Doggerland: the Cultural Dynamics of a Shifting Coastline
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Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at University of Edinburgh on March 10, 2013 Geological Society, London, Special Publications Doggerland: the cultural dynamics of a shifting coastline Bryony J. Coles Geological Society, London, Special Publications 2000, v.175; p393-401. doi: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2000.175.01.27 Email alerting click here to receive free e-mail alerts when service new articles cite this article Permission click here to seek permission to re-use all or request part of this article Subscribe click here to subscribe to Geological Society, London, Special Publications or the Lyell Collection Notes © The Geological Society of London 2013 Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at University of Edinburgh on March 10, 2013 Doggerland: the cultural dynamics of a shifting coastline BRYONY J. COLES Department of Archaeology, School of Geography and Archaeology, The University, Exeter, UK (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: The landmass now covered by the North Sea, here referred to as Doggerland, has had an important but neglected influence on the course of prehistory in northwestern Europe. The physical character of Doggerland in the Late Glacial and earlier Holocene is assessed, together with its re-colonization by humans after the Last Glacial Maximum. The development of a maritime-based society along the northern coast of Doggerland is postulated, and it is argued that the coastal inhabitants, with their specialized adaptation to this zone, will have moved with the coast as relative sea-levels changed. The interactions of coastal and inland populations are considered, including the probable influence of the coastal groups in delaying the spread of farming into the region. In northwestern Europe, from ireland to south- recently been modelled in a series of papers by ern Scandinavia, there is an absence of archae- Lambeck and colleagues (e.g. Lambeck 1993, ological evidence dated to the Last Glacial Lambeck et al. 1998) which should in due (Devensian/Weichselian) Maximum. Conditions course enable greater precision and confidence approximating those of an arctic desert per- in coastline reconstruction. The more that is tained in front of the British and Scandinavian known of the former landmass, the more its ice sheets, and it is generally accepted that the relevance to Late Glacial and Postglacial pre- lack of evidence for human occupation is due, history becomes clear (Coles 1998, 1999). In the quite simply, to the absence of humans. For present context, the focus will be predominantly 10000 years, from about 23000Be to about on Doggerland's coastal zone, following a brief 13 500BP (radiocarbon years), the region was consideration first of inland conditions at the uninhabited (Housley et al. 1997). As conditions time of the Windermere/Bolling-Allerod inter- ameliorated, people began to explore the land stadial and then of the initial character of human beyond their glacial refugia; the changing occupation of the land. character of the archaeological evidence indi- cates that, within a few centuries of pioneering Topography of Doggerland visits, permanent human occupation was estab- lished. For southern Britain and southern Jut- The combined effects of erosion and silta- land, the presence of settled groups of people tion, together with the physical difficulties of can be dated to about 12 400 BP, i.e. to the earlier underwater survey, make it difficult to determine part of the Windermere or Bolling interstadial. the detailed topography of Doggerland. Occa- At this time, land was continuous between the sionally, coring pin-points a former freshwater two regions, and it too will have been inhabited. lake, or commercial survey incidentally pro- The land between, subsequently submerged by vides evidence for former surface features (Firth the North Sea, is here referred to as Doggerland, 2000). Major features, resulting from Quatern- named after the Dogger Bank which has long ary glaciation and its aftermath, can be identi- been recognized as a former area of dryland and fied for some locations, and others can be fresh waters (Reid 1913). Although there has as postulated. For example, the exposed land was yet been no specifically archaeological survey of cut by deep incisions, which had been eroded out the region, something of its character can be as subglacial drainage channels under the outer gleaned from the results of geological exploration margin of ice-sheets. When the ice wasted, the and by extrapolating from the data available for channels were exposed as tunnel valleys, long, adjacent regions. The evidence for the physical narrow and steep-sided, sometimes sinuous and condition of Doggerland in successive periods is often partially filled by a freshwater lake. Tunnel discussed in Coles 1998, including that for coast- valleys 1-3 km wide, 100m deep and 25-60km line position and for the major river courses. long were present in the area between what is Sea-level change in northwestern Europe has now northeastern Scotland and what is now the From: PYE, K. & ALLEN, J. R. L. (eds). Coastal and Estuarine Environments: sedimentology, geomorphology and geoarchaeology. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 175, 393-401. 0305-8719/00/$15.00 6) The Geological Society of London 2000. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at University of Edinburgh on March 10, 2013 394 BRYONY J. COLES Dogger Bank. A further group of valleys, not Doggerland had three major river networks, quite so deep, extended eastwards from the two draining to the north and one southwards present Humber estuary to the south of Dogger to the Channel River (Fig. 1) (Coles 1998, Bank, which itself is likely to have formed a p. 54-57). The northeastern network was domi- substantial upland mass. At the Weichselian nated by the Elbe which flowed to the west of maximum, land beyond the ice-sheet margins is Jutland through the Urstromtal, a vast valley still likely to have been uplifted as a glacial fore- identifiable on the sea-floor, and on across eastern bulge, an effect which only slowly dissipated Doggerland to an estuary opening into the with de-glaciation. The present Dogger Bank Norwegian Trench. The northwestern network may therefore represent former Dogger Hills had a smaller catchment, draining the region west which extended further and higher than present of the Dogger Hills together with much of what is bathymetry suggests. now eastern England, and flowing to an estuary O" I ... ;~ IcE SHEET ' \, BERGEJ HILLS ICE SHEET Rhin~ J Doggerland: .... l~---'~" Hypothetical Maximum Extent I,--.--- of Land, t~ Later Devensian/Weichsetian l 0 200 krn /| Fig. 1. Doggerland in the Later Devensian/Weichselian, with an indication of the major river systems. The evidence on which Figs l-4 are based is discussed in Coles 1998. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at University of Edinburgh on March 10, 2013 DOGGERLAND: THE CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF A SHIFTING COASTLINE 395 between the Dogger Hills and the Yorkshire development of open grassy parkland vegetation Wolds. South of Doggerland's main watershed, interspersed with patches of light birch wood- the Rhine and the Thames met to flow south- land and a few other trees (e.g. Kolstrup 1991; westwards into the Channel River and out to the Tipping 1991). There will have been many areas Atlantic, with an estuary well to the west. of wetland vegetation fringing shallow lakes and streams and rivers. Herds of grazing and brows- Flora and fauna ing mammals colonised the land, accompanied by their predators including humans. Direct The opening of the Windermere/B~lling-Allerod evidence for Doggerland's fauna is provided by interstadial (Fig. 2) was marked by a rapid rise bones trawled from the North Sea floor, many in temperature, followed relatively slowly by the of them from the vicinity of Brown Bank (van 0 ° I ,,, 4. ~cE SHEET ,~ ,(, SHETLAND IKING_ t ERGEN NORTH SEA (5 54 ° Pit Lake Rhine Doggerland: Hypothetical Landscape with first extensive coast B~tling-Aller~d/Windermere Interstadial 0 200km ......... .... Fig. 2. Doggerland during the Bolling-Allerod/Windermere interstadial, showing development of northern coast and estuaries and presence of Viking-Bergen island. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at University of Edinburgh on March 10, 2013 396 BRYONY J. COLES Kolfschoten & Laban 1995); those bones which, Colonization of western Norway was prob- themselves undated, can be attributed to the ably also by boat, given the lack of an ice-flee interstadial by reference to the faunas of corridor of land around the southwestern adjacent lands, include horse, mammoth and margin of the Scandinavian ice sheet at the red deer. The open vegetation and frequent postulated time of colonization (Anundsen expanses of fresh water coupled with warm 1996). The first human presence on the Norwe- temperatures, may have attracted many thou- gian coast is currently dated to the Allerod, sands of migrating birds; these too will have on the basis of indirect evidence in the form attracted human predators. of charcoal which is thought to derive from fires that had burned in a context where The people of Doggerland a natural origin would be unlikely (Bang- Andersen 1996). The Late Glacial hunter-gatherers who explored From these slight indications, it can be argued and then settled Doggerland came from inland that people had developed a way of life adapted Europe (Housley et al. 1997), and as such they to coastal and marine conditions before the will have been familiar with the general condi- opening of the Holocene. The abundance of tions that prevailed through the land. Even- marine mammals, sea-birds and fish known tually, however, the first exploratory groups from Scandinavian coastal sites indicates the reached, what was for them, an entirely new attractions of the sea; in cultural terms, the environment: the coast. The location for this challenge of developing new skills and equip- encounter will have been along the north coast ment in order to exploit these marine resources of Doggerland, both southern Britain and Jut- may have taken the place formerly held by land then being inland regions.