Ancient apocalypse: The great British tsunami of 6100 BC.

Watching Neil Oliver’s excellent History of Ancient Britain on BBC-4 television, I was reminded of the story of a great tsunami that struck the country 8,000 years ago, which may have been the first major natural disaster suffered by British men and women.

Archaeologists think that in about 6100 BC, huge landslides in Norway triggered great waves which struck the North-east and penetrated 25 miles inland, turning low-lying plains into what is now the North Sea, and cutting us off from the continent.

Before the tsunami, a landbridge from the region around the Wash connected us with the Low Countries. Rising sea levels were already threatening it before the natural disaster finished off the job.

The drowned area was known to archaeologists as Doggerland, and was largely made up of lagoons, marshes and mudflats. It is believed to have been one of the richest hunting grounds in Europe. So many humans would presumably have been caught up in this ancient tsunami. (See also my post of 1 May 2014.)

Did a North Sea tsunami wipe out Doggerland?

Did a tsunami more than 8,000 years ago put paid to the last inhabitants of Doggerland, a submerged land mass which once connected north Germany to East Anglia?

Around 10,000 years ago, it was still one of the richest hunting grounds in Europe, but 2,000 years later, it had become a low-lying, marshy island about the size of Wales. That was around the time of the Storegga tsunami – generated by a massive landslide beneath the sea off the coast of Norway.

Fishing boats operating around Doggerland have turned up ancient human artefacts, but none date from later than the tsunami. The tsunami theory of Doggerland’s end is based on computer simulations of the effect of the Storegga slide, but some scientists argue the area had already been abandoned before the disaster.

Some, though not all, scientists also maintain that the deadliest flood ever suffered by mainland Britain, the Severn Flood of January 30, 1607, was also caused by a tsunami. It is estimated that 2,000 people, and thousands of livestock animals were killed.

My A Disastrous History of the World has now been translated into Romanian - http://www.polirom.ro/catalog/carte/cele-mai-mari-dezastre-din-istoria-omenirii-5358/