Science - 31 January 2020

(Marcin) #1
SCIENCE sciencemag.org 31 JANUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6477 501

CREDITS: (GRAPHIC) A. CUADRA/


SCIENCE


; (DATA) EUROPE’S LOST FRONTIERS PROJECT/EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL; (PHOTOS, LEFT TO RIGHT) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES (ROM) LEIDEN (1); MANON BRUININGA


UNITED
KINGDOM

IRELAND

FRANCE

GERMANY

DENMARK

NORWAY SWEDEN

North Sea

North Atlantic
Ocean

English Channel

Liverpool

Manchester

Birmingham

Edinburgh

Newcastle

Glasgow

Shetland
islands

Orkney
islands

Hebrides
islands

Belfast

Dublin

Cork

London

Oslo

Paris

Dogger
Bank

German
Bight

Jutland
Bank

Viking
Bank

Skage

rrak

Brussels

Hamburg

Dortmund

Essen

Amsterdam

1 0,

Coastlines (years
before present)

9000
8000
7000
0

0 200
Km

BELGIUM

Lines based
on current
research
and data

Extrapolation
based on
bathymetry
Original
locations of
artifacts

2

1

5

4

3

No
rw
eg
ian
Tre
nc
h

NETHERLANDS

Approximate extent of
ice during the last ice
age (70,000 to 20,
years before present)

4 Perforated antler ax,
9000 to 6000 B.C.E.
This shaft for an ax, crafted
by early European hunter-
gatherers, dates to the final
millennia before Doggerland
sank below the North Sea.

1 Large flint core ax,
9000 to 6000 B.C.E.
Found in a fisher’s net
in the 1980s, this ax
was shaped and used
by Mesolithic European
hunter-gatherers.

5 Neanderthal hand ax
Found in sediments dredged
off the Dutch coast south
of Rotterdam, this stone tool
may be 250,000 years old.
Part of a Neanderthal bone
was found nearby.

3 Neanderthal flake
with birch tar grip
About 50,000 years ago,
a Neanderthal used a
complex process to make
birch tar and affix it
to the point.

2 Barbed bone points,
9000 to 6000 B.C.E.
Found in sand and gravel
recovered from off the Dutch
coast, these points likely helped
humans bag fish and birds in
Doggerland’s rich wetlands.

A vanished landscape
Over the millennia, Doggerland has been an icy wasteland, verdant valleys and forests, and now the bottom of the cold North Sea. Various kinds of humans
have adapted to all these changes, with Homo antecessor, Neanderthals, and H. sapiens likely making use of the land’s bounty at different times.

SCIEN


CE


; (DA


TA) E


1 Large flint
900 0 t

3 N nde thal flak

Area in
detail

Published by AAAS
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