Doggerland and the Lost Frontiers Project (2015–2020)

Abstract

As this volume, the final monograph of the SPLASHCOS network, was being finalised, the European Research Council agreed to fund a major new project relating to the marine palaeolandscapes of the southern North Sea. Emerging from the earlier work of the North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project (NSPP), the Lost Frontiers project seeks to go beyond the maps generated by that ground-breaking research. Led by researchers in the fields of archaeogeophysics, molecular biology and computer simulation, the project seeks to develop a new paradigm for the study of past environments, ecological change and the transition between hunter gathering societies and farming in North West Europe. Following from earlier work, the project will seek to release the full potential of the available seismic reflectance data sets to generate topographical maps of the whole of early Holocene Doggerland that are as accurate and complete as possible. Using these data, the study will then reconstruct and simulate the emerging palaeoenvironments of Doggerland using conventional palaeoenvironmental data, as well as ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores along the routes of two submerged river valleys. Using this base data, the project aims to transform our understanding of the colonisation and development of floral, faunal and human life, to explore the Mesolithic landscapes and to identify incipient Neolithic signals indicating early contact and development within the region of Doggerland.