Unpath’d Waters is a ground-breaking 3-year research project that aims to unite the UK’s maritime collections. It is one of five projects that constitute the AHRC’s ‘Towards a National Collection’ funding programme. At the University of Bradford, we are leading the ‘The Lands Beneath The Sea’ work package, which aims to bring together data collections related to the submerged landscape under the southern North Sea and present them using novel methods.

Much of the data regarding Doggerland, the land under the North Sea, is of uncertain scope, provenance and resolution. Many areas of the landscape are largely absent of data, and the more impressive finds such as flint artefacts are stripped from their archaeological context and can only be located to general areas. We can detect landscape features in seismic geophysics data collected for the oil and gas industries, and we have a small number of sediment cores containing pollen and DNA, but connecting the two is problematic and involves considerable speculation. We also have data sources such as the output of sea level models which are applicable over wide areas but have no definitive conclusion, merely the results of competing hypotheses.

Added to this is the fact that, unlike many other archaeological landscapes, Doggerland cannot be visited by anyone, making accessibility a key challenge to any research. As part of Unpath’d Waters, we will be combining all these data sources into a simulation of life in Doggerland. Users will be able to see the possible interpretations of the archaeological evidence at temporal scales which could be understood by the inhabitants of the land. They will be able to see how the large scale landscape changes which eventually submerged the landscape may have been experienced by those who lived there. A dynamic environment of climate, plants, animals and humans will react to changes and have to survive the conditions which are implied by the data we have. This simulation will be customisable and will be able to situate human communities in all areas of Doggerland, at any time between the end of the last Ice Age until the eventual inundation. Users will be able to see how differences in sea level change models affect the environment, linking the large scale hypotheses with actual communities in the landscape.

To find out more about the project and its people, visit the website at:
https://unpathdwaters.org.uk/