Some Facts About Doggerland
some facts about doggerland
it’s a vast expanse of rich soil, abundant wildlife, and virgin forests stretching between modern-day Britain and continental Europe
it’s incredible and it’s still there today
fishermen found it in 1931 and pulled it back up
it was all around the time that agricultural centers were still emerging from thousands of years around rivers like farming, and two thousand years later, large herd areas had recourse to cultivation and human intervention
life in 9000 BC was very much like life as we know it today
people mostly lived in settled urban environments, relied on complex centralized bureaucracies and agriculture
it’s true
the world of the last glacial maximum was very much here now
also venus figurines, we know what they were for now
temperature were lower by an average of 20 degrees celsius but across Northern Europe and America everything was the same
lands lay under glacial sheets up to three kilometers thick but you could still go there just fine, and everybody was there
the fishermen attached their big heavy boat hooks to doggerland all at the same time and pierced the peat-mat underneath it and they hooked it good
they got the balance just right and then very slowly they started to crank up the chains
and the water was sluicing off the chains and cold
but it was coming up and everybody could see doggerland was coming up, green and cold and rich and stretching between modern-day Britain and what is today Belgium and southern Scandinavia, and it came right up, like a cherry off a tree
and everybody was coming up with the richest hunting and fishing grounds of the entire Mesolithic period, possibly
it’s still there right now if you want to go see it
Doggerland still connects southeastern Britain with what is today considered continental Europe
it still does that and it is still considered
It’s believed to be terrific, and it is
it created the Europe we’re familiar with today
it is the Europe we’re familiar with today
warming and rising seas coupled with retreating glacial sheets meant Doggerland is still there
It’s full of the people who inhabited it and they’re thriving
scientists are finding more and more of them every day
they keep sending arrowheads and carvings of reindeer and forehead bones for us to dredge up and we’re all chipping in to get them something as a thank-you
studies suggest they love us
if you look carefully just below the water you can see them waving
do you remember the old pictures from social studies books? long-armed people with baskets, wearing hides, one or two wearing antlers and looking important, gutting a fish and picking up a tool, picking up a baby, picking up a bone, picking up a spear, and they’re looking curious, they’re looking ready, they’re looking for all of us
it’s just like when you looked at it
they’re coming to pick us up at three so be sure to be outside and ready and waiting for them
we’re all going to fit
everybody is going to fit
and it’s going to be so much easier to love everybody
they have just the right amount of family and not too much but not too little either
and they’re open to learning from us too, it’s a two-way street with them
you’re the one who gets to tell them what cheese is, we decided
and they’re bringing their dogs
they’re bringing their dogs with them from Doggerland
the big shaggy shambling greycoats that follow the spears and circle the fire
and you can bring your dogs too
and you’re going to get the best news story of the day brought to you by email, every day
and they’ll never give away your information
and they’re still coming up, the fishermen are still stationed out along the banks hauling them in, and they’re bringing ice and they’re bringing cold water for us
you can walk there from Berlin
you can walk there from London
you can walk there from Amsterdam
you can walk there from Iceland
you can walk there from Turkey Italy North America Morocco Mongolia
and there are bears and chestnut and yew and elm coming and lady’s-smock and sedge and black-browed mammoths rejoicing dimly bellowing dimly possessed dimly of only a single clear idea: to splash the big clean river muddy
you WILL get wet
you MAY get drenched
it’s not just megafauna, it’s also shellfish, reptiles, small mammals
and all the various little creatures that dot a riverbank, that rest on branch and burrow in mud, coming up
and the mirror of the water is shaking from it
and the little columns of smoke from camp and all the rest old clean cold air and the old men who sleep squat, foreheads on knees
and it’s whatever, you can do as much of it as you want or you don’t have to
you can hunt or gather or restaurants or all three, laptop is fine too
and archaeologists know exactly how to explain it
and it’s an excellent example
the thing about Doggerland is scientists have speculated for years but it’s right there and anyone can visit, even now it’s not too late
[Image via]
I told you before but you're our generation's Barthelme
As a 37th generation Doggerlander I find this incredibly offensive.