Archaeology in the North Sea
Archaeology in the North Sea
Initially, in order to establish the possibility of land being present in the middle of the North Sea in prehistoric times the undersea features there need to be recognised. These are in simple terms, Dogger Bank, the Witch Ground and the Norwegian Channel.
The British Isles and North Sea
The Norwegian Channel is a deep water trench that follows the Norwegian Coast from the Skaggerak, an even deeper section of the same trench, between Norway and Denmark, out to the North Atlantic Ocean.
Dogger Bank is an area of shallow water in the southern North Sea known to have been walkable land in prehistoric times, Doggerland.
The Witch Ground is one of a group of deep water features in the North Sea. It is of the North east coast of Aberdeenshire.
At the north of the North Sea the seabed is over 100 metres deep, but the Witch Ground is even deeper.
Relative sea level charts for points along the Norwegian Coast, are published in "Post Glacial Relative Sea Level Change in Norway" by Roger C. Creel.
Sea level charts for the Norwegian Coast
There is, on the charts, a consistent pulse of 10 metres higher water level onto the Norwegian coast at 12,000BP when the ice sheets on Sweden were melting and draining into the Skaggerak.
At that time the sea level in the Norwegian Channel, inferred from "Global sea-level rise in the early Holocene revealed from North Sea peats" by Marc P. Hijma, et al, was 60 metres below present at 12,000BP, but the peak of the meltwater surge out of the Skaggerak was then 10 metres above 60, therefore 50 metres below our sea level.
This surge of 50 metres below sea level was supported at the Skaggerak between the coasts of Norway and Denmark, and not diminished in any way until it follows the Norwegian Coast and reaches the Atlantic.
This means that there was land along the west bank of the Norwegian Channel at better than 50 metres below current sea level, where the seabed is now over 100 below .
This suggests that there was land at the west coast of the Norwegian Channel at shallower that 50 metres below sea-level that people and animal may have used to walk from Doggerland north to the Atlantic coast of the North Sea.
The flint artefact
To confirm this possibility, There is evidence of human activity in the middle of the North Sea. In a report entitled "A flint artifact from the northern North Sea" . Caroline Wickham-Jones discusses a struck flint artefact found in a borehole in the North Sea, half way between Shetland and the North Sea, ("A flint artifact from the northern North Sea" By Long, D., Wickham-Jones, C.R. and Ruckley, N.A. 1986). This may indicate that people were foraging in this area in prehistory. It is certainly difficult to conceive how a knapped flint got to that place otherwise.
At about 10,000BP Doggerland became isolated from Europe, and any wild or human life on the whole stretch was either marooned, castaway, or possibly able to retreat to Scotland via Orkney if they were strategically aware of the threat of sea level rise.
There is also evidence that there was water along the east coast of Britain. The Witch Ground , the deep water area in the North Sea, northeast of Aberdeen, and merges with the Marr Bank, which is an area of deposits laid down at 80 to 100 metres below sea level. (British Geological Survey, North Sea Memoirs.)
The presence of these shallow seas along the east coast of Britain, and a ridge from Dogger Bank, along the middle of the North Sea would enable the European Vole to travel on foot from Denmark, Germany, Holland, etc without ever setting foot on mainland Britain. (Analyses of the vole remains, by Thomas Cucchi et al)
There is evidence for a date at which the sediments in the North Sea were removed by rising sea levels. and that date corresponds to a change in the behaviours of people and animals that visited and inhabited Neolithic Orkney.
The date at which rising sea-levels severed land in the northern North Sea from Dogger Bank may be found in a report of excavations of raised beaches on the Norwegian Coast that was carried out by Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen. (Sea-level studies along the coast of south-western Norway, by Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen)
At 3000BC the global sea level was some 5 metres below present levels, and the ground level of the west bank of the Norwegian Channel may have been around our own sea level. The terrain is likely to have been cut into by ribbon lakes, and deep holes, a very discontinuous territory.
Sea levels rose, and the west bank of the Norwegian Channel was eroded as the Atlantic tide surged south along beside it. The tidal surge circled round the south coast of Dogger Bank into the Marr Bank and Witch Ground. The differential tidal action against either side of the narrowest area of the Upper Dogger Bank caused a collapse of the west bank of the Norwegian Channel, where a wave of sand and gravel was washed across and into the channel
The Rogaland coast of Norway
Danielsen demonstrated that there were a couple of transgressive rises in sea level after the end of the last ice age. She also found an anomalous event which she could give no explanation for, in which an alder tree was ripped from its roots at a site in Rogaland, near Stavanger. “The layer consisted of organic and sand (mica schist) lenses sandwiched on top of each other, dipping towards the east. Between layer 3 and layer 4 there is an erosional angular unconformity. Also roots of black alder (Alnus glutinosa) (identified by Aud Simonsen) penetrating into the upper part of the marine gyttja have been cut of discordantly. A piece of root has been dated to 4320±70 yr BP (ß-171185).”. The date was calibrated to just after 3000BC, and I interpret that the roots may have been stripped of their tree by a very local tsunami wave, rolling across the Norwegian Channel
The bathymetry of the Norwegian Channel
The position position of this coastal region of Norway which makes it likely to have been affected by such a wave is exactly opposite the narrowest neck of land between the Witch Ground and the Norwegian Channel.
A section along the length of the Norwegian Channel
A dump of sedimentary material is to be found in the floor of the Norwegian Channel at this location, and is likely to have been caught up with the collapse of the Witch Ground side wall. It is recorded in a section along the channel surveyed by Hans Petter Sejrup in "Quaternary of the Norwegian Channel: glaciation History and palaeoceanography”
When the tidal waters of the Atlantic invaded the Witch Ground they rapidly stripped the northern North Sea of a hundred metre depth of deposits and faced off against the Atlantic Ocean proper between Shetland and Orkney and between Orkney and Caithness.
It is highly probable that prehistoric people and animals used a route from South Ronaldsay to the north coast of Scotland to migrate from Scotland to Orkney and Shetland before 3000BC, the date of the tree root found on the Norwegian Coast.
The Sandy Riddle
The only possible physical evidence is to be found as a shallow seabed feature trailing away from the Pentland Skerries in the middle of the Pentland Firth, south of South Ronaldsay. This feature is called the Sandy Riddle and may represent the only surviving remnant of land that joined beaches off the east coast of Caithness to beaches off the east coast of South Ronaldsay.
An alternative route was also present when the Witch Ground Lake preserved a tract of land around its north coast enabling the European Vole to migrate from Dogger Bank and Europe directly to Orkney and Shetland.
When the land North of the Witch Ground Lake was isolated from Europe by the collapse of the Witch Ground Lake, the inhabitants of the territory withdrew, if they could, to Shetland and Orkney.
People and animals that had been nomadic and migratory were then cast away on small windswept islands on the North Atlantic Ocean.
The isolation of a small population of people led to the creation of some of the most evocative Neolithic structures in Britain.
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Index
The rich history of archaeology on Orkney provides source material for the following observations.
"Neolithic Migrants to Orkney" The story of the First, Founding Immigrants to Orkney
"A Bizarre Idea" What's the Story, then?
"Walkable land in the North Sea" describes evidence that walkable land was present between Norfolk and Holland at a time when prehistoric people were occupying northern Europe.
"Archaeology in the North Sea" looks at the elusive evidence that people could have walked from Caithness to South Ronaldsay.
"3000BC" gives detailed evidence of tsunami events on the Norwegian Coast.
"A Brief Guide to the Last Glaciation" How did the North Sea develop?
"Mainland Settlements" discusses and dates the early settlements across mainland Orkney.
"Barnhouse" describes this "Neolithic Village" a substantial group of Neolithic structures on the shore of Harray Loch.
"Barnhouse Sweat Lodge" describes Structure 8, the Sweat Lodge at Barnhouse.
"Modern Sweat Lodge Practices" describes present day Sweat Lodge ceremonies.
"The Stones of Stenness" describes anomalies in the settings of the stones that formed the stone circle.
"The Ring of Brodgar" discusses just how many stones are there, or are not there, at the Ring of Brodgar.
"A Custom Among the Lower Class of People" , about 18th century Orkney people and the Stones at Brodgar.
"Maeshowe, a Wonder of the Neolithic World" is the personal account of the excavation of the Maeshowe Cairn by the man who excavated it. I include it because it is so personal, not because it adds anything to our understanding.
"Cairns of Orkney" is the commentary of several antiquarian archaeologists writing in previous centuries as they excavated Cairns in England, Scotland, and Orkney. Although these cairns may not have been excavated to a high standard, the commentary provided in these reports is, in my view, very personal, and highly approachable.
"Cairns and the People in them" examines the bones of the people who were laid in cairns, and tells their stories.
"The Westrays" describes the Knap of Howar settlement, and the desolation of the islands that were found by the people of the Links of Noltland when they settled there at the end of the 3rd millennium BC.
"Skara Brae, RCAHMS" is the official description of the Neolithic "Village"
"Skara Brae, Excavation", is an account of the excavation of Hut 7 in 1927. This is an interesting personal account of the Gordon Childe's Excavation by J Wilson Paterson.
"Dating Skara Brae" gives detailed dating evidence for Skara Brae
"The Ness of Brodgar Excavation" and account of the excavation , before 2020, by Nick Card.
"Dating the Ness of Brodgar" gives Dating evidence for the Ness of Brodgar
"The Ferriby Boats" The first seafaring vessels?
"The Orkney Vole" discusses the evidence that the Orkney Vole migrated from Europe to Orkney without setting foot on mainland Britain.
Bere Barley, a Neolithic grain derivations of Bere Barley.
"Concluding" , some simple remarks in conclusion.
"Finally" closing remarks.
All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.
Jeffery Nicholls
South Ronaldsay
Orkney
Jiffynorm@yahoo.co.uk
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