TDF
Enthusiasts of Prehistoric Northern European history will likely find great appeal in How Doggerland Sank Beneath the Waves, an informative look at an ancient land that is now submerged deep below the North Sea. The film calls upon a diverse array of sources to piece together the fascinating tale of this lost world in vivid detail.
The region that connects Britain with continental Europe was likely victim to a great and powerful flood sometime around 6500 BC. This discovery came into being thanks to a moment of complete happenstance. In 1931, a fishing vessel drudged up a barbed spear point. It wasn’t until two decades later, upon the invention of carbon dating technologies, that scientists were able to determine that the spear had originated from the dry land which once existed beneath the sea over 16,000 years earlier. Doggerland has continued to lay bare a host of relics from the sea floor in more recent years, including the bones of mammoths, rhinos and other roaming animals from the period.
The film examines a mystery of a lost civilization that rivals that of Atlantis. What was it like to exist on this land mass all those years ago? What caused the great flood that extinguished its population?
The film is not content with simply outlining the potential scenarios that led to the flooding of Doggerland. It takes viewers back to 500,000 BC and shows us the authenticated skeletal remains of early Neanderthals. It reviews the customs of the hunter-gatherer populations, and the various stages of planetary evolution they were forced to endure, including the Ice Age in Britain that began roughly 27,000 years ago and the Old Stone Age of the late Paleolithic Era.
The narration is rich in historical detail and sweeping in scope. The period drawings and present-day footage are a nice compliment to the instructive narration. The film tells the story of a region that hides hundreds of thousands of years of secrets. It’s an ambitious narrative that’s captured with great authority and clarity.
