Doggerland is one of my favorite historical subjects. It's really worth a deep dive if you're unfamiliar with it.
The TL:DR is that eight thousand years ago the UK and continental Europe were connected by land (now under the North Sea) that was probably inhabited by humans for thousands of years.
A lot of the ancient history of Europe could be under there. It's exciting to see it getting more attention.
Maybe the English custom of Dogging is a remote echo of Doggerlander traditions woven into the local culture. They must have all moved to UK to escape the flood.
Presumably the sea level rose slowly, so nobody lost their lives. Yes, technically “catastrophic”, in the sense of comprehensively wiping everything out, but not rapid onset.
I was told by a geologist that the SF Bay Area coastline used to be a few hundred meters further west than it is now, and was also inhabited. However that region sank beneath the waves in an earthquake so likely that was a rapid catastrophe
It's also interesting that Eastern England, Frisia (coastal Netherlands), Denmark, etc. all surround Doggerland and Eastern England was probably occupied by related Germanic speakers at that time - the Frisian language is still the closest related language to English on the continent.
The Roman description of "The Saxon Shore" may simply because it was already inhabited by Angles and Saxons - the seas being the ancient world's highways.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 26.7 ms ] threadThe TL:DR is that eight thousand years ago the UK and continental Europe were connected by land (now under the North Sea) that was probably inhabited by humans for thousands of years.
A lot of the ancient history of Europe could be under there. It's exciting to see it getting more attention.
Presumably the sea level rose slowly, so nobody lost their lives. Yes, technically “catastrophic”, in the sense of comprehensively wiping everything out, but not rapid onset.
I was told by a geologist that the SF Bay Area coastline used to be a few hundred meters further west than it is now, and was also inhabited. However that region sank beneath the waves in an earthquake so likely that was a rapid catastrophe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide
It's also a big patch of territory. It's not obvious how it worked politically, and how open surrounding areas would have been to exiles/refugees.
(In which case, the flooding might have been relatively fast.)
The Roman description of "The Saxon Shore" may simply because it was already inhabited by Angles and Saxons - the seas being the ancient world's highways.