The real flood: Submerged prehistory

Past Horizons ^ | Thursday, April 10, 2014 | unattributed

[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.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=179840&st=690

http://nextnature.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/2007_dogger_re-engineered_satelite_photo_530.jpg

http://friedfoo.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/doggerland2.jpg

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/photos/000/318/31836.jpg

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

In one of the stories in Icelandic Mythology, Thor was described as walking from Denmark or Sweden to Finland to visit Jotenheim (Home of the Giants.)

The teacher of the class I was in noted that one features of Norse Myth was that it was Grotesque; Thor could walk over the Baltic, he would walk in a Giant's Glove, then arm wrestle with the same giant. Sizes and distances were not consistent.

Based on what I see here, regarding a trip from Sweden to Finland, it may suggest a very ancient source for the story as This trip was possible at one time.

Suggesting is one thing. I don't think its possible to show that a pre-flood Northern Europe is reflected in Norse literature or oral tradition surviving 11 or 10 millennia in a pre-literary oral recollection.

[blam]

I like maps.

[SunkenCiv]

Google turned up a larger version of that first one, and some others, I think I posted the links, but I’m not sure, I’ve dozed off about ten times, need to go to bed.

[concentric circles]

I think this is the original source: Doggerland - The Europe That Was - National Geographic. It is a nice map.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks POF, I think someone already replied, but here goes -- the rises in sealevel took place in fits and starts, as ice dams gave way and enormous amounts of meltwater roared out into the world ocean; there were spots that were higher at one time but as the weight of the ice came off, isostatic rebound lifted the Earth's surface, while in other places (analogous to a balance scale) the surface dropped. In some places it continues to recede for various reasons. Also, the rotation of the Earth itself varied due to the shift of the weight as the glaciers disappeared. In the shadow of the Moon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1203912/posts‎