Archaeological ProspectionArchaeol. Prospect. 15, 239–240 (2008)Published online in Wiley InterScience

(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/arp.334

BookReview----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAPPING DOGGERLAND:THE MESOLITHIC LANDSCAPES OFTHE SOUTHERN NORTH SEA

Gaffney V, Thomson K, Finch S. Archaeopress,Oxford, 2007. Pages: 131. Price: £19.99 (paper-back). ISBN 9781905739141

Many highly successful projects have resultedfrom the research sponsored through the Aggre-gate Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) since itsinception in 2002, however, the work representedwithin this book ranks amongst the highest andmost imaginative of the projects.Mapping Dogger-land, from Archaeopress, is presented in chapterformat as a series of papers that describe theinception, execution and results of a study con-ducted on the southern North Sea that sheds newlight on the nowburied underwater palaeolands-capes of Doggerland. Doggerland, a landscapethat existed 12000 years ago, extended from theUK to continental Europe. It consisted of a dryplain dissected by large river systems and popu-lated by mesolithic hunter–gatherers. By 5500 bc,the entire area had disappeared as a consequenceof rising sea levels. The book describes the map-ping of this palaeolandscape and provides aninsight into not only the impact of Holoceneglobal warming experienced by modern manbut also an evaluation of the significance of themassive loss of European land that occurred as aconsequence of climate change. The book is dedi-cated to Dr Kenneth Thomas, who sadly died asthe project concluded, and it is due to his insight,imagination and energy that we have this volumeand the blueprint with which to open up a vast,hitherto untapped, resource in the seismic dataowned by the hydrocarbon industry upon whichthe project was based.

The project, funded by the ALSF and managedby English Heritage, allowed the University of

Birmingham to team with Petroleum Geoservices(PGS) for access to a large three-dimensionalseismic data volume for the southern North Sea.Subsequent reprocessing of the data for nearsur-face information led to new maps of Holoceneto Late Pleistocene palaeolandscapes. Doctoralresearch by Dr Simon Fitch provided the firstindications that the three-dimensional data col-lected by the hydrocarbon industry for deeper oiland gas exploration could be used to understandthe nearsurface information that traditionallyhad been discarded, but it was Ken who finallyconvinced Huw Edwards of PGS to not only givefree access to the valuable data but also to aid inthe reprocessing and eventual unlocking of itstreasures.

The book begins with a chapter by the princi-pal researchers, describing the background to theproject with a focus on the mesolithic landscapespreviously termed Doggerland; landscapes thatare now mostly buried beneath more recentsediment accumulations. The potential of thearea has long been recognized, with earlyinspiration provided as long ago as 1913 by SirClement Reid. However, as recently as 2004 itwas deemed terra incognita due to the sedimentcover and inhospitable environment for research.Chapter 2 describes the base survey data, acompilation or megasurvey that includes over20 years of seismic data covering 23 000 km2 area.The data are described in context to other geo-logical and archaeological regional data, and theneed for far greater cooperation between off-shore investigators is highlighted. A brief outlineof the acquisition, processing and interpretationstrategies for three-dimensional seismic data fol-lows, and the need for developing regional land-scape models from seismic data is presented as asubtheme to be developed in later chapters. Atthe heart of the project is the visualizationmechanism. Implementation of this resulted in

Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

a significant technical challenge for the constructof regional models on such a large scale, and thisrequired significant computer hardware andsoftware. The subsequent chapters attempt todemonstrate the fantastic potential for mappingnot only important palaeohorizons but also inter-acting with them fully in three dimensions. Asense of this interaction is displayed in the manyinformative colour images that populate thebook; but, to truly experience the value ofthe data, this can be gained only by visiting theUniversity of Birmingham’s Visualisation Cen-tre. It is here, wearing special three-dimensionalglasses and immersing oneself in the three-dimensional volume, that a true sense of thelandscapes is gained, where they become realenough to touch if not to imagine walking actu-ally through them. Chapter 5 follows on bypresenting geomorphological examples of fea-tures from different parts of the survey, and itis here that the reader begins to understand thewealth of detail within the data. Traditionalgeographical information system (GIS) stylelandscape evaluation reveals slopes, valleys andridges, and with the advantage of being able tolook within the geological units a more profoundunderstanding of the geology is possible. This isexplored in greater detail in Chapter 6, whichincludes an investigation of the control on geo-

morphology of salt tectonics. It is postulated thatthe Late Pleistocene to Holocene landscape maywell have been influenced by near-surface saltmovement. The ultimate goal of the project ispresented in Chapter 7 as a series of classifiedsurfaces interpreted from the GIS analysis aspalaeolandscapes that would have been veryuseful to the hunter–gatherer.

The concluding chapter outlines a beneficialreview of the ground-truth data in the form ofborehole records that exist for the survey area.What appears at first to be an impressive databank is soon revealed for the inadequaciestypically found in offshore data that has notbe specifically collected for archaeology. A finalplea for future targeted drilling is well made.The project, first inspired by Dr Thomas, andthe legacy left by this book, represents ablueprint for investigating the submerged land-scape of the southern North Sea using three-dimensional seismic data. However, we arereminded that despite the impressive size ofthe project, there remains much of Doggerlandstill to be explored.

Richard BatesUniversity of St Andrews

240 Book Review

Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Archaeol. Prospect. 15, 239–240 (2008)

DOI: 10.1002/arp