To promote a wider interest in the science of geology through organised lectures, field excursions and social activities.
To provide a link between the amateur, the student, the teacher and the professional geologist.
To foster interest in geological sites within the area with a view to their study and wise conservation.
To establish and maintain good relations with organisations that have common interests.

Lecture - February 9th 2009

Doggerland

Professor Bryony Coles

Exeter University

Prof. Bryony Coles has been examining the archaeology of "Doggerland", which now lies under the North Sea. Its highest point is the submerged Dogger Bank where prehistoric artefacts are occasionally found by fishermen and geologists. At the height of the last Ice Age, Doggerland was dry and stretched from the present east coast of Britain and the present coasts of The Netherlands, Denmark and North Germany. Thus, the so-called land-bridge, was a place where people settled as the ice-sheets wasted and northwestern Europe became habitable once more. But, as the ice-sheets retreated further and sea levels rose, the North Sea encroached on the land, eventually separating the British Peninsula from the mainland.

The Doggerland Project has made use of recent geological exploration of the North Sea bed, and other sources of data, to reconstruct the former landscape and explore its cultural interpretations. The presence of the former landscapes, their changing coastlines, the process of land loss and the eventual insularity of Britain affected the inhabitants of northwestern Europe from the late Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, if not later.