The Submerged Landscapes Centre is a leading research group for studies into marine palaeolandscapes and wetland landscapes and based at the University of Bradford
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Global warming at the end of the last Ice Age led to the inundation of vast landscapes that had once been home to thousands of people. These lost lands hold a unique and largely unexplored record of settlement and colonisation linked to climate change over millennia.
Within the Europe's Lost Frontiers project, researchers in the fields of archaeo-geophysics, molecular biology and computer simulation are seeking to explore the past environments, ecological change and the transition between hunter gathering societies and farming in the inundated land of the southern North Sea - Doggerland.
https://lostfrontiers.teamapp.com/
The Life on the Edge Project, an interdisciplinary UKRI Futures leaders fellowship based at the University of Bradford (UK) which seeks to undertake innovative archaeological research into the Late Palaeolithic (20,000 to 10,000 years ago) landscapes that were submerged by sea level rise following the end of the last glaciation.
The project seeks to provide information for research through the development of new techniques and models, including the use of Parametric Echo Sounders and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV’s) in a series of surveys to provide ground-breaking mapping of Late Palaeolithic coastlines. This will lead to the generation of models of Late Palaeolithic occupation that will identify archaeological areas of interest. This is significant since such data will assist government and developers in identifying areas of the seabed have most potential value for Late Palaeolithic preservation.
https://lote.teamapp.com/clubs/767717?_webpage=v1
Taken at the Flood, AHRC project will provide an opportunity for UK and European academics to work with national curators and developers through a network established by the project. This partnership will disseminate the experience gained from survey on the Brown Bank and Southern River and provide the evidence we require both to understand and protect the exceptional archaeological resource contained within the North Sea, and to support the UK's national green energy strategy.
https://takenattheflood.teamapp.com/
The UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology aims to increase capacity in the participating countries through international cooperation. It will enhance the protection of and research into, underwater cultural heritage, by connecting in a formal way universities and professional training institutions working in the field of underwater archaeology. It will act as a bridge between the academic world, civil society, local communities, research and policy-makers.
The Network complements the work of the UNESCO Secretariat of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The convention is one of the seven core Conventions in the field of culture. Adopted in 2001, it intends to enable States to better protect submerged heritage.
http://www.underwaterarchaeology.net/index.htm
UNPATH'D WATERS - and the Land beneath the Sea programme aims to create software which allows users to see the development of the Doggerland landscape over long time periods and appreciate what it would have been like to live in Doggerland. Users will be able to select a location within Doggerland and a date, and the software will fast forward through the changes in the terrain and environment from the end of the last Ice Age. They can then control the simulated inhabitants of that location to understand how humans experienced living in their environment.
How we create the landscape - The simulation will consist of three main components: the terrain, the environment and the people. Year 1 will primarily focus on data collection and the generation of terrain data for Doggerland.
In order to produce a model of the inundation of Doggerland, the various data sources which exist must be located, combined and interpreted to form a coherent whole. This dataset must allow us to reference back to the original data, whether in raw data, interpreted data or metadata formats. Using these data sources, we’ll generate a trial unified GIS dataset, that plots data onto a map or geographical locations, for the archaeology of the area.
The model will also have to use a huge range of different data sources to simulate the climate in different time periods. We will need to be able to alter the climate model to take into account new research. Users too should be able to alter the parameters of the simulation in order to test the effects of these changes.
The terrain and climate will form the base for a living environment of animals and plants. We’ll use data from any available cores taken from the bed of the North Sea to decide which animals and plants to include.
How we simulate people - simulated people will be introduced to our environment, so that users can see how the lives of the inhabitants of Doggerland interacted with a living, changing environment. Users will learn more from this if they can alter the behaviours of these inhabitants and see the results of their changes.
Our direct knowledge of the lives of the inhabitants of Doggerland is very limited, but there is significant data available of similar populations in neighbouring regions or similar circumstances. We will simulate several human behaviours, and users will be able to switch between different hypothetical patterns of living and technologies. All of these behaviours and patterns will be linked to the data and research which has informed them.
Anyone who uses the simulation should be able to appreciate the nature of the base data sets, but also to see the process of how this data became archaeological interpretations. They can also come as close as it is possible to get to exploring Doggerland, seeking out what they are interested in and generating significance in an inaccessible landscape.
A shortened version of the simulation will be publicly available from Summer 2024, with the full version being released during November of the same year.
https://unpathdwaters.org.uk/the-lands-beneath-the-sea/
The Wetfutures project focuses on a variety of key wetland areas which represent some of the most important and typical in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Combined, these highly important ecosystems face a range of significant challenges in the twenty-first century.
http://www.wetfutures.eu/about.html