A Multiple-Proxy Geochemical Investigation of a Shallow Core from Doggerland, Implications for Palaeolandscape Reconstruction

Doggerland was a large, prehistoric land bridge connecting Britain to the continent across the southern North Sea, which was submerged as a result of climate change and sea level rise following the last glaciation. This study presents an analysis of a core (ELF019) extracted from the submerged landscape. It was recovered as part of the ERC-funded Advanced Grant, Europe’s Lost Frontiers (ELF). Study was undertaken of the core’s thermal properties, mineralogy, organic and inorganic chemistry in order to reconstruct its environmental history. Exact shifts in the paleoenvironments were detected during this process. Emergent aquatic vegetation deposits dominated the lower parts of the core, terrestrial vegetation dominated the central section, followed by a marine deposit covering the top meter of the core. Samples from the middle of the core were radiocarbon dated to the Greenlandian stage of the Lower Holocene. The results presented here will contribute within a larger geomorphological, topographical, and archaeological study as a part of ELF project. Establishing the paleoenvironmental depositional settings of core ELF019 and other cores will so greatly aid palaeolandscape reconstruction at a local and regional scale.