A digital reconstruction of the continental shelf underneath the North Sea basin is about to take place, we are told, following the allotment of a research grant – by you know who. University of St Andrews geoscientists and archaeologists from the university of Bradford (which include Vince Gaffney) will use modern genetics (DNA methodology) and computing technologies to digitally repopulate Doggerland – and expand the study over 5000 years. Core samples of the sea bed are at the heart of the research and a particular interest will be in looking for evidence of the transition from hunting to farming – or habitat management (see http://phys.org/print360394289.html ).
It will be interesting to see how the sea level curve fares as it is a given mainstream assumption that sea level increased slowly over thousands of years. A more rapid and catastrophic submergence of the North Sea basin might raise a few eyebrows.
Richard Bates from St Andrews is also interested in mapping lost landscapes in other parts of the world – such as the Gulf, the sea bed off the coast of Tanzania, and the area around the Scottish Islands (Hebrides etc). The methodology has already been used in the Orkneys with some degree of success, it is alleged.