Note: this topic is from . Just an update.
- Dig Report: Dunwich | Time Team | 5 Jul 2013
Time Team - Season 19, Episode 3 - The Drowned Town (Dunwich, Suffolk)
Posted on 05/12/2013 6:07:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...Present day Dunwich is a village 14 miles south of Lowestoft in Suffolk, but it was once a thriving port -- similar in size to 14th Century London. Extreme storms forced coastal erosion and flooding that have almost completely wiped out this once prosperous town over the past seven centuries. This process began in 1286 when a huge storm swept much of the settlement into the sea and silted up the Dunwich River. This storm was followed by a succession of others that silted up the harbour and squeezed the economic life out of the town, leading to its eventual demise as a major international port in the 15th Century. It now lies collapsed and in ruins in a watery grave, three to 10 metres below the surface of the sea, just off the present coastline...
Findings highlights are: Identification of the limits of the town, which reveal it was a substantial urban centre occupying approximately 1.8 km2 -- almost as large as the City of London...
Professor Sear says: "...The severe storms of the 13th and 14th Centuries coincided with a period of climate change, turning the warmer medieval climatic optimum into what we call the Little Ice Age. Our coastlines have always been changing, and communities have struggled to live with this change. Dunwich reminds us that it is not only the big storms and their frequency -- coming one after another, that drives erosion and flooding, but also the social and economic decisions communities make at the coast. In the end, with the harbour silting up, the town partly destroyed, and falling market incomes, many people simply gave up on Dunwich."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Yet all this was only the prologue of the actual Dunwich horror...
Well I suppose it helps remind Humans that, for all our cleverness, there are greater forces that can change what we consider permanent almost overnight. A lesson in humility therefore.
Its not just this harbor. There’s a lot of places in Britain that have been submerged by coastal erosion and/or sudden storm - the last was only about 20 years ago. There’s even quite a strong racial memory of these things - a lot of Celtic legends feature ancient lands sinking. The city of Chester went into decline as a port when the river Dee silted up, and was subsequently replaced by Liverpool as the main west coast seaport.
...not of this wold.
***
Well played!
Hence the “Dunwich Horror”.
I think you mean Innsmouth. ;-)
The use of “Atlantis” is a bit of a stretch, but I must admit I read the article.
Note: this topic is from . Just an update.
Time Team - Season 19, Episode 3 - The Drowned Town (Dunwich, Suffolk)
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