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Doggerland was a large area of land in Northern Europe, now submerged beneath the southern North Sea.

This region was repeatedly exposed at various times during the Pleistocene epoch due to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods. However, the term "Doggerland" is typically used for this region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. During the early Holocene following the glacial retreat at the end of the Last Glacial Period, the exposed land area of Doggerland stretched across the region between what is now the east coast of Great Britain, northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, north-western Germany, and the Danish peninsula of Jutland. Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, Doggerland was inundated by rising sea levels, disintegrating initially into a series of low-lying islands before submerging completely. The impact of the tsunami generated by the Storegga underwater landslide c. The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral. Doggerland was named after the present-time Dogger Bank (which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers), which is the remains of a highland region that became submerged later than the rest of Doggerland. Interest intensified in 1931 when a fishing trawler operating east of the Wash dragged up a barbed antler point that was subsequently dated to a time when the area was tundra. Most archaeological evidence of human habitation dates to the Mesolithic period during the early Holocene. As of 2020, international teams are continuing a two-year investigation into the submerged landscape of Doggerland using new and traditional archaeo-geophysical techniques, computer simulation, and molecular biology.

Another view speculates that the Storegga tsunami devastated Doggerland, but then ebbed back into the sea, and that later Lake Agassiz (in North America) burst, releasing so much fresh water that sea levels rose over about two years to flood much of Doggerland and make Great Britain an island.

Interest was reinvigorated in the 1990s by Bryony Coles, who named the area "Doggerland" "after the great banks in the southern North Sea" and produced speculative maps of the area, although she recognised that the current relief of the southern North Sea seabed is not a sound guide to the topography of Doggerland. Between 2003 and 2007, a team at the University of Birmingham led by Vince Gaffney and Ken Thomson mapped around 23,000 km2 (8,900 sq mi) of the Early Holocene landscape, using seismic data provided for research by Petroleum Geo-Services, as part of the work of the University of Birmingham North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project. In 2012, the results of a study of Doggerland by the universities of Birmingham, St Andrews, Dundee, and Aberdeen, including surveys of artefacts, were displayed at the Royal Society summer exhibition in London. Since 2015, the University of Bradford's Europe's Lost Frontiers project has continued mapping the prehistoric landscapes of Doggerland and has used this data to direct a programme of extensive coring of marine palaeochannels. Doggerland was a lush land filled with a wide variety of vegetation, animals, and geographical features that supported a large portion of Europe's Mesolithic population. This piece, among others, matched the technique and style of Maglemosian groups and solidified evidence of human occupancy in the area while giving insight into the culture and environment of Doggerland. The Maglemosian culture was succeeded by the Kongemose culture and during this transition, the land changed severely as Doggerland was swallowed up by the North Sea, assisted by natural disasters like the Storegga tsunami and the bursting of Lake Agassiz. Doggerland was almost gone by the start of the Kongemose culture, likely reduced from the former expansive land bridge to several low-lying islands which forced people to change their lifestyles to suit their new world. Maglemosian culture – Culture of the early Mesolithic period in Northern Europe

"Das rekonstruierte Doggerland" ("Doggerland reconstructed"), computer-generated images of a Doggerland landscape, 19 August 2008, Der Spiegel (in German)

Quick Facts

• Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, Doggerland was inundated by rising sea levels, disintegrating initially into a series of low-lying islands before submerging completely.
• However, the term "Doggerland" is typically used for this region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.
• Doggerland was named after the present-time Dogger Bank (which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers), which is the remains of a highland region that became submerged later than the rest of Doggerland.
• "Das rekonstruierte Doggerland" ("Doggerland reconstructed"), computer-generated images of a Doggerland landscape, 19 August 2008, Der Spiegel (in German)
• The Maglemosian culture was succeeded by the Kongemose culture and during this transition, the land changed severely as Doggerland was swallowed up by the North Sea, assisted by natural disasters like the Storegga tsunami and the bursting of Lake Agassiz.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Doggerland". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.