Posted on 04/12/2014 12:25:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
As a specialist in prehistoric underwater archaeology, Dr Jonathan Benjamin looks at rising sea levels differently from most people and his fascination with this global phenomenon began when as a PhD candidate at Edinburgh University he came across the work of the Danish archaeologists Anders Fischer and Søren H Anderson.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Fischer and Anderson recovered some of the most well preserved material ever seen from sites such as the 6,500-year-old settlement at Tybrind Vig.
This was the first submerged settlement excavated in Denmark and from 1977 was the scene of intensive archaeological activity. Lying 300m from the present shoreline and beneath 3 metres of water, divers excavated sensationally well-preserved artefacts from the Ertebølle Culture. This included dugout boats and decorated wooden paddles, and gave unprecedented insight into the everyday lives of the prehistoric societies of Northern Europe.
But it wasn’t just the artefacts that captured Dr Benjamin’s imagination; it was where they were discovered that caught his attention. One of the first pages in Dr Benjamin’s own book Submerged Prehistory, of which he is the principal editor, is dedicated to a remarkable graph which shows global sea level rise of up to 130 metres between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago. CaptureGiven the tendency of humans to establish settlements along the coast, and early human migratory patterns, which also follow coastal routes, it’s not difficult to appreciate just how many settlements might have been swallowed up by the ocean over the past 15,000 years.
Surprisingly, in spite of the apparently self-evident nature of that conclusion, and 30 years after the remarkably well-preserved discoveries from Denmark (with further work pouring in from around the world), prehistoric underwater archaeologists are still relatively rare.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
Very interesting article...thanks for posting. It had never occurred to me that the melting after the last glacial maximum would have inundated thousands of prehistoric coastal sites.
What puzzles me is the sea level rose over a period of 3,000 years. This isn’t Vesuvius-like cataclysm that froze people in their tracks. The inhabitants of these villages and cities had plenty of have time to move out of the way. Why wouldn’t they have taken their possessions with them? How hard would it be to move your boats and decorative paddles?
It’s refreshing, too, that this article doesn’t once mention the modern bogeyman of global warming and the threat of rising seas. If prehistoric man could adapt to sea level rises of up to 130 meters (!!), then I really think we can adapt to the faint possibility that modern sea levels might rise one meter.
Great points, great post!
They left their junk behind, especially things that were too big or too hard to move. They probably had plenty of waterlogged junk, having endured several years of tidal floods that they had not seen in earlier years.
Thor, I’ve had enough of these spring floods. Either we pack up and move the village, or I am going home to Mother. Her great grand daughter probably said the same thing at the new village some years later.
“Helga, go ahead and go home to your mother. I’ll miss you dearly, I will. Honestly.”
Antediluvian Bump!
Storm surges.
Changes in sea level from 16,000 years ago to present in northwest Europe.
This is a dangerous field to study, they may even be accused of heresey against doctrine
Probably has to do with the inability to employ hordes of local and student labor.
Tsunami. Read the info in the caption under The Europe That Was in Post 10. I imagine if there was one Storegga Landslide there were probably more in the same area from an earlier time as well.
“But Odin be damned if you think you are taking my boat and decorative paddle!”
Likely the proglacial lakes whose remnants today are the Great Lakes, along with Great and Lesser Slave lakes. There were also significant proglacial lakes in Poland and western Siberia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz
It’s hard to find people able to hold their breath more than 2 or 3 minutes. ;’)
This website describes what I believe happened: ICE AGE FLOODS
I find it amazing that there was a time I could drive to France from England in my Hyundai where the English Channel is now.
Nice map! I think I’ll swipe it right now...
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