A Story Of Doggerland

As you can see above, Doggerland was a large land mass that connected the northern European islands and lands as one. It is a relatively “new” discovery and there are many theories surrounding it and the people who once called the land home. My husband and I have been studying it for awhile because of the deep connections to our ancestral research. Beyond our Native American ties, all of our other ancestry is found in the countries surrounding/ part of, what was Doggerland and nowhere else.

The story below is a theory as to a different perspective of history – a possibility. It is one being proposed in different ways by different people. At the end of the article I will list links to a variety of different sources if you want to dig deeper for yourself.

Story of a Lost Land

What if there was a vast, and more advanced civilization, that emerged in the North Sea 10,000 years ago? A people who once were united and over time, due to changes of the earth, spread out and downward through Europe, instead of traveling in from Eurasia and the Mediterranean.

Doggerland

Doggerland was a place of many ecosystems. It had vast and lush planes, wetlands, mountains, river valleys, lakes, and forests. Abundant with animal and plant life of all sizes including Mammoths, woolly rhinos, reindeer, and horses. Creating a rich environment for settlements to grow and a great civilization to rise and flourish.

It was not just small farming settlements, but city centers holding thousands of people. Interconnected, creating large trading centers along the waterways leading deeper inland. With a shared language, governing structure, and spiritual beliefs.

As the earth warmed, the seas started to rise, eating away at the coastlines, driving the people to spread out more into the surround lands and inland to what we now call the mainland Europe. Some moving into the Nordic countries, Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Germany, and so forth. A concentration of the main city centers moving down along the Rhine River and across the Danube River.

By 7,000 BC the majority of Doggerland has been reclaimed by the sea. Only one island remains, that eventually is broken up into in the Orkney Islands after the last devastating blow is dealt by nature – an earthquake and tsunami that claims the last bits beneath the sea.

A once united civilization of people, now divided by oceans of water.

As time moves forward, each group of people start to develop in different ways. Language starts to shift and change, yet similarities are seen between them. Choosing different ways to live and build, shaped by the lands they inhabit now, yet core features are still shared between the new groups. Their Deities changed in name and importance, yet still mirrored each other. Their spiritual and ritualistic practices share common elements and aspects of each other. Divided – Finding their own ways now – yet also rooted together from a shared past.

The Danube Civilization

The Danube civilization is one of the oldest known in Europe, emerging around 5,000BC, may also be one of the most advanced civilizations in the world. Their writing system alone predates any other writing system, including the Sumerians, and it’s complexity is similar to the hieroglyphs that would later emerge in Egypt. Below is a copy of some of it that has been found on pottery and stones. As I look at it I can see aspects of Runes, Ogham, and other symbols found in the areas once united by Doggerland. Their pottery and effigies are also astounding both in construction for the time, and beauty.

It is quite possible, and a theory of some, that the Danube Culture is a decedent of the Doggerland people and moved down the Rhine and across the Danube River to the Baltic – from north and west, not east and south.

Another theory talks about the influence of people from Doggerland with the rise of Greece. A tribe, or group, moving even further south into the area of Greece, bringing with it their culture and spiritualism, and thus being a catalyst for the rise of Greek Culture.

Lastly we will come back to Ireland. The Tuatha De Danann, the people of Danu, came to Ireland around 1890 BC from someplace else. There are a lot of different theories, but the Danube people really caught my attention. The idea is that the Tuatha De Danann, the people of Danu, were really a part of the Danube people, which were “cousins” of the Irish of those days, through their linage all coming from Doggerland. That is an intriguing thought and there are some correlations that could make it as true as any of the other theories.

Celt – Norse – Germanic – Gaelic – Picts

For the groups that stayed closer to original place of Doggerland (Scotland, England, Ireland, Nordic countries, Germanic, Iberia, French) we have found a lot of similarities in language, symbolism, cultural structures, and spiritual beliefs. It is one reason some can find it hard to separate them in different pagan categories because there is so much overlap, especially the older you go. Each grew and developed their own culture, but where they grew from can also be seen.

We can say this is from later blendings and interactions of the people, which is evident and true as well, but there are also some much older artifacts that make the link. A people who were once untied as one, and through the physical separation, new landscapes and challenges, growth of their separate civilizations, connecting with new people, emerged what we are more familiar with today.

The Atlantis Theory

The last theory dealing with Doggerland is the one that connects to Atlantis. Not one city, but several across the world, a global civilization that may have existed at some point in our history.

Many people look at Atlantis as one place, yet newer theories have been emerging with the idea of several main “hubs.” One near the Gibraltar Straight, one in the Bahamas, one off the coast of India or Japan, and now adding Doggerland into the mix. All moving inland and creating new civilizations such as the Norte Chico in Peru, the Mayans, the Egyptians, and the Danube and later Beeker cultures.

Is it true? We may never really know the truth from a scientific form of proof, archaeology after all is a lot of theory and philosophy if we want to be honest. None the less though, it is definitely some interesting possibilities to consider.

Personal Interest

There are two reasons why Doggerland holds personal interest for me.

The first being from a spiritually historical context. I have studied Irish/ Gaelic, Celtic, Germanic/ Nordic cultures and traditions for a long time. The similarities, roots, and resonant between these particular groups if fascinating, especially the deeper into history that we go. Tracing back various incarnations of a Deity reveals so much about each time period and the focuses of their people. Seeing similarities in the different cultures between these different pantheons and Primal Deities, gives more pieces to the puzzle and depth of each of Them. The people themselves and how each landscape changed and shaped the generations afterwards.

The second being from a more personal curiosity. My ancestry both researched and through DNA (modern and ancient) is concentrated in this one area. Besides some Native American, I have no matches in the world outside of this one small area (see maps below). The oldest match being the Cheddar Man (around 7,000BC) and the next around 3,000BC all in the northern part of this region – Scotland, England, and Norway – then moving southward over time.

If migration happened from the south/ east of the world, it would lead me to believe I would have something, somewhere else, but I don’t. This also holds true for my husband and a close friend of mine. For the three of us, we only have these areas. We also have some unique genetic markers that are only found in these areas in historical context. So it does raise some valid questions when we think about what we were taught vs the current science. Grant it, we find new things all the time as we advance our science, but for now this brings a lot of questions when we talk about civilizations and movement, at least for me.

What do you think about Doggerland? Have you heard of it before?

What about the possibilities and theories others are putting forth about it?

Like I said, these are theories, possibilities, based upon the data we have right now. There are conflicting theories and thoughts as well. The story is just a story – yet the Divine’s words ring in my head “- in every story is pieces of truth.”