Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Lost Frontiers (Europe’s Lost Frontiers: exploring climate change, settlement and colonisation of the submerged landscapes of the North Sea basin using ancient DNA, seismic mapping and complex systems modelling)
Reporting period: 2020-06-01 to 2021-11-30
The only lands on Earth not explored in any depth by science are those lost to the oceans. Global warming at the end of the last Ice Age led to the inundation of vast landscapes that had been home to thousands of people. These lands hold a largely unexplored record of settlement linked to climate change over millennia. Amongst the most significant is Doggerland. Occupying much of the North Sea basin between continental Europe and Britain, Doggerland was a heartland of human occupation, central to the post-glacial process of re-settlement and colonisation of north western Europe. Within this landscape is fragmentary yet invaluable evidence for the lifestyles of its inhabitants including the changes resulting from both the encroaching sea and the introduction of new technologies and social practise. This landscape cannot be explored nor analysed conventionally,
Europe’s Lost Frontiers aimed to:
1) release the full potential of vast marine seismic data sets to generate topographical maps of early Holocene Doggerland that are as accurate as possible.
2) reconstruct and simulate the palaeo-environments of Doggerland using ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores.
3) explore the Mesolithic landscapes and identify incipient Neolithic signals indicating contact and development within the region of Doggerland.
Of these aims, the first two have exceeded expectations. Around 185,000km2 of Early Holocene, prehistoric landscape has been mapped, providing the most comprehensive map of a inundated palaeolandscape globally. Using this data , marine cores were recovered from key locations within river channels for environmental study. Two coring campaigns provided 78 complete cores from 60 locations for study, representing the largest single core sample for archaeological purposes within the North Sea. This data was more complex than projected, and the possibilities created by the successful integration of this data exceed expectations. We recovered unambiguous deposits related to specific inundation events including the first evidence from the southern North Sea for the Storegga tsunami, the most significant single event to affect early Holocene Doggerland.
Project data gathering generated vast quantities of data. New partnerships have allowed us access to new seismic data, and supported collection of targeted data sets to address specific issues. This data will critical in relation to taphonomic issues, which will be a major part of future work.
Europe’s Lost Frontiers generated impact with the general public, reaching millions of people via television, radio, print media and social media. It has also already led to several major, funded spin-off projects which can continue the work pioneered by this grant.
Europe’s Lost Frontiers aimed to:
1) release the full potential of vast marine seismic data sets to generate topographical maps of early Holocene Doggerland that are as accurate as possible.
2) reconstruct and simulate the palaeo-environments of Doggerland using ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores.
3) explore the Mesolithic landscapes and identify incipient Neolithic signals indicating contact and development within the region of Doggerland.
Of these aims, the first two have exceeded expectations. Around 185,000km2 of Early Holocene, prehistoric landscape has been mapped, providing the most comprehensive map of a inundated palaeolandscape globally. Using this data , marine cores were recovered from key locations within river channels for environmental study. Two coring campaigns provided 78 complete cores from 60 locations for study, representing the largest single core sample for archaeological purposes within the North Sea. This data was more complex than projected, and the possibilities created by the successful integration of this data exceed expectations. We recovered unambiguous deposits related to specific inundation events including the first evidence from the southern North Sea for the Storegga tsunami, the most significant single event to affect early Holocene Doggerland.
Project data gathering generated vast quantities of data. New partnerships have allowed us access to new seismic data, and supported collection of targeted data sets to address specific issues. This data will critical in relation to taphonomic issues, which will be a major part of future work.
Europe’s Lost Frontiers generated impact with the general public, reaching millions of people via television, radio, print media and social media. It has also already led to several major, funded spin-off projects which can continue the work pioneered by this grant.
Project tasks were split into four sections in the ‘original application. These were:
• Seismic mapping
• Environmental Reconstruction
• Sedimentary DNA analysis
• Complex Systems Simulation
Seismic Mapping
Seismic mapping involved mapping of landscape features from 2D and 3D seismic data provided by industry, academia and government bodies. It also involved acquiring and processing new seismic data, This data supported landscape mapping over 185,000km2 of the North Sea. The seismic mapping also directed coring and sampling.
Environmental and Sedimentary DNA analysis
This included palynology, foram, ostracod and diatom studies, macro fossil and malacology and sedaDNA. These provided detailed evidence of environmental change within Doggerland. Of the 78 complete cores available for study, all were subject to environmental assessment. Sedimentary ancient DNA samples were retrieved from 40 cores from 33 of 60 coring sites. Further methodological development refined taxonomic identification of DNA sources, high dimensional profiling of environments through analysis of co-occurrence of taxa, and a novel tool for identification of DNA damage through base modification to authenticate results. Comprehensive studies were undertaken on 14 key cores providing key information relating to late Pleistocene and Early Holocene inundation sequences.
Complex Systems Simulation
The design, implementation and testing of the models progressed as planned in the application, with models made using a C++ infrastructure with NVIDIA CUDA parallelisation where appropriate. Models focussed on three areas:
• downscaling existing coarse resolution data on sea level change to investigate the impact of inundation on the area with the most cores,
• simulating processes of erosion and deposition to investigate how material within the cores relates to the wider landscape, and
• making a first attempt to quantify the amount of anthropogenic material to be expected in the Doggerland landscape.
These models allow us to start to answer questions relating to how human inhabitants experienced change following sea level change. They support further study on assessing how taphonomy affects the contents of cores. They also provide evidence which can contribute to the selecting of core locations in future coring campaigns.
In addition to work within the four methodological packages, synthesis of the data into a coherent picture of the environment of Doggerland has been undertaken. The amount and complexity of the data research held in archive will support future research as part of ongoing projects.
• Seismic mapping
• Environmental Reconstruction
• Sedimentary DNA analysis
• Complex Systems Simulation
Seismic Mapping
Seismic mapping involved mapping of landscape features from 2D and 3D seismic data provided by industry, academia and government bodies. It also involved acquiring and processing new seismic data, This data supported landscape mapping over 185,000km2 of the North Sea. The seismic mapping also directed coring and sampling.
Environmental and Sedimentary DNA analysis
This included palynology, foram, ostracod and diatom studies, macro fossil and malacology and sedaDNA. These provided detailed evidence of environmental change within Doggerland. Of the 78 complete cores available for study, all were subject to environmental assessment. Sedimentary ancient DNA samples were retrieved from 40 cores from 33 of 60 coring sites. Further methodological development refined taxonomic identification of DNA sources, high dimensional profiling of environments through analysis of co-occurrence of taxa, and a novel tool for identification of DNA damage through base modification to authenticate results. Comprehensive studies were undertaken on 14 key cores providing key information relating to late Pleistocene and Early Holocene inundation sequences.
Complex Systems Simulation
The design, implementation and testing of the models progressed as planned in the application, with models made using a C++ infrastructure with NVIDIA CUDA parallelisation where appropriate. Models focussed on three areas:
• downscaling existing coarse resolution data on sea level change to investigate the impact of inundation on the area with the most cores,
• simulating processes of erosion and deposition to investigate how material within the cores relates to the wider landscape, and
• making a first attempt to quantify the amount of anthropogenic material to be expected in the Doggerland landscape.
These models allow us to start to answer questions relating to how human inhabitants experienced change following sea level change. They support further study on assessing how taphonomy affects the contents of cores. They also provide evidence which can contribute to the selecting of core locations in future coring campaigns.
In addition to work within the four methodological packages, synthesis of the data into a coherent picture of the environment of Doggerland has been undertaken. The amount and complexity of the data research held in archive will support future research as part of ongoing projects.
Although the project aimed to extend the primary landscape mapping methodology developed over as large an area as possible, this was achieved over a vast area of c, 185,000 km2. Prior to this work, knowledge of settlement or in situ activity was, restricted globally to onshore, and nearshore environments (<12km from land). Beyond this, evidence of human activity was solely represented by chance discoveries, lacking any archaeological context. Detailed consideration of the project mapping, in conjunction with behavioural data and geomorphological assessment, identified key localities where prehistoric activity might be located and accessible to coring and dredging. In project field work, directed by our research, recovered the first, globally, directly prospected prehistoric artefact from a deep marine context. This marks a paradigm shift in the study of marine palaeolandscapes, providing a base methodology to locate human activity in deep sea regions globally.
The project also made major technological advances. Before the start of Europe’s Lost Frontiers, sedimentary DNA was a, largely, unproven technology in archaeology, but project application, supported by traditional environmental studies, made a significant contribution to the field of sedaDNA and our understanding of the early Holocene world of the Doggerland area.
Research on human-scale effects of landscape inundation through computer simulation was also largely untried. The suite of technologies used within Europe’s Lost Frontiers had individually shown potential but were previously untried within a unified, inter-disciplinary project. The simulations have proven to be essential adjuncts to study pattern of sea level change and the taphonomy of environmental proxies, justifying their presence as tools of data integration.
Our goal to create a new research paradigm for inundated landscapes globally using these technologies was successful.
The project also made major technological advances. Before the start of Europe’s Lost Frontiers, sedimentary DNA was a, largely, unproven technology in archaeology, but project application, supported by traditional environmental studies, made a significant contribution to the field of sedaDNA and our understanding of the early Holocene world of the Doggerland area.
Research on human-scale effects of landscape inundation through computer simulation was also largely untried. The suite of technologies used within Europe’s Lost Frontiers had individually shown potential but were previously untried within a unified, inter-disciplinary project. The simulations have proven to be essential adjuncts to study pattern of sea level change and the taphonomy of environmental proxies, justifying their presence as tools of data integration.
Our goal to create a new research paradigm for inundated landscapes globally using these technologies was successful.