Science - 31 January 2020

500 31 JANUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6477 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

earlier hominins. It all disappeared when
glaciers melted and sea level rose about
8500 years ago.
That vast continental shelf has been a
blank spot on the map of prehistoric Eu-
rope because archaeologists can’t mount
traditional excavations underwater. Now,
thanks to the Zandmotor and construc-
tion work on a harbor extension in nearby
Rotterdam, van Wingerden and a dedicated
cadre of amateur beachcombers are amass-
ing an impressive collection of artifacts

from that vanished landscape. Scientists
on both sides of the North Sea are apply-
ing precise new methods to date the arti-
facts and sequence any genetic traces, as
well as mapping the sea floor and analyz-
ing sediment cores. The effort is bringing to
light the landscape and prehistory of a lost
homeland of ancient Europeans.
The finds show that the region was an
inviting place in the few thousand years be-
fore it vanished, with forests and river val-
leys rich in game. “It’s not a blank area, it’s
not a land bridge, it’s probably one of the
best areas for hunter-gatherers in Europe,”
says Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist at
the University of Bradford.
The dark, cold waters that now hide
the region add to its allure because they
preserve organic material for DNA analy-
sis and radiocarbon dating better than on
land. And the techniques now being tested
to explore the area could aid research on
submerged landscapes elsewhere, such as
Beringia, the vanished land between Asia
and North America inhabited by the first
Americans. “It really is a pioneer field and

will make a huge difference to our under-

standing of prehistory,” retired University

of York archaeologist Geoff Bailey says.

CLAD IN A BRIGHT YELLOW windbreaker and

blue rubber boots, van Wingerden kept her

eyes on the sand as she crunched across ra-

zor clamshells and bits of driftwood. To the

south, the cranes of Rotterdam harbor—

Europe’s largest port—were just visible on

the horizon. To the north, oversize kites

bobbed in the sky, pulling kitesurfers along

far below. “Sometimes things are on dry

sand; sometimes they’re near the water,”

van Wingerden said of her finds. “There’s

really no logic to it.”

Fifty thousand years ago, the landscape

looked different. Doggerland—which Uni-

versity of Exeter archaeologist Bryony

Coles named in the 1990s after the Dog-

ger Banks, a productive North Sea fish-

ing spot—extended from Amsterdam

up to Scotland and southern Norway.

The region once encompassed at least

180,000 square kilometers of dry land,

four times the size of the Netherlands to-

day (see map, p. 501). But until the Zand-

motor was built in 2011, archaeologists had

glimpsed only the outlines of Doggerland.

Fishermen had dragged up isolated bones,

tusks, and stone tools.

In calmer seas, archaeologists might

have dived to the sea floor for follow-up

searches. But the rough, cold, murky wa-

ters of the North Sea, crisscrossed with

busy shipping lanes, ruled that out.

“The technology [to explore the sea

floor] wasn’t available, nobody knew what

might have survived sea-level rise, and it all

seemed hopelessly expensive and useless,”

Bailey says. Archaeologists were also re-

luctant to be seen chasing after “lost conti-

nents,” he adds, lest they be associated with

fringe theories such as Atlantis.

That’s changing fast, thanks in part to

beachcombers like van Wingerden. In his

office at the National Museum of Antiqui-

ties, archaeologist Luc Amkreutz opens his

email and scrolls through messages, some

just hours old. “This morning a fisherman

sent in photos of an elk antler with a shaft

hole,” he says, opening an attachment. “It

just goes on and on.”

Using email and a WhatsApp group

with the straightforward name “Stone

Age Finds,” Amkreutz and Marcel Niekus,

an independent archaeologist, keep in

constant contact with amateurs scouring

beaches all along the Dutch coast. The

archaeologists help identify prehistoric

artifacts from photos and get access to

dozens of specimens in exchange. “We’re

easy to approach, and people can bring us

finds,” Amkreutz says.

Other researchers are reaping similar

bonanzas. In late 2018, Leiden University

Medical Center archaeogeneticist Eveline

Altena was part of a research group that in-

vited van Wingerden and other amateurs to

an open house, asking them to bring human

bones for identification. The response was

overwhelming: In a single day, beachcomb-

ers brought more than 50 human skeletal

fragments, many suitable for dating and

DNA analysis. “Now, we’re getting new frag-

ments on a weekly basis,” she says. “I can’t

keep up anymore.”

In 2015, van Wingerden found a flint

flake with a gob of tar stuck to one end to

form a simple handle. Niekus and Amkreutz

recognized it as a Neanderthal hand tool at

least 50,000 years old. Chemical analysis

helped show how Neanderthals used com-

plex methods to process birch bark into tar,

as a team including Niekus, Amkreutz, and

van Wingerden reported in PNAS.

Archaeologists can’t know exactly where

on the sea floor an artifact found on the

beach originated, so the context they prize

is missing. But because coastal reclamation

efforts such as the Zandmotor dredge from

specific locations, archaeologists know

the artifacts’ sources to within a few kilo-

meters. “There are complete cemeteries

being sucked up and sprayed on beaches,”

Amkreutz says. “Even though these finds

aren’t in their original find spot, they can

say something about a huge area.”

Those findings suggest several phases of

occupation. Tools and other relics 800,

years old or more harken back to when

this part of Europe was likely occupied by PHOTO: MANON BRUININGA

Willy van Wingerden has found hundreds of ancient artifacts on beaches near her home in the Netherlands.

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