Archeologists recently discovered evidence in what they describe as the "Lost Atlantis" or Doggerland beneath the North Sea. Over 200 objects were pieced together, making the discoverers believe they were used by the Neanderthals.
A Daily Express report said Doggerland, the now-flooded landmass, once linked Britain to continental Europe before it was submerged around 6200BC by rising sea levels.
This report also said, the archeological potential of the site was initially identified at the beginning of the 20th century, and interest was strengthened in the early 1930s when a fishing trawler pulled up an old barbed antler.
For a long time now, vessels have found residuals of mammoths, lions, and other animals and a few primeval tools and weapons.
However, it is only now, after around 10 years of study and distinctive finds from an army of amateur archeologists scrubbing the Dutch coastline, that a major display can paint a picture of this so-called lost Atlantis imagined during the 19th Century by HG Wells.
The 'Doggerland' Exhibition
The Doggerland: Lost World in the North Sea exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, southern Holland, encompasses over 200 objects.
Such objects are ranging from animal remains and fossils to fragment of a young male Neanderthal's skull. Then, much of the project's success is down to a group of citizen scientists that have exposed a number of incredible artifacts to convey the whole story.
Beaches made by humans, built from material searched from the sea as part of initiatives to shield the modern coastline from the effect of the climate crisis, have offered a trove of treasures that were once inaccessible from a world occupied by modern humans, Neanderthals, and Homo antecessor, described as the "even older hominids."
According to the assistant curator of the prehistory department of the museum, Dr. Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof, there's a wonderful community of amateur archeologists who walk the beaches almost every day and search for fossils and relics. The curator added, they work with these finds to analyze and study.
Finds like a 50,000-year-old flint tool contributed to the experts in updating their understanding of Neanderthals, previously believed to be "brutish and simplistic," as having the capability to perform precise and complex tasks in multiple stages.
A History Guild report said, named in the 1990s by Bryon Coles, an archeologist at the University of Exeter, after the Dogger Bank, a stretch of seabed located in the North Sea, Doggerland is believed to have been subsumed over 8,000 years ago after the occurrence of a massive tsunami.
Climate Change is Man-Made
Dr. Van der Vaart-Verschoof also explained, there was a period when Doggerland, as explained in National Geographic, was dry. During that time, it was also very rich. Hunter-gathers consider the place a wonderful one.
The expert added it was not some edge of this planet or land bridge to the United Kingdom. Rather, he continued, it was the heart of Europe.
There definitely are lessons to be learned. The Doggerland's story depicts how disruptive climate change can be. Indeed, the one seen at present is manmade, although the impacts could be just as devastating as the changes observed in all those years back.
The Daily Express report said the exhibit would be physically available for visitors until October 31, 2021. It can also be viewed on the YouTube channel of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden as seen below:
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