Archaeologists believe they have discovered an ancient Stone Age settlement once home to thousands of hoi polloi 8,000 year ago . Today , it rest at the bottom of the North Sea having been drowned in ascend sea levels after the last Ice Age .
For decades , fishers and oil exploration outfitters have reporting finding workedbone , Harlan Stone , and human remainsin Brown Bank , a marine ecosystem located 80 kilometers ( 50 mile ) west of the Dutch coast . The amount of ethnical fabric found in the area – the submerged land , now discover Doggerland – has long indicated a prehistoric settlement may have once resided here . For the first time , researchers have confirmed two potential prehistoric settlement located on what archaeologists trust was once the depository financial institution of an ancient river .
To ascertain the in force locations for exploration , researchers recreated the submarine landscape painting using information cater by oil and gas caller , current of air farm developers , and coal extractors who manoeuvre in this in use waterway . jointly , they were able to find out areas that were more likely to have been home to past human activity . Using acoustic technique and extract strong-arm samples of the ocean bottom , researchers found three sites that have the potential for archaeological and geological significance .
“ This is a very exciting project to be involved in , ” said geoarchaeologist Martin Bates of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in astatement . “ [ O]ur caper is to canvass all the cores that have been drill into the sea floor and reconstruct the geology of the changing surroundings over the last 100,000 years . From this information , we can nail likely places on , or beneath , the seabed which might have grounds for natural action by our ascendent living in this now lose landscape . ”
The arena likely once made up the primary merging of an ancient river organization that provided central drain to the area when icing caps melted and sea level rose some 10,000 years ago . A second field is believe to have been a prehistoric river vale , while the last region , known as Brown Bank , is formed by a 30 - kilometer ( 19 - stat mi ) sand ridge . Here , they found two Harlan Fisk Stone artifacts that are believed to have made tools , one of which was a small part of flint and another a larger piece broken from the edge of a stone hammer . Further samples that show peat and ancient Natalie Wood indicate that the area was once home to an ancient woodland that , when analyzed in the context of the ancient putz , propose the area was home to an ancient refinement before being submerge .
investigator hope to use this information to better understand the region in a bigger context and plan hereafter sample expedition so as to paint a picture of ancient sprightliness in prehistoric Britain .
