hide, tree bark and woven plant fibres. Every river, forest and hunting ground formed part of a landscape they knew intimately.
But as the ancient glaciers melted, the sea levels began to rise. Rivers became estuaries, wetlands were overcome by salt water, and the lowest parts of Doggerland disappeared beneath the waves. Its inhabitants were gradually forced towards higher ground, moving into the lands that would eventually become Britain and continental Europe.
And so, little by little, Doggerland slipped beneath the waves—until one day, the land that had connected Britain to Europe was no more. Its rivers, forests and pathways vanished beneath the North Sea, where traces of its forgotten world remain buried today.
* Doggerland was not a city, kingdom or single settlement. It is the modern name given to a vast prehistoric landscape that once occupied much of the area now covered by the southern North Sea. At different times it connected Britain to continental Europe and contained plains, river valleys, lakes, wetlands, forests and coastlines. Its size and environment changed repeatedly as the climate warmed and sea levels rose after the last Ice Age.
Because most of Doggerland remains underwater, archaeologists reconstruct it using several forms of evidence. Seismic surveys originally produced for the energy industry have revealed buried rivers, valleys and other landscape features. Sediment cores preserve pollen, plant remains and ancient environmental DNA that help identify former habitats and animal life. Fishing vessels, dredging operations and beach collectors have also recovered bones, antler points, stone tools and other prehistoric objects from the North Sea.
These discoveries show that people inhabited the wider landscape, but few objects have been recovered from securely excavated underwater settlements. Some details in the story, including particular hunting practices, containers and everyday routines, are therefore informed by evidence from comparable Mesolithic communities elsewhere in north-western Europe. The precise locations, movements and experiences of Doggerland’s inhabitants remain largely unknown.
Doggerland did not disappear during one sudden disaster. Rising seas gradually fragmented and submerged the landscape over thousands of years. Around 6200 BCE, the Storegga tsunami struck parts of north-western Europe and would have been catastrophic for anyone caught within its path. Current research suggests, however, that it neither destroyed the whole of Doggerland at once nor caused its final disappearance. Some areas may have survived beyond the tsunami before continuing sea-level rise eventually covered them.